Lighting for vivarium plants

[deranged chipmunk]

Yeah....how cool would it be to have a nice, big water feature with an led spotlight accent light. Too cool!

[Heatheranne]

I'm picturing it and I love the idea .

[Heatheranne]

What do you think about this tank? It would be easier, and I could start building right away. No waterproofing required.



It's an exo terra 36x18x36. A bit smaller, but still approx 100 gallons.

[Heatheranne]

I will be making a waterfall for a corner, similar to this look....


With a living/planted wall along something like this in more of a brown color. There is a paint you can get that has fine plastic threads in it that will allow the plants to attach them selves and grown down the wall. I'll also be incorporating small pots within the wall to allow some broms or other plants for some varying depth. A bit more 3D of an effect. I might do the wall down one side also. I'm not sure yet. After I'm done playing around in my bullfrog tank, I'll start this one.

[deranged chipmunk]

Yeah.....i have had my eye on one of those at my local fish shop for a while now. But i think i'm gonna build my own. That is one nice tank though. I would say that in the long run, the exo terra is going to be cheaper. Mainly because marine epoxy is pricey and you woukd need a bit of it to seal that china cabinet. Another thing to consider is the craftsmanship of the china cabinet. I was thinking about this the other night. It looks very well built, and the visible wood is most likely a hardwood, but big manufacturers like to use soft woods like pine for support pieces. That would be my main concern about waterproofing the cabinet. But i still think that would be awesome when it is done!!

[deranged chipmunk]

I love that style waterfall and plan on doing it in an fbt tank project. As far as the living wall, have you checked out ecoweb matting? It's supposed to kick butt

[Heatheranne]

I was thinking that too. If the exo terra was a 48", I'd like it more. Still though, 36" is decent. The reason I wanted such a large one is so I could use larger plants with nice broad leaves.

[Heatheranne]

I haven't heard of it? Any insights on it for me?

[deranged chipmunk]

I have some links saved on my pc at home that use it. I'll post them when i get home. Adam has it in his viv, so you may want to ask him about it.

[Heatheranne]

Ok, thanks!