220 gallons vivarium from start to end

[Gabou20]

Hey guys!

I love this forum and I've been wanting to post this for a while. No waiting, you get to see the entire journal NOW! Isn't that great? :P

There's a lot of pictures coming.

If you have any questions don't be shy, and since this viv as been running for a few months I can point out the issues now.

Click on the pictures to see them bigger (and better quality). Enjoy!

So while I was waiting for the tank itself, I was very excited and did whatever I could do without the tank. First I did all the wiring for the fans, and built this support, which is in the background.







Then I bought a cool mist humidifier and pimped it.





I also bought a sump and a pump, and plugged the tubes and stuff.





Then I bought a herpkeeper, and built a little house to protect the humidity/temp probe. This protects the probe well but I'm afraid it changes the values, especially for humidity.







Then I cleaned some wood with bleech.



You can imagine how thrilled I was when I got the tank!



It was already drilled. First thing I did is put the connector in the holes and then put a layer of black silicone on the back. There is one hole for the drain, one for the pump, one for the humidifier and the big one in the center in for ventilation. The fans are not far above so they can pull air from there.





While this was drying, I drilled the mistking holes one the top pieces. I added 2 ventilation holes at the non-background end.



Then came my very not favorite part : building the false bottom. Since I didn't want to see what<s underneath it, I built it so there would be a little space between the sides of the false bottom and the glass. That way I could put some fish tank rocks in the space.



I added these PVC tubes for support.



I then put all this in the tank, along with false bottom substrate from Josh's frog.

[Gabou20]

As you can see, I put the fans support in place too. I was fruitfly proofing the tops too. Basically I added silicone and wax paper, let the top sit there for a while and voila! Here's a closeup:



Then it occurred to me the flies could get out by the little space allowing me to open the tops. I added silicone, my not so secret anti-fly weapon.



Then I made the background, with cork, hygrolon and some fake rocks from Green Oasis (these are awesome).



As you can see the water feature starts from the upper right side. Then the water slides down the rocks and get in the river. I didn't want a pond directly on the glass, but I wanted a pond. So I made it a different way. I did the entire river and pond with foam, the carved it he way I liked. I added pond liner to get it waterproof and the hygrolon on the sides. My idea was for the sides to get mossy and green. That's something I'm having a hard time with, since the hygrolon is super wet. The moss I'm trying to get going there doesn't seem to tolerate that much humidity. Anyway, it's getting there slowly. Here's what it looked like when I built it. I also installed 4 more fans because I felt that the 3 ones in the background wouldn't reach the other end of the tank. They in supports coated with silicone and ABG. I did the same coating with the remaining visible foam on the background and with the home protecting the herpkeeper probe.



Now as you can see on the previous pic, there is light! I had trouble finding lights I liked. I wanted a kickass lighting, and I wanted it to look good too. So I was looking for quality 6' led fixtures. I found that with buildmyled, and they were super kind with me. They helped me develop a led combination that would work well for my project. Never regretted it. These lights are perfect! They are hanging from the ceiling now.



So that's pretty much what I did before putting the tank on the stand. Speaking of the stand, my amazing boyfriend built it for me as a christmas present (I paid for the materials). Here are the main steps.

















That couch is ugly but so comfortable! Anyway. I the gathered some arms, a few suction cups (big ones with handles) and we put the tank on the stand.



I then installed the lights. You can notice here an awesome false piece of wood by Green Oasis. It's the one with all the branches/roots. After a water test, I started putting the substrate in too (ABG).





Then I already started placing things as I wanted and planting. A lot of things changed during the process. I added tons of rocks in the river and pond too. When the time came I added the leaf litter.

[Gabou20]

Humidifier test.



So from now on it's just planting and moving things around. I hope you take the time to look at the big pictures . My older viv was falling appart so I had to put the frogs in before I was done planting.

[Gabou20]

Did I lie? Looots of picture :P So that's the greatest room divider (between the dining room and the living room) of all times. Hope you liked it!

Gabrielle

[Vivariums In The Mist]

Nice work!!

[Mentat]

Looks very impressive ! Risky to start build and decor; then place on stand and water test . Glad it all came out right !

[hydromaestro]

This is amazing! Love how it turned out your frogs will love you forever lol can you tell me what pond liner you used to cover the foam pond and possibly where you bought it?

[Strider18]

I personally would have loved to see this tank stay just like this...

:P

Looks awesome though!

[Gabou20]

Yeah well i like to have more than 5 plants! but the fogger still goes like this every morning and every night just before the lights close!