55 gallon Vivarium Build

[AquaAurora]

LET THE PHOTO DUMPING BEGIN!

8/15-16/18
SO I spent all of yesterday draining and scraping all the mineral deposits (we have hard water) and dried algae off the tank then cleaned up the silicone edges a bit (no photos).

Today I took the pvc pieces my husband pre-made for me way back for the 40g build and siliconed them into the 55g. They are 1 1/2" tubes about 2" tall with small holes drilled into the bottom to let water through.


Cut egg crate (light diffuser from home depot) to size then covered in weed block mesh and zip ties.. for some reason my local home depot only had this in grey, not black.. Also made a drain pipe for water changes and made a large opening with wider lid so I can put a heater in the water below.


That took about 2 1/2-3 hours to get done.
Now I get to wait 48+ hours to let silicone cure before I move on.
I fortunately bought substrate way back for the last vivarium prep so I'm covered there.. just have to get spring tails.. maybe isopods (its really sad that my spell check triers to change this to "ipod") and substrate, put micro fauna, plants, and driftwood into tank... oh and go by home improvement store again for some Lexan (i don't trust myself with glass >.> ) to make a new lid and get a humidity/temp display I can slap in the tank.

Will post more updates as things happen..

For now I leave you with a quick snap of a find I didn't expect to see locally in a crappy diy humidity chamber. Take a guess at which fern species it is!

[AquaAurora]

Moved fern to an empty 20g high with some water in the base and cling wrap on top. Guested what it is yet?


Just some quick picks from the 55g, nothing new happening for a few days


Also have a tiny terrarium with emersed aquatic plants in a 2g cookie jar.. may be transferring to a 6g bowfront. Don't plan to keep any frogs in it, just springtails and plants probably.

[AquaAurora]

mini update
SO no photos this time, just a quick update... too sick right now to DO anything.
Driftwood is finally shipped (yay) but will take a week to get here as its coming from complete other end of the country (boo). But it gives me time to get parts for a lid and a humidity/temp gauge I can slap in there...
Yesterday I couldn't stop thinking of otehr set up ideas... I want to turn my 20g long into a vertical tank with a large piece of driftwood I've had for.. over 5 years now. Sadly no conversion ktis are out threre right now.. [I contacted NE HERP about theirs (currently on hold to be remade) This was their (rather fast!) reply if any of you are interested:

After our contractor closed up shop, we struggled to find a quote which kept the kits economically viable for us. They were always a really low markup item to begin with, but the loss of the contractor was pretty much the final nail in the coffin. There have been a lot of projects at the company over the past two years since vert kits have been on hold, and I'm glad to say we're slowly researching bringing them back. Early this month I started working with two engineering companies to help improve the product. I can't go into specific details, but if all goes well the new kits will be a lot nicer & easier to mass produce than the old ones. (The term "Mass Produce" might be generous, but you get the idea!) I'm glad to say that it has recently been brought back to life from an R&D standpoint.

There are a few projects ahead of the vert kits in the company project queue. First, there's a major website update coming which accounts for the majority of my efforts over the past 14 months. I'll spare you the details, but the kits are about to get a whole lot more awesome & customizable. After that, I'll be working on wrapping up the construction & automation in our grow rooms. With that completed, I'll be tweaking and automating the availability of some higher-end plants on the site. Then Isopods, then Springtails. With all of those projects completed, Vertical Conversion Kits and a few related projects will become more of an immediate priority. Sorry for the long response, but I'd rather be totally upfront. There's a lot in the pipeline, so depending how things go, it could be anywhere from 3 to 9 months before I've got a finalized prototype. When they are almost available again, we'll be sure to let people know through the newsletter first. We might consider a pre-order through the Insider Menu at that point too. For now, it's definitely going to be awhile.

If you are looking for something sooner, it might be worth contacting a local glass shop for the glass doors, and picking up a Custom Screen Door Kit from Lowes or Home Depot. The parts will cost a bunch more than the kit would have, but at least you wouldn't end up waiting nearly as long. There are a few DIY articles out there for the project, if you decided to try it yourself!

I certainly appreciate them taking the time to explain what's going on. But it means if I want that conversion this year I'll be doing it myself... I looked at a few youtube videos converting 10gs.. my biggest issue is the plastic to glass adhering.. I may try ripping the black frame off the 20g and just do glass on glass and drill for latches/etc... but i don't do well with glass. tend to break it sooo I dunno....
I've also been mulling over my aquatic plants-I plan to remove fissidens moss from one of y tanks so to make a dwarf water lily species set up and thought about selling the moss (currently attached to several pieces of driftwood), or maybe setting up another vivarium/terrarium for it and keeping the moss... I also have some ragged riccia fluentas I want to pull from my tank and put into its own pico (3g and under) set up on wood...gah once I have one going I want to set up a bunch of tanks >.<

[AquaAurora]

Other Vivariums Builds... maybe>.>

So may ask an admin/mod to update my thread title to state its for multiple vivariumss.. or just make a serape thread for each.
Either way I pulled the screws off the old driftwood from the 55g (it is such dense wood it NEVER water logged in the 5+ years I've had it-had it screwed to a hug block of river rock. Anyways 5 yers in our water rusted ou the nails so was able to pry it off .. which is good because the screw heads weer just a rusted blood. After scrubbing the wood with a cheap dog brush (i use just for aquarium stuff) and inhaling a lot of wood dust and dried dead algae I had it cleaned up mostly.. need a tooth brush to scrub some nooks. Placed it on top of and along side my 20g long (currently full of water so can't put IN) and yup it'll fit [insert maniacally plotting laughter here]. Quick crapping photo of it, will get nicer photos of it later on.. someday.

Its red cedar but it was submerged in a man made lake for over 60 years and has no smell unless you drill a fresh hole. I think it will be fine. Fresh (still smelling) cedar can hard small animals and insects-messed up their respiratory system from its sap which gives off the smell.. but no stink, no problem!.
I may stick some of my poor melon swords (Echinodorus Osiris) in there-the goldfish need to like eating them.. maybe they're called 'melon' because they taste good? I dunno goldfish seem to leave everything else along in their tank. Finally pulled the swords today and stuck them with my anubias (seen in above photo) that will eventually go in the 55g.


I also tried to half-**** my way through setting up a 6g with a loose drain pip but the whole thing will just pup out of the gravel when I try to take off the cap so had to silicone it down.. I think its a 1/2" pvc.. maybe 3/4"? i dunno didn't measure-had the parts so just used them. So get to let that cure another day before moving plants from my cookie jar over and digging up one of my old lights to stick ontop.

[AquaAurora]

[6g Bowfront Tank]
Not great shots (misted heavily right after set up) but quick photos of 6g bowfront with emersed aquatic plants from 2g cookie jar moved in. I'm not sure how they'll all do in there but its fun to find out..

I have dwarf hair grass (which grew better in just gravel and water with some ferts but I want to allow for spring tails..)
hydro japan (looks like tiny clovers. this was grown in a cup as a tissue culture so it takes off right away in a viv)
an impossible to spot anubias micro (smallest anubias species out there)
micro swords (which are slowly transitioning to begin emersed)
and some mystery stem plant I got with an order of jungle vals for an aquarium
The light is a finnex fugeray2 18" I pulled out of storage.. originally used with much lower light aquarium plants I stupidly put electrical tape over parts of the clear cover to reduce the light.. now the sticky black stuff won't come off. SO removed the clear cover and using cling wrap until I can scrap the cover with rubbing alcohol (husband's suggestion) hopefully will work as a solvent.
Forgot about hiding the cap with silicone and dirt but will do that another time-no fauna in there right now so not worried about something getting in the water when I remove the cap to camouflage it.

Will get better shots another day, you know where you can actually see the plants instead of just green blurs behind condensation.

[AquaAurora]

[8-23-18]
[THE WOOD IS HERE!]

gah I had a big long rambling post I started this morning then walked away from, and I lost it apparently =.=

So wood came today YAY. Been messing with it for 1-2 hours already?
Get to manhandle it into place for scaping, will probably spend all weekend doing that.
Of corse the largest/heaviest piece is the most stubborn about staying the place where I want it UGH.
I'm tempted to use great-stuff to force it in place (foam around it and hold it there until hardened) but I really don't like doing something so permanent... or deal with the post foam hardening work to hide the foam look.

Also had some babbling on plant stock ideas but will type that out again another time.. back to work trying to get that [censor] big piece into place again.


[WHAT FROGS TO GET FOR 55G?]

I'll post a thread with this question/info in the beginners form too tomorrow. Looked at josh'sfrogs dart info but want users input that own dart species

Tank dimensions: 48" long, 14-15" high (still have to add abg), 12" wide
Humidity: 70+ (probably higher like 80-90)
Temp: high 60sF to mid 70sF
Tank Placement: just outside home office moderate to high foot traffic area
Water Feature: currently none but can add stream/pond
Frog size wanted: ideally UNDER 2" to reduce damage to plants.
Frog temperament wanted: adults get along in group
Frog Noise level: well this is not in the bedroom so as long as they aren't as loud as birds I don't care, but I'd prefer medium to quiet calls-this is low on priority list.

Tank will have emersed aquatic plants so a lot of humidity. I a lot driftwood in there but its more for us (humans) to enjoy than the frogs to jump on-I'll have vertical tanks (20g long and maybe 20g high vertical conversions) later so don't mind the frogs not jumping on the wood.. even if it spans most of/the whole tank. Anyways I want something to utilize the 4 foot length that will get along well in a group as adults. I don't plan to breed for sales/increased #s (won't collect and grow out tadpoles-they're on their own).

[POTENTIAL DRIFTWOOD LAYOUT]
Shown in order of preference.. may try more options tomorrow



zip ties are temp so I can back up from tank and view.. also the large rock won't be part of the final display (i hope)-wood slips on trash bag i used to keep from ripping the weed guard stuff.

[AquaAurora]

[8-24-18]
[55g Build-Battling the Driftwood]
So messed with some more layouts.. nothing's really catching me as "That's the one!" yet. # 7 and 8 are yesterdays, rest from today. Rock and zip ties are not gong to be a part of final layout