55 gallon Vivarium Build

[Hoppy 79]

No4 is the best IMHO

[AquaAurora]

[55g More Waiting]

So hygrolon should be here today but I found a better piece of driftwood than my current middle piece so now i have to wait on that to get here >.>''
Its from the same seller as the pieces in the 55 now, bugger didn't put it up with last batch of wood for sale or I'd have gotten it before.
Of cores the more I mess with it, the large piece orientation I like most is the most unstable so I have to wedge a rock under it.. we'll see how the layout changes once I get the new wood in.


[6g bowfront]
kinda hard to notice much growth this early on but the hydro japan (clover in middle) is definitely growing. Micro sword in back is transitioning with new growth. Dwarf hair grass in front I think is doing well but hard to tell?


You can see some otehr plants outside the tank. Lucky bamboo in front (sticking out of a half full 10g tank with a betta), and pothos behind. Pothos in just in a shallow bowl (need to get a larger one). I have golden, neon, n'joy, and (very small) marble queen. I may offer clippings from the gold and neon since they're growing so well and crawled about 4" from the bowl.


There's also an orchid plant on the right out of view. I got it at Lowes near dead-stem rotted, leaves were so rubbery/flexible you'd think it was a fake plant. Its lived for 2 years but no new flower stem and I can't keep more than 4 leaves. Its just on a window sill and in a home probably too cold/dry for its needs.

No4 is the best IMHO

Thank you for the input.

[AquaAurora]

[Unrealted MTS issues]
UUUUUUGH my MTS hit hard again >.<

What is MTS you ask?
Multi
Tank
Syndrom

Its a common disease contracted by many aquarium keepers where 1 tank turns into 3.. turns into many more. I stopped counting when i hit 23 tanks with fish and live plants >.>'

I'm sure its spread into this hobby as well but I don't know if it goes by another name for vivarium/terrarium/paludarium people?

ANYWAYS Got spam from drfostersmith site to get $30 off a $100 order. WEll one of teh dos is ready to move into new size meds and would be just $6 short of the discount.

SO i went into teh 'clearance' section for 'fish' (because they suck and don't have a reptile/amphibian section) and found an 11g frame-less. glass aquarium for $49.99 (clearance price) other tanks on 'clearance' were $80+ and less than 1/3 the volume!

Although I've been trying to cut back on my tanks and have several dry collecting dust I couldn't help but think. Hey I can get this and with the $30 discount I'm really only paying $20 for an 11g frame-less glass tank!

I mulled it over for several hours and decided I'd upgrade my 12" cube to this 15"x15"x17.5" tank

So I get order together and go to check out and notice.. $30 is not being deducted... turns out its a $30 gift card for a future order if you spend over $100 now. It doesn't give you info on when the gift card expires, or limitations like "must spend $__ to use this gift card" so I said [censor it] and canceled the order.


But with all that rambling done. If anyone is into aquariums its $49.99 for an 11g volume this does not have the black trim you see on standard 10,20,40g tanks at pet stores. Maybe grab 2 (for price of 1 at original price) and get the $30 gift card for yourself?
https://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produ...m?pcatid=36527


This is not a promotion, or a review. Just pointing it out like when people post "hey petco has the $1 per a gallon sale".
Its honestly a "get it all sold out of stock and out of my head now please!" kinda post >.>

[AquaAurora]

[55g stuff Photo spam]

Lack of updates from busyness. But lots of stuff came int/was bought so moving forward over the weekend.
Wood finally came, battled it for a few days, like this lay out the best-currently in zip ties to keep it in place until properly secured




Got some thick acrylic sheets for lids-hopefully wont bow out-tried much thinner sheets on aquariums and they failed


Dowel for connecting the wood-instead of using metal screws or glue. Will drill back side and use to keep pieces in place


Had to order black silicone online because store only had the kind with "mold resistance"-which is not safe for fauna, going to use to stick up the hygrolon, speaking off here's a quick photo of the material-feels very soft and heavy-hopefully works out well.





Some other stuff from local store...Had to buy chain in a package because [censor] at home depot apparently like to be as [censor] as lowes now and not help.. have to have employee cut chain. Asked for help then stood around over 8 minutes. Other employees and the original one we asked passed, were asked, no help.... not happy.. Got hooks, also silicone for plastics (in acrylic section)


I'd also gotten 1 knob for the lids.. forgot to grab the otehr because some pushy woman came over trying to get us to sign up for a free kitchen remodel estimate.. made it clear no interest but forgot about second knob by the time she'd left >.<

Thought I still had these from when I have a 6g pond pot set up but apparently sold them so had to re-order-got 2. They're very low, the heater will need the water level higher than these pumps..




and some quick carppy shots of plants I'm slowly converting to ermsed for the 55g, anubias, fissidens, swords,

[AquaAurora]

[6g bow front]
These are from last week but too busy to get a shot today to show prgoress-6g bowfront is taking off, dwarf hair grass is rooting deep and sending runners, hydro japan is also spreading nicely

My orchid I'd mentioned some posts ago. Thinking of offering it as a $1 add on when I sell plants (pothos and rabbit foot fern). I don't give it the most ideal conditions so it lives but doesn't thrive. No disease.. just too cold/dry where I have it. Not sure if its too big for anyone to be interested in? No clue bloom color-bought it as a half dead plant at Lowes a few years ago.


Have to cut and add egg crate for small water feature, put in hygrolon, then gravel (water area) and abg mix for the 55g. Hopefully will do that all next week-been busy the past few weeks with art commissions.

[AquaAurora]

bad at updating! sorry. the 6g is nicely grown in now, kinda stalled on the 5g till it gets warm again. I couldn't finish it in time for a reptile expo nearby in the fall so I just sorta stopped till near spring.

[6g bowfront vivarium]
most of the time looks like this:


but with glass wiped down



Also recently setup the 2g cookie jar with african water fern-used same substrate as this time. Not work photos yet.