Display Paludarium Build

[VicSkimmr]

Sorry I haven't been around for a while! Life is hectic.

I'm doing a 365 day photo project this year, so the frogs are getting a lot of attention

February 5th, 2013 by jasonwithers, on Flickr


February 12th, 2013 by jasonwithers, on Flickr

My 40D kicked the bucket, so I used the opportunity to finally upgrade to a better body, a 6D Now macro shots are a lot more challenging as the lens doesn't zoom as far as it used to

February 11th, 2013 by jasonwithers, on Flickr

[VicSkimmr]

and my plan for this year is to revamp the lighting setup and do some spring cleaning. A lot of my large broms are dying from old age so it's time to replace them. This new lighting setup is a lot more dynamic. It's really stunning in person. This was taken with the halogen bulbs that came with the pendants but I've since switched them out for 15 watt LEDs (3x5 watt).


Testing out a new lighting idea by jasonwithers, on Flickr

I'm going to have to do an HDR of this to really get the full dynamic range. The lighting up top is a lot brighter than at the bottom so I can't get it all in one exposure.

I may add a second row of pendants, I just haven't decided yet.

[amort90]

it looks amazing jason,
shame about the crack issue but none the less it has certainly come on well and i bet they love it in there!!!

youv got me thinking now

[purpleturtle89]

hello this is fantastic! can i ask when it had water in it, how do you make the floor? i seen the egg crate can the fish get underneath (if there was any untill the crack) and how do you stop the ground becoming waterlogged... third and final question could you keep darts in it? or would they eventually drown?

[VicSkimmr]

Let me see, I think I took a picture that would explain how I did the land section better...

ah yes, here it is


As you can kind of see, there were PVC supports that held the land portion above the water line, allowing fish to freely swim underneath it. The tank housed both frogs and fish and all were living happily until the crack. As with any water area, dart frogs are in danger of drowning, but they're much better swimmers than they're given credit for. As long as there are places for them to easily climb out I felt comfortable that they weren't in danger.

I don't know that I've seen my imitators on the ground more than a handful of times since I got them.

[purpleturtle89]

Thanks yea I can see a lot better from that angle, and was the land section just the usual expanding foam, silicone trick?.. Thanks for the help, I have created my own viv but did it completely separate with PVC !

[VicSkimmr]

Yeah that's how I kept the dirt where it was supposed to be.

[purpleturtle89]

Last one, could you have not just got a piece of Perspex or glass to fit inside and siliconed it down over the top to solve the crack in your tank?

[VicSkimmr]

yeah that's exactly what I did, but apparently there is another crack as it still leaks if I use the misting system too much. After it cracked the first time I never could have trusted it again with water though. Maybe a couple of inches in the bottom, but not with 50 gallons of it again. That's a lot of pressure on the bottom pane.

Instead I've decided to do a freshwater aquarium separate from the frog tank

[VicSkimmr]

a rare glimpse of the male

[VicSkimmr]

andd.... the attention whore of the 2 lol

[VicSkimmr]

Did some heavy spring cleaning yesterday. I'm going to be using a lot of resurrection ferns to fill in the background this year since they're so easy and look so good. I might even delve into some orchids finally haha.

Only 3 bromeliads survived the purge.

March 11th, 2013 by jasonwithers, on Flickr


March 10th, 2013 by jasonwithers, on Flickr

Some of the ferns I already have

March 12th, 2013 by jasonwithers, on Flickr

The only orchid I have

March 13th, 2013 by jasonwithers, on Flickr

[DartEd]

I have to tell you, Jason, that your viv is hands down the most amazing viv I've ever laid eyes on. You did an amazing job with it. Sorry to see that it had a crack in it but you've made lemonade out of lemons. The frogs look fantastic also. Keep the updates coming. I look forward to seeing more.

[VicSkimmr]

Thank you! It's definitely improving over time, I'm actually not even fussed about losing the water portion anymore. It's hard to believe it's been up for almost 2 years already!

[ChrisAZ]

Awesome job! I'm working on a similar build and was wondering if you could tell me what sort of fan set up you have going on there as well as why the change in lighting?

[VicSkimmr]

The fans are a little hard to explain but I'll try. I found some absurdly cheap fans (they're quite large but since the tank is so big they don't look too out of place), I think I bought them from newegg.com. They were like $1.50 a piece.


Fan Closeup by jasonwithers, on Flickr


Fan Closeup by jasonwithers, on Flickr


I took one, gutted it and siliconed a piece of fiberglass net to any area that a frog could get into. Then I drilled a hole in one side that I could screw one of these metal tubes I found in Home Depot to (see second pic). I'm really sorry for not knowing the technical term of everything, I just bought a bunch of stuff and stared at it till I found a solution haha.


Anyway, then I took the gutted fan and siliconed it to a good one (and siliconed netting over the good one too to protect the frogs). I ran the wire from the good one through the hole I drilled (to go through the metal tube), which ran out a pre-drilled hole in the vivarium. Then I used some screws to help make supports since the fan had to leave space between it and the vivarium (so it could draw air in) and made a makeshift bulkhead out of pvc parts (again, see pic).

Once I had the whole thing up there, I stopped up the metal tube with some paper towels to prevent any air from the outside from entering the system (since this is just meant to re-circulate air inside the viv, keeping the humidity intact) and connected the fan to my fan controller, which is totally unnecessary and is only there for bling purposes.

Testing out the fan controller by jasonwithers, on Flickr

That probably has everyone totally confused, but hopefully the pictures help.


For the lighting, I've wanted to try something like this for a long time. I hated how sterile and even my previous lighting was and wanted to create something more natural looking. This really does look like sunlight filtered through the canopy. In time, I want to design a system similar to what I'm using now that will randomly dim each light to create the effect of sunlight moving through the trees. I may even try to incorporate an arduino system that could simulate storms to complete the effect, but that's way way down the road.

[purpleturtle89]

. I may even try to incorporate an arduino system that could simulate storms to complete the effect, but that's way way down the road.

now your talking, arduino and frogs!

[VicSkimmr]

it would be glorious

unos mas full tank shot

March 14th, 2013 by jasonwithers, on Flickr

[Heatheranne]

Your viv is beautiful! I really like the lighting effects.

[Adam R]

you create the most unique tanks jason. do you have any others in the works?