Display Paludarium Build

[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

[Adam R]

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

[VicSkimmr]

No, unfortunately this is the only one I'll have (we tore down the smaller tank). When I built this one, it was under the condition that it would be the only frog tank I would have to avoid them popping up all over the house haha. My wife knows me too well.

We're going to do a freshwater aquarium / riparium though, so that will be fun