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So this is my first thread here on Fish Profiles... I've been buzzing around Matt's threads (I worked with him at the fish store this summer), and decided I should formally introduce myself. Like Matt I don't know where else to put this, and since I'm going to use almost exclusively aquatic plants, I figured I'd post here. I'll also be mirroring this thread on the dendroboard, planted tank and aquatic plant central for those who visit those threads.

I recieved this 30 gallon tank for free (from my dad), and instantly knew what to do. One of the main restrictions with this project is no drilling (self-imposed challenge), which has kind of made things a PITA so far. It's going to be a dart frog viv, though the species I'll be keeping is yet undecided.



The first part of the construction was to install a retaining wall for the water feature. I used 1/4" glass that I had cut at a glass shop down the street. It actually held water after my first shot with the silicone (pats himself on back... recalling nightmarish DIY aquarium project gone horribly wrong)



The water feature will use a little Mini-Jet pump to bring water to the top, where it will cascade down some corkbark. The pump box said that at 3 feet of head there shouldn't be any flow, but it looks like it's working fine to me.



The false bottom before being siliconed... The pump is going in the back left corner.



Some cork bark I picked up on my trip to Black Jungle



Here's the preliminary hardscape. I siliconed some coco fiber to the back, then foamed in the wood pieces.





I made a last minute decision to make the viv a corner display, and put fiber in on a second side because the bark/foam takes up so much of the visible area on that side. You can also see the pump placement. I also put some window screening spline (grey strips) along the inside edge of the tank to seal against the glass door I'll eventually be putting in.





Here you can see a little bit of the vent I put in the top.



My original plan was to buy AH Supply kits (4x13 watt kits) and build a custom hood, but after a long night of balancing the costs and feasability of asthetics, I decided to use these lights from the Home Despot. At a whopping 20$ each, they provide 27 watts of 6700k light (1.35 watts/dollar), whereas the AH supply lights were about 25$ for 13 watts including bulbs and shipping (0.52 watts/dollar). Mounting them (building a hood) and finding space for four ballasts also presented a tough challenge.



I took them apart, and used velcro to attach the lamps and ballasts to the side to the side of the viv that won't be visible.



Here you can see the bulkhead that I'm going to plumb an ultrasonic humidifier into.



The vent frame is made from the plastic pieces that come with cheap DIY poster frames that you get at craft stores. I simply siliconed them in to the top of the tank.



I also slapped on a zoo-med UTH as a backup in case the temps drop too much in the winter time. I only bought this because I thought of heating after I had sealed all the entrances into the tank. If I could do it over again I'd put a small submersable aquarium heater in the water and run the cord out of the tank.



That's all I have pictures of so far, but I'll be updating pretty soon. Feedback would be great.

-Nate

hmm... can someone help me with my tags... the images are viewable if you hit reply, but not otherwise.

Nate,

Looking very nice so far

The one thing that struck me so far is the rather narrow structure you have selected, meaning that pretty much all interest has to be arranged in the vertical world. I guess that will make for a lot of hanging plants that have vines that creep up the side, or hang down.

About the images, well - you have to be a preemie to attach them to your posts . As a regular member you will have to use [ link ] tags to link us to your photobucket.

Have fun, and keep us posted,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Wow...another viv! Great fun watching the whole thing being constructed and I bet u ppl (u and Matt) would be having much more actually doing all the stuff
Great going so far. Just being curious, is the light strong enough to reach the bottom? If ur gonna have vines along the height, the plants at the lower portion may starve. The glass door and the vent make me think that these frogs are not eager climbers/escapers. (well, i have no idea at all about the frogs in a viv, just asking what sounds logical to me )
Keep us posted!

Looks good Nate. I like the lighting solution, pretty creative. Are you going to do anything to cover the eggcrate so you can't see it from the sides and front? And I can't see if there's a glass door from the pictures or any screening for the vent. That still in progress?

Those verts give lots of climbing room for the pums(dunno if you are still thinking about these), they should love it in there. I'd think the lighting would be plenty for most of the terrestrial stuff. Anything under water will be tough to light from that distance.

Lookin' good, can't wait to see it finished.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

the IMG tag will work fine.
However it cant be in caps to work on here.
Lower all the [IMG] to [img]
and it should work.


Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
http://games.atari.com
Http://www.myleague.com/yahtgames

Let's see ---



Yeah, So_Very_Sneaky is absolutely right, my fault. I guess I should not speak up when not 100% certain

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

The IMG/img problem was fixed in the last update. I can now copy and paste straight from photobucket with no problem. They use the CAPS like nate has posted. I'm pretty sure you still have to be premie to post images in threads.

See:


errmm that was with the IMG

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

I have not looked at all the pictures because its a bit of a pain in the butt, but it sure looks neat. You and Matty must be wired the same way!

As for how to post pictures, you need to use the Link option unless you have the premium membership. [link][/link] I just tryed using the IMG and img and it didn't work.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Hmm... fixed everything to lower case and the problem didn't go away. Let's see if the link function fixes it.
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j172/natellis/vivarium/construction/IMG_0196.jpg

So the only way to have the images actually visible in the posts is to be paying member? That's so weird because when I'm in the "post reply" view, I can see them all fine in the thread history.

I guess I wasn't very clear about how the layout of the tank is going to work. The pond looking part won't actually be a pond. I have a little plastic basket that fits snugly into the hole there in the egg-crate. I wanted something removable so I can access the water & pump.

For plants I'm going to be using a lot of mosses, riccia, pellia & such to cover the walls. I've also got some downoi, narrow leaf java fern and bolbitis fern on the way. I'll probably stuff those into the cracks in between the wood. Also thinking about getting some anubias hastifolia/coffeolia, and/or babies tears because of the way it cascades over a ledge.

The frogs I'm planning on getting (D. intermedius) are about a half inch full grown, so this tank will be like a rain-forest sky-scraper; huge. It's almost perfectly sealed. There's almost no room for a fruit fly to squeeze out, much less a frog.

The door and the mesh are now on. I still have a little sealing to do. And to answer Matt's question: I'm going to paint black the bottom of the front side (below the door), the sides of the rim, and the edges around the left side pane. Hopefully there'll be no visible foam, eggcrate, and exess silicone.

More pictures hopefully tomorrow.

I wanted something removable so I can access the water & pump.

I feel that I should have thought a tiny bit more about this, but I still don't want any wires showing. I guess I could have done it a bit better(more removeable) though. Will know for next time.

Are you thinking about getting any non-aquatic plants like broms and ferns? I bet your thumbnails would love some broms. That's what some thumbnailspecies use in the wild to lay eggs. I'm not sure if the intermedius do or not though. BTW how many were you thinking of getting?

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

mmm... I kind of want to stay away from broms unless I can find some really small ones. They're cool but always end up looking ridiculously out of scale in most vivariums. I'm going to hopefuly get 3 or 4, but since they cost about 80$ maybe 1 or 2 is more realistic.

The way it's looking right now I already have my hands pretty full with the aquatic plants anyway.

The way it's looking right now

Nate,

And when are we going to see "the way it's looking now"

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

well here's the way it's looking right now:

Bolbitis Heudelotii (African Water Fern??), Microsorium pteropus var. "Narrow-Leaf " (Narrow-Leaf Java Fern), Pogostemon helferi (Downoi), Hemianthus micranthemoides (Baby's Tears), Vesicularia ferriei (Weeping Moss), Unidentified Aquatic Moss (Taiwan moss?) Unidentified terrestrial Mosses, Riccia fluitans, Monoselenium tenerum (Pellia), Fissidens fontanus (Fissidens Moss), Lilaeopsis brasiliensis (Micro sword), and an as-yet unidentified ivy. I think there may also be a few stray pieces of Hemianthus callitrichoides in there somewhere. Please excuse the sloppiness of the photos.

Enjoy!

Full Frontal


Side Shot


Crude Drip Wall: Ferns and Mosses








Downoi


Little stream


Baby's Tears

Very Nice Nate

Interesting to see how these plants (downoi and baby tears, for example) are looking emersed while we usually see them only under water. How do you manage to hold them in place?

The hole viv looks huge and I can clearly see the section of a jungle when looking at it. Good job.

What are the immediate plans now?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Yeah, looks great. I can't wait to see it fill in and the moss to fluff up a bit so it's noticeable. That corkbark looks good, I wish I could have found some locally to use in the tank. it really looks like a cutting of the forest.

I'd like to know what the frog plans are, you getting them from a local guy or black jungle?

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

I plan on letting it run the way it is to give the plants some time to acclimate and root in. It will also give me a little bit of time to dose ferts because I hear that you have to be very careful about that kind of thing with the frogs. I also understand that cycling is relevant in vivariums as well.

Next I'm going to try my hand at fruit fly culturing. When I get that under control... say a month or two of succsessful culture and I'll start actively looking for frogs. I don't want to jump in to this too fast and not know how to properly care for them. I still think I have a lot of husbandry research to do.

If I can find the d. imitator yurimaguensis (http://www.dendroboard.com/carepics/Yuri-1.jpg) for less than 100$ i may get a pair. Otherwise I'm going to go to Black Jungle and pick something up there.

Yeah, I was wanting to try my hand raising the FFs for a while too. I'm way behind schedule now though. It's going to be a while before I even start to plant this thing, much less think about getting a frog. That's a pretty frog you have picked out, I'm sure it will love the tank you have set up.

Are you going to get RO water for the tank, or is your tap water soft enough to not have to worry about hard water deposits?

Also, I wasn't informed about how cycling is still important to the vivs....want to share?

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients