quick weekend test project, 12" Zoo Cube

[MA70Snowman]

I got a great deal on a 12" Zoo-med Cube so I decided to pick it up. Had it sitting around not sure what I wanted to do with it, Until I saw the "canada weekend Build thread" which gave me some inspiration and a couple ideas that I wanted to try out.

1) Egg-crate false bottom. My previous ones I"ve always used leaca and really love how it works, but I'm hoping to save $$ and weight by using Egg-crates.

2) "Special" Clay background. When I saw the Canada build thread, and saw a referance to the kitty litter clay, I thought.. That can't be the same stuff the wife uses for our cats... why yes.. yes it is. Soooo, I borrowed some.

3) "Rain System." I can't remember who's idea this was but I remember seeing it while perusing the youtube, and someone had setup a Rain system by merely poking holes in airline tubing. So I thought I'd give this ago.
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Materials:
*Terrarium: Zoo-med 12x12x12 Terrarium.
*Background: About .5 lbs of Special Kitty litter
1/4 Cut of Corkbark tunnel
*Substrate: Sphagnum moss from my grow out bin.
-Organic Choice, potters mix from HD (After reading the ingredients, had mostly the same stuff I see in alot of "custom mixes" So decided to use it.
*Falsebottom: Egg-crate- covered by a cheap.. plastic type weed-blocker from HD.
*Decorations: (Disclaimer:I suck with plants)
-Some type of small vine thing
- Green/pink star thing (upper right corner)
-Zoo-med cork bark hollows
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Sorry no WIP (Work-In-Progress) Pictures, only final shots. so here they are

Initial Shot:


RainSystem: (Note the tube comming out of the tank and back in, there is an inline valve to turn it on/off)


Backup shot: You can kinda see the "rain" Dripping


It looks barren, none of my "grow-out" plants were small enough to fit, there's very little substrate, maybe 2" max. The "Vine-thing" was about the only thing that would fit suitably in there.

I was going for a "woodland" look kinda the base of a tree by the roots. I'm going to replace the sphag w/ some leaves once they come in.

Problems:
-The substrate isn't Draining, after the initial dampening during setup, it has stayed very damp.. I don't know if this is due to the cheap weedblocker, or maybe my water level is to high and its getting wicked up. But I've had the water off for 48 hrs now, w/ the door open and its still soaked.

-The "root" that I have my water pumping out of, has a hole in it that I need to patch. I think I'll pull it and try and silicone the hell out of the inside.

-I need to find a way to block off the gap between the screen and the top of my "Trunk." I designed it to goto the top where the glass meets the plastic lining, but I didn't account for the fact that the screen sits on top of this. So there's about a 1" gap there.

Goods:
-The rain-system works very well. THANKYOU whoever pioneered that. I have a .5 gph dripper on the end and maybe 5-6 pin holes in the rest of it that flow a very slow steady drip. The affect is great.

-The background was a synch, mixed it w/ eco-earth and some of my Organic potting soil till it was a consistancy I liked and It has stayed great since, Very solid. I put my "Star-thingy" directly into it.. we'll see how that does. and I've pined parts of my "Vine-thingy" to it and we'll see if it takes root.

Overall:
I'm pretty happy w/ how it turned out. Good learning experience to try some new techniques. I don't think anything will go in there, maybe a temp quaranteen tank or a slight grow out, but its really to small. Maybe a pair of something.. tiny lol. ..Froglets from my leucs.. w/e.

Thoughts/comments/suggestions welcome. Especially anything to make it more... visual. IMO its still a little bland w/ lack of planting.

[Dendro Dave]

Its got potential...just needs to be planted, and a ground cover added. Moss and/or leaf litter...maybe baby tears.

The only potential problem I see is the stream running through cork. If it runs all day the cork will become saturated and water will wick into the substrate possibly over saturating it. You might wanna put it on a timer so it comes on only for a few minutes every couple of hours. An alternative might be to pull the cork piece let it completely dry then completely coat the inside of it with black or brown silicone to basically water proof it. Then reinstall.

[HunterB]

Good beginning....and I do have a 12x12x18 aoo med laying around here...maybe I should use it as a test tank haha thanks for the idea

how long did it take total?

[MA70Snowman]

Originally Posted by Dendro Dave

Its got potential...just needs to be planted, and a ground cover added. Moss and/or leaf litter...maybe baby tears.

The only potential problem I see is the stream running through cork. If it runs all day the cork will become saturated and water will wick into the substrate possibly over saturating it. You might wanna put it on a timer so it comes on only for a few minutes every couple of hours. An alternative might be to pull the cork piece let it completely dry then completely coat the inside of it with black or brown silicone to basically water proof it. Then reinstall.

Guess you didn't read the entire post lol. I mentioned your second point about the stream in the "Problems" section. and I totally agree. leaf litter will definatly make it look a lot better.

Originally Posted by HunterB

Good beginning....and I do have a 12x12x18 aoo med laying around here...maybe I should use it as a test tank haha thanks for the idea

how long did it take total?

\

Better part of a full weekend, mostly because it was unfamiliar territory, took me awhile to figure out the best way to make the egg-crate bottom. The kitty litter soaked for about 16 hrs, and mixing it took a good hour to get it where I wanted it w/ the mix of eco-earth/substrate. and then it was just time consuming fitting the corner log in and measuring it precisely how I wanted it. I also spent alot of time experimenting w/ the rain system as well. having done this.. I could easily replicate it in a couple hours now.

[Dendro Dave]

Oops ya, guess I missed it...Maybe it was my scroll wheels fault, it is set a lil to high, goes to far. Guess great minds think alike on the silicone in cork tube thing.

Is the rain system constant? If so that may be another source of saturation. Even on a very low drip water will accumulate especially since a viv is basically made to hold humidity. This will happen regardless of having a false bottom/gravel or leca drainage area. A fairly well sealed viv's soil can stay moist for weeks if not months without a misting...The very top surface may be dry but just under it will be moist. So any kind of drip wall, rain system etc..etc.. Either needs some way to drain without saturating the substrate or has to be on for only a short time each day. Adding a fan and/or more ventilation will speed up evaporation. One thing to remember is a fine mist actually uses a very low volume of water...basically it make less go further. But a drip coming from multiple holes can actually dump more water into a tank faster then a fine mist would of the same time duration.

[MA70Snowman]

Originally Posted by Dendro Dave

Oops ya, guess I missed it...Maybe it was my scroll wheels fault, it is set a lil to high, goes to far. Guess great minds think alike on the silicone in cork tube thing.

Is the rain system constant? If so that may be another source of saturation. Even on a very low drip water will accumulate especially since a viv is basically made to hold humidity. This will happen regardless of having a false bottom/gravel or leca drainage area. A fairly well sealed viv's soil can stay moist for weeks if not months without a misting...The very top surface may be dry but just under it will be moist. So any kind of drip wall, rain system etc..etc.. Either needs some way to drain without saturating the substrate or has to be on for only a short time each day. Adding a fan and/or more ventilation will speed up evaporation. One thing to remember is a fine mist actually uses a very low volume of water...basically it make less go further. But a drip coming from multiple holes can actually dump more water into a tank faster then a fine mist would of the same time duration.

The drip is controlled by the valve and only turned on, when I could use the extra moisture (pretty much a cool affect vs. spraying)
Neither the stream or the dripper has been on since it was first setup and my substrate is STILL drenched. and it is only maybe 1" deep up front and tops 3-4" deep at the very back, i'd say for an avg its 2" it's a small cube. I'm thinking about siphoning all the water out of the stream system, I think that my water level is to high and being wicked up into the substrate.