Pumilo's 75 corner viv

[Pumilo]

Thought I'd show you how I'm putting together my new 75 corner viv. This is being put together for a group of 6 Southern Variabilis that Chris sent me. You can see a sneak preview of the frogs here. Retic and Southern Froglets
I got this viv along with 4 other40 gallons, for free from my good friend Rick White. He received them with cracked bottoms and passed them my way as I just happen to know a glass guy! Here is a thread detailing how I repaired the cracked bottom panes. Cracked Viv repair
The next step was to drill for a drain, two misters and a spot for a fan. These will all be 5/8" holes. Placement of these holes will be shown later in this thread. Here is a link to my glass drilling thread. How to Drill your glass
Next I will be installing a very cheap drain. While I have yet to have one of these leak, extra care must be taken with these. These pics are actually of me putting a drain in Frogboy's viv.
First we take a 1/2" to 1/2" barbed fitting. I sand the diameter smaller with an electric sander. I constantly rotate the fitting while sanding to remove the extra material uniformly. I try to get this as thin as I can at the end, while leaving some of the barbs further up the fitting. After sanding both ends, I cut it in half. This gives me two so I am ready for my next build. I use a piece of 1/2" ID diameter clear, flexible hose and cut it about 4" long. I like to heat the hose in very hot water to soften it so that it slides over the remaining barbs easier. Pics show before and after.

[frogparty]

I was putting your plant package together for this Viv today.

[Pumilo]

Next I clean around the hole in the glass with rubbing alcohol. I also clean the 4" hose with alcohol. I put a bead of silicone around the hose. I like to use GE silicone 1. I don't like GE 2 due to the organotins in it. It has been linked to potential Spindly Leg Syndrome. Read this thread for more on that. Bio-Seal

[Pumilo]

Originally Posted by frogparty

I was putting your plant package together for this Viv today.

Sweet! That fern will most likely go into the retic viv. I actually have plants from a few people coming soon as I am working on this one plus 3 others for Southern Variabilis, Retics, Summersi, and the next one is still undecided. Plus we need to redo a few of our old vivs.

[Pumilo]

Now I insert the hose into the drain hole, from the inside, so that the hose sticks outside the viv and the barb fitting stays inside the viv.
This is the tricky part. I pull on the hose with a good amount of pressure, but not hard enough to break the glass. I give a little bit of a twisting and rocking motions while I do. This stretches the hose, making it a little bit skinnier, so that the barb fitting can be pulled into the hose. Now when I release the hose, it expands back to its original shape, filling the hole and wedging it in tightly. It also pulls the silicone bead into the hole and against the glass.

[Pumilo]

Smooth out the bead of silicone on the inside of the viv and add a bead to the outside of the viv as some extra insurance against leakage.
I have been doing my drains this way for years and never had one fail, but if not done properly, I can see how they would fail, so this tip is up to you if you care to use it. A traditional bulkhead would be more secure.
I have drilled the hole for this about 1 1/4" up from the bottom.

[Pumilo]

Next I put together a false bottom using egg crate (ceiling light diffuser panels). I usually use PVC pipe sections as risers but decided to go with egg crate for this one. I cut the risers about 2" tall and secured them to the egg crate platform with plastic zip ties. I use fiberglass screen fabric on all my builds. I don't like weed blocker as I don't like how poorly drained weed blocker is. I like to wrap my false bottom assemblies like a present. I cut a few small sliced in the bottom to slip a few plastic zip ties in to attach the screen material. I keep the good side at the top and the folded over sections at the bottom. It makes it a lot easier that trying to cut the screen exactly to size. Here are shots of the top and bottom.

[Pumilo]

I does not matter how messy your folds are because they will all be under the false bottom where you can't see them. Here is a different false bottom we did to show you that it is OK if your folds are messy. We used a second and third layer of egg crate to this one to add some nice contours to the bottom.
Flat bottom syndrome is truly a crime. Don't let FLAT happen to you!

[Pumilo]

Here I have put the false bottom in place. The second picture shows how I like to run a bead of silicone around the outer edge of the false bottom to keep substrate from falling down under the bottom.

[Pumilo]

Here is where it starts to get fun! This build will showcase some amazing cork bark pieces! I found the greatest piece and with some modification, it will rock this viv like Metallica playing a local bar gig!
I have pulled out my chainsaw and gotten a little creative with it. I have simply gone freehand with the chainsaw to slice off part of the back side of the trunk so that I have a perfectly flat surface to silicone it to the back wall. I did the angle so that it leans out just a little bit, into the viv. I have also freehand cut the top and one of the branches so that they butt up perfectly to the top and to the side wall of the viv. Of course we are siliconed in place there, too.

A second piece was chosen that was not quite long enough for our purposes. We cut the end flat and added a matching tube to extend the length. We used gorilla glue to attach the two pieces together. We used Duct tape to hold them while it dried. After it dried, we filled the assembly with great stuff to further reinforce it. It is the piece with the masking tape holding it in place while it dries. It has been siliconed in place against the glass and against the main trunk.