Building a 14 feet high viv/palud hybrid

[medicineman]

I'm totally new to this world of viv/terra thing (had no experience with viv before), but understand some gardening and quite mastered planted aquaria. I live in Jakarta, Indonesia, home of the rainforest and a place where you can find most of the world flora and fauna species (too bad nobody has been able to stop de-forestation around here). Temperature around my place is always warm all year at around 26-29 C, humidity at more than 75% on average.

I plan it really big to build a huge viv right inside my house. The space width is around 10 x 10 feet (I) and 22 feet high (II) and is located by the corner of the living room. The idea is to create an illusion and bring a cross section of what supposed to be a rainforest edge with a stream/pond and blend it into the living room.

For a rough illustration on the plan :

click to blow up



A. Glass panels on aluminium frame (not yet built)
B. Planted area - floor, walls with all sorts of landscaping (green colour)
C. Pond/stream area with glass panels (aquarium-like)
D. Viv outside floor, lowered (yellow)
E. Living room floor, raised
F. Living room walls
G. A ceiling opening to the sky for sunlight, probably will be covered by glass panels to reduce dust and pollution from landing into the living room. Size is almost the same as the base

After learning for a short while, I realize that the most basic hardware thing to use in the system is a mean of raising humidity via backwall waterfall and misting system. Other than that, a source of additional light to support more demanding plants, perhaps 750-1000W Metal Halide system.

I still have a lot of time to do better planning since the house is under renovation and it would be at least some 4-5 months away before it is time for me to start building the hardware.

I really need your expertise to help me out make this dream into a reality.
Ideas and comments are highly welcome!

- Materials to use
- Ideas on building on such tall wall
- Misting system
- Lighting
- Draining
- Etc you want to share

[eyeviper]

thats a monster, it would literaly be a slice of nature. it sounds like a good plan, you must think about trees, you have 18ft of hight i think you said, well a tree is a little big for that, or it would cut out a lot of light. you coulg create a fake tree like they do in zoo's and use that as an planting area for your bromiliads, orchids, moss;s etc, etc. you would have the look of a tree and the function but dont have to worry about the growth, as for the animals, do you plan on having birds, reptiles, and amphibians, you will have to consider your choice of animals very carefully, and how your gunna care for them.

have a look at the making a 6000 gallon viv in the construction area. he is having the same discussion as you.
good luck with it it will look amazing.[/url]

[medicineman]

Yea, a tree would be too much because it will overshadow everything, furthermore a hard wood tree would need more light than I can supply. Some slim bamboo stems that grow 6-7 feet however would be more appropriate. I'm thinking of a huge fake tree trunk right by the corner, so when fiewed from the bottom, it appears as a big root stump with its main stem growing up to the sky. This and the wall will be built from mixture of mortar and sand and possibly a trace of some other material to make it water-retaining compared to a regular concrete/mortar works. Upon taking shape, artisans will give the details such as textures and colours to the trunk and cliff, making them as realistic as possible. Now speaking of that, it would be quite a task to look for talented artisans, otherwise they will screw up the art work. I'm not too good myself and I need artistic hands to help me out. I also think of utilizing panels of slates stone in some areas for good texture.

I have the experience of keeping birds in cages, turtles, iguana, fish, dogs. I'm thinking of placing some creatures that wont roam around out of the open viv. You see, pillar B with glass panels is only halfway from the top, and the main function is to prevent mist water from escaping too far from the viv (as the mist goes down, the particels will get bigger and unable to drift too far into the living room).

wow... someone building a 6000 gal viv ... that would be a greenhouse. Havent come accross that thread when quick browsing construction section. Any link for me?

[Frank H]

http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=17431 there u are.

[medicineman]

Thanks frank!
No wonder I cannot find it... it is in the member's frog and viv section (keep looking at the construction section :roll: ).

I have read that thread, and it is really something... having much more in base area than my plan. I guess I'm not less crazy than the guy, dreaming of a viv inside my house right by the living room. Very much inspired by this wall of plants made in netherlands

http://www.vivaria.nl/photogallery/phot ... tsc01.html

The pool in my plan would be some 200 gallon tank-pool and will be inhabited by fish (uh... dart fish.... the ones that can spit water), making the project something of a viva/terra/palud hybrid.

One thing in my concern, though the ambient humidity naturally gets to more than 70% (around USA it would be less than 50% I guess) around where I live, the viv planned has no full glass enclosure, instead just half of it, from the top to the middle and from the bottom 4-5 feet upwards. Will I'll be able to retain the needed humidity (so called as 90%) by depending on occacional (say 3-4x a day) misting and a series of backwall water circulation?

[zaroba]

if you live in a rainforest, why not just take out the living room wall, replace it with windows, and then build a glass addition to the side of your house from the ground to the roof enclosing the plants etc that are already thier? :P

good luck with it though.
can't wait to see pics of it when its done.

[medicineman]

lol... that is what they did in rainforest resort and in some private villas in the suburbs.

But really, those lush, pristine rainforest only exist in the rural areas and not in cities like where I'm at right now. The home of rainforest in Indonesia are around the pockets, with borneo as the ultimate. Unlike in Rio where the city is next to its forest... the next best thing nearby my house is a community park, just several feet away, divided by a small road (sometimes still can hear faintly crickets and such). The problem is, the thing is far from pretty like an actual forest, too much human interference. It would be several hours worth of drive away if I want to find a good, original cool rainforest, that is within national parks where rangers hunt people instead of people hunt for timber and animals :twisted:
I could try and make a rainforest out of my garden if only my place is not right in the middle of a tainted city where the pollution and sometimes unpure rain seriously threat the beauty out of such delicate system.

[medicineman]

LIGHTING

The system will run and depend heavily on natural sunlight which comes from an opening at the roof measuring around 6.5 x 6.5 feet (can make it up to 7-8 feet if neccesary). The opening will be partially sealed from the top using clear glass panels which is built elevated on an angle, from the sides of those panels there will be some space covered with removable fine mosquito mesh to prevent bugs from coming in. The opening with fine mesh will also provide a mean of natural ventilation to the system, taking account on how hot trapped space under a glass can be.

I use clear glass panels and mount them on an angle because other materials like plastic and polycarbonate are a bit too dark and they will get hard deposits on the surface over a short time. Unlike glass as I have seen on high rise, they withstand rain water very well and still clear, requiring cleaning just once a year, because rain water does not make hardwater deposit on glass, especially when mounted on an angle that any water will drain by itself. This way hopefully enough light can go in and reduce dependency on artificial lighting which can cost a ton to run everyday (imagine something like 1000-1500W worth of metal halide for 10 hours a day).

A simple cross-section illustration :



1. Planting space & wall
2. Non-planting space & wall
3. Roof panels
4. Sleeve to hold rain water from plunging into system, with support collumns for glass panels
5. Clear glass panels
6. Spacing for ventilation, with fine mesh

I hope I can get enough light to plant anything of vivarium plants I like. The metal halides will still be there for supplemental purpose only.

[hkspowers]

Well, I thought I I would help you ou\t there with your drawings. So I quickly threw together a model of your plan based on the drawing you showed in the first post. All the measurments are correct to what you specified. Also I put in a cube that represents a 6 foot man for a size comparison. Let me know what you think, I can also give you the wireframe of the whole thing if you want for a more accurate drawing of your prooject.

James

[wishIwereAnExpert]

Actually, it's 60000, not 6000 :P

And independent of viv dreams, I can still guaruntee than I'm crazier

Anyway, I think you'll definately need some more supplemental lighting....Could you get a foot-candle measurement to see how much light you're working with? I'm guessing english is a second language; let us know if you need clarification on words etc...

-Solly