55 gallon journal

[markbudde]

So I was adding humidity to the soil in order to test the ventilation system, and I guess this caused the GS to cure some more (one week after adding it to the tank). It expanded enough to completely block my drainage system, so now I have to take out the dirt and false bottom (which is held in by GS) and cut away the offending foam, and then replace the drainage tubing. I hope I don't have to take the whole back of my tank. :?

[AaronAcker]

looks good, and good luck de-assembling your viv :? lol... great hood, let us know if it warps too bad.

[Shady]

wow this looks great.. I have the same tank as you so you just gave me a bunch of ideas especially for the lid which is what I've been havin the most trouble with so thanks and cant wait for updates..

[markbudde]

Shortly after my last post I tore out my substrate to get at the drain. Here's a pic of the offending blockage.



You can see that the foam got into the false bottom and blocked up the whole back of the false bottom. I had to cut out the false bottom with a pair of wire cutters (which work wonders on egg crate), and then I had to cut through the foam to make a cave and unblock the tube. The whole tube was full of foam, so I had to replace it. After I fixed the blockage, I replaced the egg crate, and since I had cut it out I had to hook it back together with zipties. This seemed to work pretty well. After replacing the false bottom, I re-added the substrate, as you can see here.


The upper left is Dirty Old Man Substrate (Brent Brock's recipe). The upper right is a mix up red mulch, tree fern fiber sphagnum moss. The lower left is Miracle grow Organic potting soil with a little tree fern fiber and mulch mixed in for aeration. I wouldn't use the miracle grow soil again, it seems like it will compact pretty tight and is mostly peat moss. The lower right is the cement based soil described above mixed with mulch and tree fern fiber. In the future I would be interested in the baseball diamond soils mentioned in the ultimate dirt based thread.

I also built a stand for my lights to rest on, it is essentially a hollow box which sits on the top of the terrarium. I don't have any pictures of it, but if anyone is interested, I can post some.

So thats everything pre-planting, pictures of the completed setup next!

[markbudde]

So here is the final installment of my terrarium setup. The tank is setup between our computer area and out living area, so three sides are visible. Here are the three whole tank shots, from our living room walking around to the study area.







I got the 6 orchids from Rob at Littlefrog Farm, and the 10 bromeliads and ficus from Antone at SpringValleyTropicals (both sponsors). The moss I took from the ground in Seattle, we'll see if it lives or dies (Moss covers every square inch of this town).

Here are some closeups of the plants.

Phalaenopsis equestris "W lavender"


Neofinetia falcata "chosentetsu"


Epidendrum porpax


Sophrolaeliocattleya "barefoot mailman" 'Laina'


Dendrobium moniliforme "Fairy Princess"


African Violet


left- Neoregelia "mosquito", right- Oncidium "Teipel's Goldbar"


ficus pumila 'quercifolia'


left- Neoregelia "Wee Willy", right- Neoregelia "Lillipet"


After one week, most of the orchids seem to be doing well, and about half have new growth. I just put in the broms 2 days ago, so I can't yet tell how they will do.

I seeded the tank with garden soil from Florida, which had springtails and amphipods in it, I hope some start growing. It looks like a fungal bloom is imminent, so I hope there are some critters to eat it. I haven't yet received my misting system, so that's on the to do list. The tank is completely sealed, and has a bit of a heat problem, which I will have to fix before I add frogs. I might drill some holes in the lid to vent out hot air. Currently my humidity stays over 90% without misting for 2 days. I'm also considering adding another fan for air flow, but the plants seem to be doing well so far. I'll post more picks when it grows in, and when I add my frogs. Hopefully this will provide enough space to provide food for the frogs. I guess we'll see.

Thanks for reading.
-mark

[markbudde]

The two main tank shots didn't link correctly, so I'll try again.

[calvinyhob]

lookin good

[Derek Benson]

I like it. I have an old 55 and I was planning on putting background on the two sides instead of the back, since they are so narrow, as well as having brnaches extend from the backgound into the tank. Mine will be for some type of neotropical treefrog though. Enjoyed the pics!

[xitch]

awesome idea, but i had two inquiries.

first: what about water circulation? Of course some of the water will evaporate and re-condensate on the top and then fall, and with your misting system... however, i'd imagine that quite a bit of the actual nutrients that reside in the water would benefit from a pump or something circulating those nutrients to the top of the soil, and such.

the second inquiry was forgotten... perhaps i'll think about it during my test here in 20 minutes, and then, of course, i'll forget how to do the physics problems...

you must keep us up to date over the course of the next months

[markbudde]

Nutrient leaching is a potential problem, but I think it shouldn't matter in the long run. First of all, I plan on adding leaf litter to this viv, which should provide a source of nutrients. Second, hopefully the bugs will crawl throughout the soil and pick up nutrients from the bottom and bring it to the top, where the frogs will eat them (and eventually poop them out onto the plants). I don't plan on misting this thing to the point where water is pouring out of the drain everyday. I intend to only water it enough to keep the plants and wood sufficiently damp.

That said, it's an experiment in progress, so perhaps it won't be sustainable. Time will tell.
-mark