Just wanted to share pics of our 46g Bowfront Vivarium build. This vivarium will eventually house 4 Cobalt Tincs (who are patiently awaiting their home and are currently housed in a 18x18x18 Exo-Terra while they're still little). We are still making improvements as we go, especially with the water feature which we seems to be having some minor difficulties (primarily with getting the water to fall the way we want it to, LOL). Any recommendations or suggestions would be welcome.
We decided, after much research, to do a false bottom to ease the workload on maintenance.
We also decided to do an eggcrate background and suction cup it to the back (10 heavy duty suction cups which are siliconed to the back, we will update you all on how that works for us in a future post ). Our decision to do this was to decrease the damage should we have to dismantle the viv in an "emergency".
Laying plants out (we have a potho too but it's incredibly large so I'm not sure I'll put it in...still wanting some creeping oak ficus but...may have to skip it for this tank so I don't encounter overgrowth issues later on. )
Arranging water fall pieces:
Then we cut out the floor section where we will have the shallow pond. This will later be have perforated plastic grids siliconed to the edge of the eggcrate and will act as both a safety guard (so froggies don't go underneath the false bottom) as well as a slope separating land mass from water.
We did some Dremel work on the wood pieces in hopes to get the water to flow where we envisioned. We are still working on this part but I think we are on the right path. (Again, updates will follow in future posts.)
The hubby even did a special carving to commemorate our first major viv build.
The filter we are using is an out-of-tank mini canister filter by ZooMed (Model 501). This will be our filtration and also acts as the waterfall pump. It has been tested and runs quietly and so far, does the job we were looking for it to do. Here we are giving it a thorough test to make sure everything flows properly.
Testing the falls (not working out quite yet, but we are almost there).
We appreciate, in advance, any positive remarks or helpful feedback. This is our first large viv build that incorporates a water feature and we're both very excited to complete it and watch our frogs enjoy their spacious home.
We decided, after much research, to do a false bottom to ease the workload on maintenance.
We also decided to do an eggcrate background and suction cup it to the back (10 heavy duty suction cups which are siliconed to the back, we will update you all on how that works for us in a future post ). Our decision to do this was to decrease the damage should we have to dismantle the viv in an "emergency".
Laying plants out (we have a potho too but it's incredibly large so I'm not sure I'll put it in...still wanting some creeping oak ficus but...may have to skip it for this tank so I don't encounter overgrowth issues later on. )
Arranging water fall pieces:
Then we cut out the floor section where we will have the shallow pond. This will later be have perforated plastic grids siliconed to the edge of the eggcrate and will act as both a safety guard (so froggies don't go underneath the false bottom) as well as a slope separating land mass from water.
We did some Dremel work on the wood pieces in hopes to get the water to flow where we envisioned. We are still working on this part but I think we are on the right path. (Again, updates will follow in future posts.)
The hubby even did a special carving to commemorate our first major viv build.
The filter we are using is an out-of-tank mini canister filter by ZooMed (Model 501). This will be our filtration and also acts as the waterfall pump. It has been tested and runs quietly and so far, does the job we were looking for it to do. Here we are giving it a thorough test to make sure everything flows properly.
Testing the falls (not working out quite yet, but we are almost there).
We appreciate, in advance, any positive remarks or helpful feedback. This is our first large viv build that incorporates a water feature and we're both very excited to complete it and watch our frogs enjoy their spacious home.