Large Vivarium Construction

[Energy]

Originally Posted by Morgan Freeman

Those discuss are stunning! Amazing colours. This tank is becomeing even more impressive.

Thank you, I am curretnly working on gutting and redoing the left side. What a chore! UGH.

[Energy]

Originally Posted by AzureFrog

Your system sounds great, thank you for the break down. I guess the photos gave me the impression that the water section was much much smaller.

I still believe that the water is a bit shallow, make sure that there is nothing pointy or sharp anywhere in the water, as Discus can and will scrape their sides badly if they are startled.

What kind of plecos do you have? Most of the common plecos will get huge, I personally would not risk keeping them with a Discus. You might want to look into Bristle Nose cats (Ancistrus) they stay small (around 5") and are commonly kept with Discus. They are a really cool little fish, a small herd would look great in your tank.

Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus • Loricariidae • Cat-eLog • PlanetCatfish

Peace
Shawn

The water section is a little on the shallow side for Discus-hence keeping the number low. I only have one pleco- its a blue spot- stays rather small. The tank is designed for stingrays- no pointy objects and no plecos that will get big on suck the slime coat.

[EverettC]

Why are you gutting the left side, it looked good! Can we see some more full tank/progress shots for what you're working on? Nice discus btw, I love the pigeon bloods.

I borrowed a few of your ideas for a 65 gallon tank I'm working on at the moment (that probably won't be finished until summer seeing as how I'm heading back to school tomorrow morning), that I'll be posting as an advanced-vivarium "how to" like my old 75 was, I hope it does yours justice

[Energy]

Originally Posted by EverettC

Why are you gutting the left side, it looked good! Can we see some more full tank/progress shots for what you're working on? Nice discus btw, I love the pigeon bloods.

I borrowed a few of your ideas for a 65 gallon tank I'm working on at the moment (that probably won't be finished until summer seeing as how I'm heading back to school tomorrow morning), that I'll be posting as an advanced-vivarium "how to" like my old 75 was, I hope it does yours justice

Whoa,whoa,whoa, I have copyrighted all my ideas, The replication of any concept I have incorporating into the construction of my system will be taken as a compliment!

Which ideas did you use? I'd love to see your tank.

I gutted the left side four days ago. I just wrapped it up last night. Three solid days of work and I'm finally nearing completion.

I redid this side for a few reasons:
1. I wanted to expand the water section and increase the land section as well, Huh? How could that co-exist simultaneously you ask. I elevated the land section and created an underwater cave under the entire land section-similar to what I did on the right side. Now 100 % percent of the bottom of the vivarium is accessible as free swimming space to the fish. This way I'm utilizing all of the potential water section and land area inside the vivarium.

I created a sloping hill above the cave area which will give the frogs more usable land to roam. It still needs to be planted but then it's done. Pictures to follow.

2. I created and extended a second drip wall. I feel that although the drip walls off gas the CO2 for the plants they also biological clean the aquarium better than any other filtration system I have-hands down.

3. Optimizing the format of the land for the frogs was a priority. I now have a larger solid land area for the frogs to access. Although before I had land it wasn't set-up in an ideal way for the frogs. The new design will fit there needs better.

[vivbulider]

about the discus if he can keep 2 stingrays alive the discus will be fine rays are known as the hardist fw fish to keep but i still would worry about the pleco with the rays but other then that this is the best dart tank i've ever seen

[Energy]

Originally Posted by vivbulider

about the discus if he can keep 2 stingrays alive the discus will be fine rays are known as the hardist fw fish to keep but i still would worry about the pleco with the rays but other then that this is the best dart tank i've ever seen

Wow thanks!

[vivbulider]

you should post this on mfk they would love it

[fivecardskane]

So you probably get this question all the time, but I am new to the PDF scene and was wondering how many different species of frogs do you have in there? I hear all the time you shouldn't mix the different species but I had a friend with a 72Lx12Wx18H tank with about 6 species together. He had about 18 frogs and was constantly selling off the froglets. He has since moved away and I have lost contact so I'm really looking in to every site trying to get started. Any info on how many you can fit in a 55g would be appreciated.

Now on to the important statement, your tank is BOSS. That's all there is to say.

[carbonetc]

Originally Posted by fivecardskane

So you probably get this question all the time, but I am new to the PDF scene and was wondering how many different species of frogs do you have in there? I hear all the time you shouldn't mix the different species but I had a friend with a 72Lx12Wx18H tank with about 6 species together. He had about 18 frogs and was constantly selling off the froglets. He has since moved away and I have lost contact so I'm really looking in to every site trying to get started. Any info on how many you can fit in a 55g would be appreciated.

Now on to the important statement, your tank is BOSS. That's all there is to say.

Constantly selling potentially hybridized frogs? I think I just heard 20 board members' heads explode.

Or maybe you mean a dart frog species mixed with a tree frog species, etc.?

[fivecardskane]

No they were all dart frogs. This was about ten years ago, I was 14 and he was going out with my cousin, that's how I met him. Obviously the views on hybridized frogs has changed dramatically, cause I remember people actually waiting to buy frogs from him. If it matters at all, his tank was set up with physical boundaries, but nothing to actively separate the frogs, just large logs, pools of water etc. The frogs kept to their own most of the time, except for feeding, then they were constantly crossing into each others "territory". He also had a couple of geckos, although these were nocturnal and anoles, which kept mostly to themselves at the top of the tank.

I used to have pictures of the tank, but those have since been lost in the fold.

I used to stare at that tank for hours and I was hoping to recreate that in a home tank myself. Which is why I was asking about minimum tank size for housing several species. I am a "noob" to the PDF and I definitely do not want to do anything to jeopardize the hobby, so I'll take all the help I can get.