Clay Zoo Med Build

[carola1155]

I am currently restructuring my collection to concentrate on just a couple frogs... sooo I figured if I am only keeping a few I am going to redo their tanks. (Aka: make them bigger and better)

This thread is going to outline my new 18x18x24 Zoo Med that will be for a group of Stewart Line Amazonicus/Iquitos. It is replacing the current 20gal vert that my calling male is hanging out in. I'm picking up a few more of them from Sean in a few weeks.

The current 20gal vert can be found here: 20 Vert (clay background) Update

Heres the Zoo Med:


Kitty Litter and Bucket for mixing:


"Special Kitty" Litter inconsistencies shown here:


Switched to Dr Elsey's Litter, much less gritty and more consistent:

Once the clay absorbed the water and got to a nice sticky consistency I added peat to the mix. It is roughly a 25% peat mixture.

I should have probably taken more pictures going forward but once you get that stuff on your hands you have no desire to pic up the camera... haha

So here is the background with some cork pieces (one flat and one elbow shaped tube). I just stuck the flat straight to the background and the elbow is jutting out to provide some depth and a little planting space between it and the background. After I applied the clay, I took a few big handfuls of peat that i sifted all the chunks out of and pressed it down on the clay just as many people do with cocofiber on greatstuff. This worked extremely well for me in the last tank (look at the moss growth) and as long as you dont squirt water directly at it, it stays pretty well attached to the outside of the clay.


Once I had it all pressed into place I laid the tank on its back for a couple days and let the clay set a bit. When I flipped it up and added the drainage layer I stuffed some more clay in between the gap you see and the screen.

Added substrate and a piece of wood:


That concludes most of the general construction process... I tend to just get into build mode and not take many pictures so if you have any questions feel free to ask.

[xm41907]

Looks good. I like the idea of pushing the peat into the clay. I might have to do that to mine as it is still too loose on the surface.

[carola1155]

yea i just kinda pressed it down with my knuckles and it sticks pretty well. It will wash off if it gets too wet but normal misting will be fine.

My moss in the old tank completely took over eventually and I could then spray it at will.

Heres a pic (I did steal a chunk from that spot to put in the new tank).

[carola1155]

So I'm going a little out of order here but this is my first step in the process of trying to FF proof this thing...

First you need to carefully remove the back portion of the front vent. Be patient with this!

Here are the materials you need:

Screen, the Zoo Med vent, super glue and scissors of course.

Glue it in place:


Here is a view from the outside with the no-see-um mesh in place:


After that just carefully pop it back in to place and you have made the front vent much more fruit fly proof.

Now... what are people doing about the gaps on the side of the doors? do people have issues with flies squeezing out of them?

[carola1155]

Adding Glass to the top of the Zoomed:

This was kinda my own idea I had for adding glass to the top of the viv. I haven't looked at too many Zoo Med Build threads so I don't know if anyone else came up with anything similar.

I had two pieces of glass cut:


They both fit directly inside the screen area:


Secured the larger piece in place with Epoxy:




While I was getting the glass cut I came up with the idea to use these little plastic pieces to hold in my second piece.

This allows me to slide the smaller piece back and forth to allow more or less air flow (aka: more or less humidity). This idea was a result of the fact that I have zero experience with these terrariums and didn't know what to expect, so I decided to allow myself flexibility for humidity purposes.


Now I will admit I am not sure how well the epoxy will hold over time so for fear of the glass falling in on the frogs I placed a few pieces of screen frame (I had it left over from building a couple verts) under the glass. This will stop the glass from falling if the epoxy ever fails.



I also realized after the fact that there are probably some other ways I could have created the "Sliding" feature of the glass top. Rails along the front bit probably would be a little more secure in the long run and might make it slide a little easier because it wont be balancing on 4 points. But this is already done sooooo I'm sticking with it for now.

[ZookeeperDoug]

Flies will definitely squeeze out of the spaces between the doors and the side walls. There are some tutorials by Pumilio on how to create a silicone bead down the side that will fix that issue. They still find ways out though. There is the gap under tho door where the latch is, the place around the screen edges, etc... I've had the best luck keeping them in with bait. As long as there is a smell peice of banana they seem to gravitate toward that rather than escape.

[carola1155]

Thanks Doug, that's kinda what I figured. I was considering either using silicone or some clear weatherstripping. I may try just using bait for a while and if they still annoy me then I'll try sealing the cage better. I guess I'll have to turn some flies loose in there before I put the frogs in.

[carola1155]

Got a nice cork round and did some planting...

This may or may not be final... Some of this was just sitting in a grow out tank I wanted to break down.

I still have yet to figure out what to do for the floor area. It's going to get a good layer of leaf litter but I'm thinking about trying to squeeze in a fern or something too.