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Bored, so I started a new project .::20gal Vertical Vivarium::.

16K views 55 replies 23 participants last post by  jacobi 
#1 ·
I got bored, so I decided to do something productive. I had a 20gal tank laying unused. It's one of the two little tanks I picked up laying outside a house since they didnt want them anymore :D

I took out the black frame of it a while ago to give it a cleaner look, but I set it aside since I got busy working on my 40gal Vert.

This project won't be as complex as my 40gal. I won't even have misters in there. I'll be hand spraying it since it's going into my bedroom. Im not planning on drilling an drains on it either. I'll just suck the water out of the false bottom with a turkey baster or something.

So here's what I got so far today.

I measured and cut pieces of some leftover Polycarbonate to build the euro vent.






I didnt have enough poly carbonate so I decided to just put 3 columns in the front to support the aluminum L shape piece going on top of it. I put that L metal piece on there to support the middle column.






There's all three columns siliconed


Time to drill some holes on the piece that going on the top of the Viv to lock in the glass door


drilled


took a scrap piece and...


cut it in half




drill some holes on them


screw them in


BAM! done (I will be siliconing this on the top later after the main vent is done curing)


cut up some Aluminum L-shapes to build the frame on the euro vent


Cut some screen + silicone = done


Whew! whole vent done. Now time to sit and wait :D


well that's what I got so far. I'll be posting more pics of the progress later on.
 
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#28 ·
Just got a package in the mail. I've been waiting all day for this, I guess I was the last stop for UPS :(








I was worried that it was going to be dead when I unwrap it because of the heat over here.

I was surprised on how well it looks despite the high temperature it had to endure. Even the sphagnum moss it's planted in is pretty darn hot.

The pitcher on the right was wilting so I had to cut it off.



Closer pic of the pitchers. The plant is a Nepenthes Ampullaria 'bronze Nabire'


Here it is planted in the corner of the tank :D

I can't wait until it grows some basal pitchers for me.


 
#34 ·
..::UPDATE::..

Here's some new shots of the tank. The moss is started to spread around the tank and the Pennywort as well :D








So..since I'm getting frogs pretty soon, not sure yet if they're going in this or into my bigger Viv, but none the less, I had to add something in this Viv to make it more interesting to look at plus to utilize the vertical space of the viv.

I decided to make a fake stump/vine since I was inspired by "HX" from this thread
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/parts-construction/21034-how-were-these-constructed.html

so here's a little EDU for you guys :D


Materials:
1/2" PVC pipe
Heat source to bend the pipe. (a Heat gun would be great but I didn't have one so I used my outdoor grill)
25lb bag of Grout (I chose a dark brown color)
Manila Rope
peat moss
bucket
water
Paint brush
Glue Gun
Great Stuff
Carving tool (anything sharp will do, like a screwdriver or a knife)


I drew up a sketch on how I wanted it to look like before I started bending the pipe.

So I fired up the grill and started cooking :D


twisting and bending them to my likeness and then dip them in a bucket of cold water to harden it quickly.

(Wear gloves so you won't get burnt since the pipes will be really hot)


I laid them all down and glued them together with a glue gun. and then put a layer of 'Great Stuff' over it to give it more shape and to better hold all the pieces together.





After the 'Great Stuff' dried. I mixed up some grout with water. At first I made a thick batch and it was hard to paint onto the pipes. Also after it dried, it was cracking and crumbling off. So I mixed up a runnier batch with the consistency of paint.

I painted over the pipes and gave it a few coats.

I took my Manila rope and cut a few strands of it.



I dipped it in warm water first to soften it and then dipped it into the grout mix.




pull it out and let the excess drip off



Here's the piece with quite a few vines around it.


After it dried, I painted on another layer of grout and sprinkled some peat moss over it to give it some texture.

After that dried up, the piece looked too smooth for me...


so I took a carving tool and started carving away making vertical slashes to give it a more worn out wood look.

Before Picture


After Picture


annd here's the whole piece after it's all carved up :D


I'll take more pics later ones I put it inside the tank.
 
#40 ·
Sweet. I have a 15 vert and 2 10g verts I wanna start working on while stuff grows out in the 40g's. I really want to try the clay and I love using the PVC.

I know you probably said somewhere already, but where are you getting your plants. Alot of them are pretty exotic, and what about lighting?
 
#49 ·
I'll take some pics tomorrow :D

the bottom is over grown with pennywort at the moment and the Clay background isn't doing too well. It's drying up. I might end up taking it our and just using tree fern panels on it.


Did I miss the reply about where you got your plants???
Most of the plants in this viv were taken from my bigger 40gal Viv. See the link in my signature.

The Pitcher plant was from Blackjungle and the fern moss was from an eBay seller :D
 
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