the plywood planks were glued together with polyurethane glue. Some screws were also put in for strength and to pull the planks together while the glue dried.

afterwards everything got several coats of epoxy to make sure everything was waterproof.

over the plywood skeleton a mdf "casing" was placed because the plywood is difficult to paint.

some pieces of wood were placed in the tank and 2-component pu-foam applied to keep everything in place and to get rid of all the straight edges

the waterfall was constructed out of pvc-pipes, coverd and filled with the pu-foam

a pane of glass was glued in the side, a stainless steel mesh glued in place between the ventilation compartment and the tank, and some pvc E-profiles placed for the 2 sliding windows

 

next step:
everything got a layer of tile glue/grout and epoxy

then a layer of peat+ compactuna (acrylic fortifier?) for the "dry" areas

the waterfall and pool got another layer of epoxy with sand and peat mixed in

 

finally the panes of glass and stainless steel ventilation mesh were installed in the hood.
the misting system (14 nozzles) was installed
lights were installed (2 80Watt t5's + 3 36w PL's for the day, some led-lightning for dusk & dawn)
a lot of fans were installed
- 5 fans blowing air from the bottom into the tank
- 1 fan blowing warm air on to the side-window
- 3 fans blowing hot air out of the light hood. partly into the living room, partly into the bottom compartment to be recycled into the viv

on top of the eggcrate I put a fine plastic mesh. on top of that some treefern pannels so that water can run through to the false bottom.
on top of the treefern pannels I put a mix of peat, treefern fiber, spaghnum, charcoal, leaflitter, orchid bark and clay

planted it and voila:

I love bromeliads so I put a lot of them in there. There are also a lot of little ferns and orchids.
The plants are already growing nicely.
I think I might have to add more lights but I haven't had time to measure the actual light-levels yet.

I will post some detailed pictures of the plants soon

 

lights were installed (2 80Watt t5's + 3 36w PL's for the day, some led-

Hey nice viv! What is 3 36w pl's ?

 

Oh-My-God!!!

 

Ridiculous. <throws hands in air>

 

Wow, very awesome! Nice job, but why did you put egg crate over the lights? That'll cut down a lot on how much light is getting into the tank.

 

the egg-crate is there to hide the lamps because they are fugly and you look straight into them from the couch.
It is done quite often over here. I have once seen a comparison of light levels with and without the egg-crate and the difference really wasn't that big.
the difference between lamps + reflectors and lamps without reflectors was much bigger. I will try to find the numbers

 

By the way this tank is 396.9 gallons, HUGE!

 

thank you all for the kind remarks



thank you for calculating that

 

Amazing . This is unreal sand so clean

 

Absolutely Stunning.

 

super cool! love it. you should definitely put a group of Ameerega Bassleri 'Chrome blue' in there!

 

What a waste of Space......
Imagine how many smaller Tanks you could have instead

Displays like this on this side of the pond are limited to places like Zoos.

Fantastic Job

 

What a waste of Space......
Imagine how many smaller Tanks you could have instead

I don't have to imagine there used to be 3 tanks where this tank is now.

I am planning to replace all my small tanks by big ones (but this will still be the biggest)

 

any plans on inhabitants?

 

the dimensions of the viv are
211cm wide, 95 cm high, 72 cm deep.

83" wide x 37" high x 28" deep

It looks fantastic, Nathalie!

 

This thing is a beast. Man, Id love to build something on this scale for a zoo or somebody with a large home. Great clean work and design!

 

thanks for the tip on the eggcrate. ive been worrying about the light spill into my room from my new tank. finish carpentry is set for this week so i need to set the top of glass level and the eggcrate could help with that. just for kicks i will measure with and without it with my par meter. almost forgot, the tank looks great keep up with growth shots on it please.

 

Holy crap!! I gotta have u build one for me, great job

 

Very nice! Also, we get to see everything from start to finish at one time

Do you have any frogs in mind to live in this awesome tank?

 

Amazing set up ... great job. Im greatly interested in seeing this thing finished (even though it looks better than mostly completely finished tanks already)

And fyi thats the real purpose of what we refer to as Egg crate, theres a reason its in lighting department at most hardware stores.

 

ZOMG May i live in it for a week?! Really great!

 

Wow. That's a great home for a thumbnail or two.

 

wow this is a beautiful enclosure - it's people like you that inspire me to continue making vivs as large as possible to achieve natural pieces of art like the one you have made. Thank you very much for sharing!!!

 

some details of the plants. where possible I have added the names of the plants (please correct me if I am wrong)

marcgravia rektifolia with unknow neoregelia species and 2 unknow orchid species

Vriesea hieroglyphica and Vriesea red chestnut

Vriesea bituminosa

unknown neoregelia and cryptanthus

unknown orchid

peperomia

anubias nana

some kind of dwarf iris?

another unknow orchid and cryptanthus microglazioui

masdevalia minuta and an unknown migrogramma (bottom)

I think this is an anthurium because it had berries but I am not sure at all. behind it chirita tamiana and I think ficus villosa on the background

Neoregelia amazon and ornithophora radicans

Racinae crispa

pyrrosia serpens

Masdevalia, I don't know which one might be herradurae

microgramma nitidia

microgramma tecta

2 more different species of neoregelia and a fern that hitch-hiked in with one of them. in the background microgramma nitidia and begonia schulzei. in the left corner another anthurium I think. it also had berries. it almost died but is making new leaves so I think it will do fine

3 orchids aerangis articulata, haraella ordorata and an unknown one (very small, probably some kind of pleurothalis). pyrossia nummularifolia

 

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masdevalia minuta and an unknown migrogramma (bottom)

I have this fern as Microgramma heterophylla
. It looks very very similar to mine and grows very fast

 

dude, you have really outdone yourself. BEST VIV EVER!!!!!


P.S. where the heck do you find room for that 400 gallon beast of a tank? And how did you have the time to make it?

 

I think this is about the cleanest viv I have seen on here
So well done and pretty much flawless

Please shoot a vid of the tank and can you let us know what you plan on putting in here?

 

the tank is already inhabited by a pair of salt creeks and a pair of azureus.
I might add one or 2 more azureus if I find some males I like.

please don't turn this in a "don't mix" thread. I have had these specific frogs for years in separate tanks so I can compare their behaviour now and there behaviour when they were on their own and intervene when something is not right. I also have several other tanks with more than 1 species, including a pumilio/tinc mix without any issues. I catch out any froglets as soon as I see them, even when my pumilio's are alone in a tank.
so far they are blissfully ignorant of each other's existence.

The azureus have already started laying again and the salt creeks might have eggs somewhere too since they have been doing their little dance for days.

I tried to make a video of the tank but it isn't that good since the lights have already gone out and te viv is in "dusk" mode.
I will try to make a better video soon with a better camera and more lights