And finally here's a picture and quick video of what the tank looks like now.
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Crested Gecko Vivarium
Not a Dart Frog enclosure but it is a vivarium and I did get a lot of my ideas from this site so hopefully this won't get removed lol. I started this enclosure around 2 months ago and just finished it yesterday. Its going to be a permanent home for my Crested Gecko after the first tank I built for him turned out to not have enough climbing space for him, that tank ultimately became home to a trio of D. tinctorius 'Patricia'. This tank is an 18"x18"x24" Exo Terra enclosure.
I started off by attaching pieces of that egg crate light paneling stuff to the back and sides of the tank, using silicone. After letting that cure for around 72 hours I went ahead and started testing out the placement of the 3 manzanita branches I was using in this tank. Once I had them in positions I was happy with I used silicone to attach them to the egg crate. Along with the wood I also attached two net pots to the background using silicone, one in the back left and one in the front right.
72 hours later, I began attaching pieces of cork bark to the background using Great Stuff. I also filled in the cracks between each piece and around the net pots. About a week later I went ahead and carved out the excess foam and shaped it to my liking. The next step was to clean the background by spraying it with some compressed air, just to get rid of any dust or foam particles, in preparation for silicone.
Once cleaned I painted all the visible foam with silicone and then covered that with NEHERP's store brand background mix. Fast-forward 72 hours and I went ahead and cleaned off the excess background mix with some compressed air and then touched up any tiny areas of foam I missed.
Fast forward a few weeks and I was finally satisfied with the background. Next, and final step in the assembly, was to add in the drainage pipe. I made this pipe by taking a small piece of 3/4" thick pvc and attaching two straight connectors to each end. On one end I had my dad drill some holes around the bottom of the connector, to allow water to pass through, and on the other I got a little cap to cover up the pipe when not in use.
Once this pipe was done, I took my time with this so it was done over the course of about a week or so, I painted the bottom front right of the enclosure with a layer of silicone, and then stuck the pvc tube down into it. Once it was done curing about 72 hours later, I finally decided to move the tank up from my basement and get substrate and a couple plants into it; lol I actually just did this yesterday.
The tank still needs a lot of plants, a leaf litter, and a few more things until its ready for my gecko but its definitely getting there. I'm moving to Delaware in a week or two so I'm hoping he'll be in his tank within a month or two after the move.
Now, here are some photos of the tank setup in chronological order!
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I started off by attaching pieces of that egg crate light paneling stuff to the back and sides of the tank, using silicone. After letting that cure for around 72 hours I went ahead and started testing out the placement of the 3 manzanita branches I was using in this tank. Once I had them in positions I was happy with I used silicone to attach them to the egg crate. Along with the wood I also attached two net pots to the background using silicone, one in the back left and one in the front right.
72 hours later, I began attaching pieces of cork bark to the background using Great Stuff. I also filled in the cracks between each piece and around the net pots. About a week later I went ahead and carved out the excess foam and shaped it to my liking. The next step was to clean the background by spraying it with some compressed air, just to get rid of any dust or foam particles, in preparation for silicone.
Once cleaned I painted all the visible foam with silicone and then covered that with NEHERP's store brand background mix. Fast-forward 72 hours and I went ahead and cleaned off the excess background mix with some compressed air and then touched up any tiny areas of foam I missed.
Fast forward a few weeks and I was finally satisfied with the background. Next, and final step in the assembly, was to add in the drainage pipe. I made this pipe by taking a small piece of 3/4" thick pvc and attaching two straight connectors to each end. On one end I had my dad drill some holes around the bottom of the connector, to allow water to pass through, and on the other I got a little cap to cover up the pipe when not in use.
Once this pipe was done, I took my time with this so it was done over the course of about a week or so, I painted the bottom front right of the enclosure with a layer of silicone, and then stuck the pvc tube down into it. Once it was done curing about 72 hours later, I finally decided to move the tank up from my basement and get substrate and a couple plants into it; lol I actually just did this yesterday.
The tank still needs a lot of plants, a leaf litter, and a few more things until its ready for my gecko but its definitely getting there. I'm moving to Delaware in a week or two so I'm hoping he'll be in his tank within a month or two after the move.
Now, here are some photos of the tank setup in chronological order!
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Not a huge update but I thought I'd share that my Pachycentria glauca just flowered for the first time! Only had it for a couple weeks now and its not even rooted to the background yet but its already flowering. I took these photos a couple days ago and since then the petals have fallen away. Hopefully the flower was self-pollinated and it'll grow a fruit. Would love to grow seedlings of this awesome plant!
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Here's another quick update on the tank. Added in some rocks to the front left and some pilea glauca. I have this plant in my other vivarium and its doing quite well so I'm hoping it will do well in this tank and take over the bottom of the tank to an extant.
Took these pics a couple days ago so since then I've added in the leaf litter. Its dark now so I can't take updated pics but I'll take some and post them tomorrow if ya'll are interested.
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Took these pics a couple days ago so since then I've added in the leaf litter. Its dark now so I can't take updated pics but I'll take some and post them tomorrow if ya'll are interested.
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Thought I'd give ya'll another update. Here's a pic of the tank in its current state, after I put the leaf litter in.
It still needs a few more plants here and there but its coming along. I just ordered an Elaphoglossum nigrescens for the back left side of the tank. I'm going to plant it epiphytically on the wall of the tank so it covers the manzanita branches a bit and provides some cover for my gecko. I'll probably also plant some more philodendron wend-imbe directly in front of where the Elaphoglossum is going, just to provide more cover.
As it stands the tank has lots of climbing space for my gecko to explore at night but it doesn't have many hiding spots for him to sleep in during the day so once I can create more of those, and all the plants grow in, he'll be added to the tank.
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It still needs a few more plants here and there but its coming along. I just ordered an Elaphoglossum nigrescens for the back left side of the tank. I'm going to plant it epiphytically on the wall of the tank so it covers the manzanita branches a bit and provides some cover for my gecko. I'll probably also plant some more philodendron wend-imbe directly in front of where the Elaphoglossum is going, just to provide more cover.
As it stands the tank has lots of climbing space for my gecko to explore at night but it doesn't have many hiding spots for him to sleep in during the day so once I can create more of those, and all the plants grow in, he'll be added to the tank.
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