[pigface]

I picked up a 18x18x18 sale exoterra a while ago and here is how I made it fruit fly proof . This is mt first one and I will be moving my SI tricolors into it when its ready .

For the front lower front vent I popped the inner molding piece off . I forgot to take a picture if it but it pops right off real easy its just clipped in . I just pops upwards . Just use a small knife and it comes loose easy . Once its off you can look in the back of it and I just cut a few small pieces of screen and glued it in the slots with weld on glue . The center two holes I just filled with silicone since I didn't want to interfere with the latch . Then just pop the molding back on .

For the top I removed the screen and replaced it with glass and a front vent and a center internal circulation system . I siliconed the center part of the screen so it pulls air from one side of the tank and blows it back in the other .

A sealed in computer fan goes in the back housing for internal circulation .

For the gaps in the doors I just siliconed the gaps closed for a perfect seal . The way I did this was , I opened the doors , and on the side panes of glass I used a piece of glad wrap and wrapped it around the side glass were the doors meet then ran a bead of silicone down the edges of the doors and closed them . When it dried I just sliced off the excess front and back silicone with a razor blade . I did the same thing for the gap were the doors meet , just use silicone on one door edge and glad wrap on the other and close the door .

No fruit fly is getting out of this .

And they are Drillable for drains . On this one I put the bulkhead on the side since its going on a shelf not a rack .

For the back ground I used a combination of a piece of sheet cork ( The exo terra bark background ) in the center , Great stuff and the original foam background that came with the tank that I just trimmed down and used on the side panes , some wood and tree fern plack . Its hard to see but I made a few "platforms" in the corners from the GS for places for the frogs to "call" from or just hang out .

And I also ran an extra bead of silicone around the whole bottom of the tank and up the sides part way since they didn't do a good job of this at the factory . just to make sure there were no leaks .

 

[onefstsnake]

Looks great!

Id love to do a small cube. But the local Petsmart wants $100 for the small ones. :shock:

 

[Fishman]

Nice descriptive post! I just pickup up two on clearance at Petco, until now I have always stolen tanks from my fish for vivs. Now I get to play with an exo,

 

[bennytec]

Nice circulation fan set up. I'll have to try that.

 

[MattySF]

Mods look great! Nice work piggy!

 

[sinflspeed]

Did you drill the drain port yourself? Is there anythingspecial I would need to do, or worry about if I wanted to try this on my own?

 

[pigface]

Yes I did , you can see a brief description on how I did it in this post .

parts-construction/topic23296.html

You can forgo the silicone on the jig if you can keep it holding water with out it . And make sure you support the underside of the piece of glass your drilling with a flat piece of wood , it helps prevent cracking when the drill goes all the way through . And don't use too much pressure while drilling . I've only cracked one tank while drilling it and that was because I didn't support the underside while drilling . go gentile and slow .

 

[pigface]

Here we have a few plants in it now , I have a brom to move in here from the other tank and a nice piece of driftwood branch goes in also when this tank grows in for a while .
I'm moving my Santa Isabel's into here when it grows in and will move the wood and brom in when I move the frogs from the other tank . It should make it easier catching the frogs when I go to move them .

And the space I made for it lower left .

I'm slowly running out of space and have to be creative in finding room .

Right now they are in the 29g on the top . It dosen't look like it but the Exoterra actually has more floor space than the 29 . Due to the thick background and front vent , its only 8" deep . So I hope they like it .

 

[Gillbert95]

For the gaps in the doors I just siliconed the gaps closed for a perfect seal . The way I did this was , I opened the doors , and on the side panes of glass I used a piece of glad wrap and wrapped it around the side glass were the doors meet then ran a bead of silicone down the edges of the doors and closed them .



Do you have to use a specific silicon? I don't know much about the chemicals and if they would hurt the frogs.