Hi! At long last I have the opportunity to build a larger enclosure, and I want to make it properly so it runs smoothly for many years. I have limited building experience, so I hope some of you more experienced people will help me out 
Sorry about the long description, but I think the details and considerations are important here...
It will be roughly 150H*43D*46W cm or ~60*17*18 inches. It has to fit flush in the corner of those dimensions, that's why thee measurements are odd. My overall plan is to have a background on two sides with two viewable sides. One of the two sides will be a fruit fly proof door, and the other will be without features, just glass for viewing. I will have two ~40 mm computer fans circulating air through PVC tubes imbedded in the background, one from the top to the bottom and the other from the top third to the lower third. I will have no water feature (lesson learned), but there will be misting system. I don't think I will need heating, but rather cooling, as I expect to install quite a lot of lights to illuminate as far down s possible. My room temperature is usually ~21 degrees C / 70 F.
I am unsure about these specific things, but if you see any design flaws, oversights, things I should take into consideration, please let me know!
1) Glass thickneess: I am not sure what glass thicknesses I should be using for a build like this, and I haven't been able to find the answer searching. What would be sufficient?
2) Door design: My plan was to have sliding doors, but now the build has gotten quite tall, I don't know if a ~125*25 cm sliding door would run very smoothly or even be too fragile? Would a swinging door be better, and how would you actually go about making a terrarium door? I have only ever made top-access enclosures.
3) Ventilation: I hope that the inner circulation will be enough to keep the glass clear, but I am worried about over heating and of course high humidity, so I suppose I will need some ventilation. I'm thinking that the one fan intake at the top of the vivarium will be open to the inside as well as outside air by having it right up against the top glass and cutting a corner off it as an intake/vent. I have that setup in a smaller vivarium, and it works great, I can regulate the humidity by covering the triangular hole.
What I am unsure of is whether I need other vents. If I only have an intake, I suppose the doors will be the exhaust, although I know it will limit the airflow through the vivarium. Alternatively, I can make a top vent by cutting another corner of the top glass as an exhaust or a bottom vent by a PVC pipe through the bottom glass ending right above the leaf litter. My thinking is that a bottom vent would let out slightly more CO2 while I am afraid the top to bottom PCfan would encourage outside air mostly passing through and not mixing with the vivarium air. That might be overthinking, but I am leaning towards top vent, any thoughts on that?
Of course there is also the option of a ventilation strip underneath the door. Unless it would significantly help with glass clarity, I would prefer not adding anything to the viewing glass.
4) Lighting: The main challenge as I see it is getting light to the bottom without cooking the top. My current idea is to make the lamp myself by installing an aluminium plate (heatsink) on a slight angle inwards to direct the light into the corner/vivarium and probably angling the LEDs further inwards to not waste light through the glass. On the outside corner I would have fairly tight lenses on the LEDs, maybe 15-20 degrees to light further down, and then further into the corner I would have less steep angles, probably 45 degrees. I am worried about a spotted appearance at the top, overheating, burning or drying the top area and blinding the viewer of the vivarium, but so far it is my best solution.
How many watts of LED would you suggest for such a setup? I am thinking I can fit +/- 60 W worth of 3 W LEDs (with a pc fan on the aluminium plate to keep the temperature down), but maybe you have suggestions for good LEDs or spots I can use in such a lamp instead? I would prefer that they are dimmable to set on a timer, and that the CRI is high. I don't like the "LED look", but I have been very happy with the 90 CRI 3 W LEDs I have been using previously.
Of course I should add that getting light to the bottom is also a question of how I design the hardscape and planing. I want to utilize the entire volume so the intended Ranitomeya variabilis can climb around, but I will try to make it as open as possible, especially towards the top. Something like thin branches and thinner foliage that lets light through.
5) Misting: I will have a Mistking underneath the vivarium with a tub of demineralized water. How many nozzles should I install? I am thinking two or three. One at the top misting the top area, one at the top third and maybe one halfway up. The bottom two would be positioned roughly centered in the vivarium, hidden by a branch or similar.
Those are my thoughts, thank you if you made it through! I'm very excited about this
Cheers, Tobias
Sorry about the long description, but I think the details and considerations are important here...
It will be roughly 150H*43D*46W cm or ~60*17*18 inches. It has to fit flush in the corner of those dimensions, that's why thee measurements are odd. My overall plan is to have a background on two sides with two viewable sides. One of the two sides will be a fruit fly proof door, and the other will be without features, just glass for viewing. I will have two ~40 mm computer fans circulating air through PVC tubes imbedded in the background, one from the top to the bottom and the other from the top third to the lower third. I will have no water feature (lesson learned), but there will be misting system. I don't think I will need heating, but rather cooling, as I expect to install quite a lot of lights to illuminate as far down s possible. My room temperature is usually ~21 degrees C / 70 F.
I am unsure about these specific things, but if you see any design flaws, oversights, things I should take into consideration, please let me know!
1) Glass thickneess: I am not sure what glass thicknesses I should be using for a build like this, and I haven't been able to find the answer searching. What would be sufficient?
2) Door design: My plan was to have sliding doors, but now the build has gotten quite tall, I don't know if a ~125*25 cm sliding door would run very smoothly or even be too fragile? Would a swinging door be better, and how would you actually go about making a terrarium door? I have only ever made top-access enclosures.
3) Ventilation: I hope that the inner circulation will be enough to keep the glass clear, but I am worried about over heating and of course high humidity, so I suppose I will need some ventilation. I'm thinking that the one fan intake at the top of the vivarium will be open to the inside as well as outside air by having it right up against the top glass and cutting a corner off it as an intake/vent. I have that setup in a smaller vivarium, and it works great, I can regulate the humidity by covering the triangular hole.
What I am unsure of is whether I need other vents. If I only have an intake, I suppose the doors will be the exhaust, although I know it will limit the airflow through the vivarium. Alternatively, I can make a top vent by cutting another corner of the top glass as an exhaust or a bottom vent by a PVC pipe through the bottom glass ending right above the leaf litter. My thinking is that a bottom vent would let out slightly more CO2 while I am afraid the top to bottom PCfan would encourage outside air mostly passing through and not mixing with the vivarium air. That might be overthinking, but I am leaning towards top vent, any thoughts on that?
Of course there is also the option of a ventilation strip underneath the door. Unless it would significantly help with glass clarity, I would prefer not adding anything to the viewing glass.
4) Lighting: The main challenge as I see it is getting light to the bottom without cooking the top. My current idea is to make the lamp myself by installing an aluminium plate (heatsink) on a slight angle inwards to direct the light into the corner/vivarium and probably angling the LEDs further inwards to not waste light through the glass. On the outside corner I would have fairly tight lenses on the LEDs, maybe 15-20 degrees to light further down, and then further into the corner I would have less steep angles, probably 45 degrees. I am worried about a spotted appearance at the top, overheating, burning or drying the top area and blinding the viewer of the vivarium, but so far it is my best solution.
How many watts of LED would you suggest for such a setup? I am thinking I can fit +/- 60 W worth of 3 W LEDs (with a pc fan on the aluminium plate to keep the temperature down), but maybe you have suggestions for good LEDs or spots I can use in such a lamp instead? I would prefer that they are dimmable to set on a timer, and that the CRI is high. I don't like the "LED look", but I have been very happy with the 90 CRI 3 W LEDs I have been using previously.
Of course I should add that getting light to the bottom is also a question of how I design the hardscape and planing. I want to utilize the entire volume so the intended Ranitomeya variabilis can climb around, but I will try to make it as open as possible, especially towards the top. Something like thin branches and thinner foliage that lets light through.
5) Misting: I will have a Mistking underneath the vivarium with a tub of demineralized water. How many nozzles should I install? I am thinking two or three. One at the top misting the top area, one at the top third and maybe one halfway up. The bottom two would be positioned roughly centered in the vivarium, hidden by a branch or similar.
Those are my thoughts, thank you if you made it through! I'm very excited about this
Cheers, Tobias
