Vivarium-Rack

[Marty]

A new story entry has been added:

[drupal=4]Vivarium-Rack[/drupal]

Here's the story of my vivarium rack construction. It took me a while to figure things out and to plan everything, so there would be no surprises later. You can click on the images to get larger views. Warning, there's are a lot of images in this post, so be patient if you have a slower connection. I made this rack with several key ideas in mind. I wanted to create as maintenance free setup as possible. I didn't want to become a slave of my own hobby and keep maintaining my tanks constantly. At the same time I wanted to have as close of a habitat replication as possible. This was my dream list... I wanted it all ! Even though this rack setup has been created for dartfrogs, I'm sure some of you may find a lot of the elements useful when building your geckos setups.

• Automated Misting System. Misting several times per day, for less then 1 minute per misting cycle
• Worry free draining. When there is too much water from all the misting, I wanted all 10 tanks to take care of themselves
• Ventilation - I wanted high humidity (90%+), yet I wanted to see everything inside without any fog on the front
• Full view, I didn't want to see any hinges or latches or anything else in the fronts of the tanks obstructing the views of the vivarium. No door in the front.
• My misting system had to be maintenance free, I didn't want to keep adding water to it, or worry that it will run dry - ever !
• Some type of a feeding door, so I wouldn't have to open the front to feed the frogs. It would save them some stress and reduce possibility of escape and make things easier for me.
• Keeping the cleaning of the front glass to a minimum Lights on a timer - no brainer here

 

[Protean]

marty, where in the cage did you put the drain, on the side or the bottom? I like that idea a lot as i would like to make most of my personal stuff maintenance free.

I need to invest in a diamond drill bit for glass. might make a good addition to the tool bench and use for other terrariums.

-jason

 

[DDReptiles]

That setup is just incredible!!! Seems like you planned it 100% perfect (maybe 99% if you are mad over the clear tubing LOL)

I wish I knew how to put something like that together and get all the plants to survive and everything, All my bromeliads I have kept always rot away at the base over time and they die, then my ficus trees always drop there leaves. Pothos is the only plant I can keep in the cages and have it do well.

But just overall, the whole thing is just WOW!!!

If you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost to build it?

Thanks Derek

 

[Marty]

Pothos is the only plant I can keep in the cages and have it do well.

That's so funny...pothos cannot be killed I've had pothos in a tank that I neglected and stored it away for few months without ever being watered and no light and it still survived...pothos is like a roach of the plant world :biggrin: I think you have to microwave it to kill it.

for the fear that my wife will read this post, I won't say how much it cost me...hehehe... no actually wasn't that bad...maybe $3K - but that's with a lot of favours that I pulled, incl a lot of IT work for the acrylic guy.

 

[Marty]

marty, where in the cage did you put the drain, on the side or the bottom? I like that idea a lot as i would like to make most of my personal stuff maintenance free.

I need to invest in a diamond drill bit for glass. might make a good addition to the tool bench and use for other terrariums.

-jason

drains are in the back... I actually didn't show it, but every tank on top has a spigot that gravity drains into a little funnel that's based in the setup, so you can actually pull every tank out without worrying that you have to disconnect anything. Well, the only thing that has to be disconnected is the misting system, but it's connected in parallel, so I just have to cap it and I can pull the tank out. All tanks are acrylic, but a lot of people drill their glass tanks to install drains. It's not that easy and you have to get some extra apparatus to drill holes from what I heard, to guide the saw.

 

[Zbiz]

Honestly i would love to hire you lol.

 

[CrestfallenSoul]

*speechless*.......*drools i want that kinda vivaria.......
awesome job

 

[Haroldo]

I've seen these pics long ago Marty, but again great job!

 

[Ken Bartenfeld]

Holy shit...that looks GREAT! Was it hard cutting acrylic? I am thinking of doing something like that. I am in awe about yours though! WOW WOW WOW!

 

[Protean]

Marty,

Do you have any photos of the back side of the tank where the drains are attached?

I already have a nice size glass shop at my place and about 5 tons of glass to finish using before i move again in January.

Cheers
Jason P

 

[Marty]

That I don't have, but just make sure the drain in the back is lower then the front lip I don't remember where I got the drains, but it was some salt water supply place. I think they were something like $7 each. Then the lower tanks had just a tube inserted and glued and the other ends were inserted into the house plumbing. The neat thing I found was the the flexible tubing was ABS and the drain bulkhead was PVC (or the other way around - don't remember). I was able to use transition cement that bonds ABS to PVC and get a perfect seal and still have a flexible drain hose that I could insert into a port on my plumbing pipe.

 

[Brian]

I have to agree about the pothos not dieing after finding some in the garage after 100 degree heat.

BTW I've found that light makes the biggest diffence with ficus leaf die off even all the book say it's water related. Bromiliad base rot for me seems to be from too much localized water (not talking about in the cup) even when the air might be dry.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Marty, didn't you say something about you providing free viv building services for all mods on the forum? I'm just curious as to when mine will be arriving? :biggrin:

 

[Marty]

Yeah I do, you're on my to do list ...

note to self: demod Ethan :evil:

 

[cliff_f]

I have actually seen your setup on another site (dont remember what one), I think that is totally awesome! I wish I had the space and money to build something like that. Awesome, Just awesome!

 

[MattL]

That is killer! Send one or two of those my way and the usual cost too..free

Matt

 

[Reptiluvr]

Since all the assembly questions have been answered, here's my microclimate question. How did you assemble the lights so that you knew they would produce the right temps? I have the problem right now where I have to suspend lights of various bulb sizes and various heights to get each cage the right temp for the different species. Right now I'm just using a couple metal racks, nothing extravagant.

 

[Marty]

In my case I had an issue of the temperatures being way too high, esp in the top row. I wanted 75-80'F and I was getting around 90'F. I had to install fans and move air in the top part of the canopy. I installed 2x120mm fans. I then adjusted the fans until I vented enough hot air so the temps dropped to where I wanted them. In the summer, I crack open the A/C vent for that room to keep it optimal. Always a fine balance

 

[aquapimp]

Will you come work at my shop?

great job, man!

Tom

 

[thegeckoguy2010]

So how much For the plans...? ha I love it... i would use it for my phelsuma collection.