Just wanted to introduce myself and show off my viv

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frankpayne32

New member
Hello everyone. I've been a "lurker" on this site for a long time now. I've gotten a lot of good info from this site. I thought show off some of the stuff I have done to give back a little. I've never posted on an online forum though. How do I go about posting pictures? Do I need a photobucket account or something similar? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to look!

Frank
 
cooper01

cooper01

New member
Yes, most people have a photobucket acct. I do, its the only way I can get the pics down in file size enough to be let on GU. There are several different ways to do it, I'm sure that some one else will reply with an easier way.

Good luck!
 
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frankpayne32

New member
lets try some pics

Thanks for the help cooper01. I just signed up for a photobucket account. Lets see if I can get them to post.

<a href="http://s572.photobucket.com/albums/ss165/frankpayne32/?action=view&current=100_0432.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss165/frankpayne32/100_0432.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s572.photobucket.com/albums/ss165/frankpayne32/?action=view&current=100_0441.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss165/frankpayne32/100_0441.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Here are some pics of the rainforest vivarium that I built this year out of a 55 gallon aquarium. The lighting consists of a powercompact fixture and a t8 shop light, all the bulbs are 6500k. I also have to 25 watt halogen puck lights that create basking sites. These work really well as the focused beams make a neat sunlight penetrating through the canopy effect. The background is made from styrofoam and concrete. Half is painted brown and textured to look like a mud bank. The other half is painted to look like a rock waterfall. I tried to blend the two sections seemlessly together. The entire front of the tank is a water section with fish, plants, and freshwater shrimp. There are bromeliads, ferns, air plants, orchids, java mass, aquatic plants, and two ficus trained as bonsai (another hobby of mine). There is also a misting system hooked up to it that has 4 nozzles and runs about 6 minutes a day. Right now I just have dart frogs (solid orange galactonotus) in it, but I will have a pair of gold dust day geckos in it as well once I've quarantined them for a few more weeks. I had kept two leaf chameleons in there and they did very well, until they drowned themselves! I learned my lesson there, they are just too slow and clumsy to be in a tank with water. The only maintenance I do on the tank is to feed the frogs and prune the plants occasionally. The misting system keeps the tank clean as well as keeps the water level in the aquatic section constant. I don't need to feed the fish, which are a dwarf freshwater puffer species, as they eat any fruitflies that fall in the water as well as the small snails that hitchhiked on the plants. I unfortunately did not take any pics while building this vivarium but I would be happy to answer any questions that you might have on it. Thanks for looking!
 
cooper01

cooper01

New member
Wow!!!! Those are great. I wish I could do something like that. How long did it take to get it all made and all the kinks worked out?
 
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frankpayne32

New member
Thanks for the kind words. It took me about a week to complete the whole thing, usually spending several hours a day on it. I spent much longer than that brainstorming. This was meant to be my "ultimate" vivarium, and in some ways it is but I definately learned a lot and would make some changes in the next one I build. It too me several months to fine tune the lighting, heating, and misting cycles. I feel that I finally have it at a pretty self-sustaining level. One thing I found to be crucial is to use pure RO/DI water for misting. This keeps the plants, glass, and aquatic section from building up minerals.

Frank
 
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