frankpayne32
New member
Hi everyone, I posted my tank in the "getting to know you" forum but thought it would be appropriate to post it here too.
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. Unfortunately my picture taking skills are not soo good but thanks for looking and let me know what you think!
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. Unfortunately my picture taking skills are not soo good but thanks for looking and let me know what you think!
