Vivarium!

We all make stuff other than pipes, so here's a place where "anything goes" as far as showing off some of your projects and other hobbies.
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Massis
Posts: 938
Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2010 9:05 am

Vivarium!

Post by Massis »

It's not quite the same as most people here, with all their knives and such, but I'm going to place this topic anyway because I feel it fits here.
Since I was 12 my parents had a cornsnake (which is still there), and even before that I've always loved reptiles.

Once I moved out of the house, I got myself a wallgecko, and a year later a bearded dragon. Now, another year later, we have quite some animals:
1 bearded dragon, 4 wall gecko's, 2 goldfish, 1 ancistrus (suction mouth catfish), 1 L 052 (also a suction mouth catfish),
3 adult and 40+ baby guppies, 1 Southern painted turtle.

And all of them, except for the goldfish and the ancistrus, live in home built tanks. 1 140cm by 50cm Terrarium for the bearded dragon, a 80*40 terrarium for the gecko's and a homebuilt aquarium for the turtle, guppies and the L052.

After building some tanks for myself, I also started to build them for friends/customers.
Here's some of my previous work:

my 140*50*60 tank, including a fake-rock wall and a double ceiling:
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a 150*60*60 tank for a friend (including wall and double ceiling):
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another one of the same size, for the same friend:
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the gecko tank:
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the aquarium:
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and some of the inhabitants:
Cookie, our baby turtle (she's now 3 weeks and weighs about 6grams):
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Daku, the dragon:
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Only a few months ago I started pipesmoking, and last month I decided to combine my creative woodworking hobby with my new pipesmoking hobby.
And thus I made my first pipe (which you can find in the gallery...)
JimBridger
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:54 pm

Re: Vivarium!

Post by JimBridger »

Any advice on where I can find a tutorial on making your own aquarium? I love keeping native fish, but my 30 and 55 just aren't big enough for the real monsters. I plan on getting some grass pickerel soon and someday I'll have my trout tank set up with a beast of a chiller.
Massis
Posts: 938
Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2010 9:05 am

Re: Vivarium!

Post by Massis »

I've got some Dutch tutorials, but I basicly winged it :D (as I did with all my tanks and even my pipe :D). It's been holding out for 3 months now, still going strong...

what you need to memorize is the following:
- use waterproof multiplex and perhaps (as I did) liquid pondliner (expensive stuff, $30 for 2,5L which covers about 1m²)
- sand the edges that will be glued, or even better: mill them a few millimeters in for better grip
- use screws made from rustfree materials :D
- use TEC7 or another NON-TOXIC, non acidic silicone. Kit both the contact surface and the edge on the inside after putting it together.
- make a frame to which you can mount your glass from the inside (so the pressure from the water actually seals it better)
- make sure the glass is thick enough. Thickness is calculated on the hight of the water and the width of the tank. For a 50cm depth on a 1m wide tank you need 10mm thick glass to be sure.
- make stabilisation strips! If the tank is very long, you'll need to connect the top front to the back to prevent it from bending to breaking point.

this one is in dutch, but it's mainly pictures so I'm guessing it'll be useful:
http://www.iven.nl/mopampa/index.html?l ... t=d55.html (click "volgende pagina" to see page 2 ;-) )

it's the building log of 2 tanks, both 2.3m long x 1m wide x 70cm high containing 1350L of water. They use a 12mm front glass pane.
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