# The Tad O'Bator Build



## Dizzle21 (Aug 11, 2009)

Well I got inspired to build my own tadpole incubator after seeing the one Motydesign built, so I cannot take credit for idea. 

I bought a Vinotemp wine fridge for $40 off craigslist, Owner said the compressor went out on it and doesn't cool anymore. But other than that this thing is mint condition. 


















First step was to gut the inside and get rid of the wire rack shelves.I'm going to get glass cut to fit tomorrow!
I plan on making it as efficient as possible so I want to be able to store a lot of tads. Again I stole the idea off of Moty and bought urine sample containers as my tad cups, I calculated and can fit 40 cups per shelf, and I plan on starting off with 2 shelfs and adding another soon, which will pull out for easy feeding and water changes.










I bought some drawer slides and aluminum angled metal at home depot to use to make my shelfs. Pretty straight forward, Just cut and screwed the metal to the drawer slide than screwed that to the fridge. Seems to hold pretty good, I pulled pretty hard on it to make sure.





































I ordered some flexwatt heat tape off ebay along with a dimmable power cable. Even though I'm going to run the flex watt off of a thermostat I still wanted to be able to dim how much heat is produced. Hopefully I can adjust it so even if the heater is left on it doesn't get above my desired temperature. Not sure if this will work or not we will see, and i'm looking forward to testing before adding tads. I just kind of want some kind of redundancy if I'm putting all my eggs in one basket...literally..lol 





























Well thats it for tonight guys I'll keep you updated as it progresses. I plan on adding some leds and circulating fans soon as well.


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## motydesign (Feb 27, 2011)

COOL! another person out there with the nice tad developing system. the pull out racks is brilliant, this will make feeding and inspection SO much easier compared to mine. a hint though, find an area at the bottom that can be closed up for the most part for Egg development (i use the crisper drawer in mine) otherwise the air circ will dry the eggs out over night


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## Dizzle21 (Aug 11, 2009)

motydesign said:


> COOL! another person out there with the nice tad developing system. the pull out racks is brilliant, this will make feeding and inspection SO much easier compared to mine. a hint though, find an area at the bottom that can be closed up for the most part for Egg development (i use the crisper drawer in mine) otherwise the air circ will dry the eggs out over night



Ok thanks! Ya i left some room at the bottom to store the eggs, do yours dry out even with a covered petri dish? I might put them in a sweater box or something to isolate them.


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## motydesign (Feb 27, 2011)

no not in a covered petri, but if open it will


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## Dizzle21 (Aug 11, 2009)

motydesign said:


> no not in a covered petri, but if open it will


Ok sweet ya i keep all my eggs covered. What else have you been doing with your fridge growing any plants?


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## motydesign (Feb 27, 2011)

no room, just tons of tads ... actually just shut my misting system off two days ago, trying to dry everyone out and slowed feeding. hopefully i can get some good vit stores built back up in my frogs. ive noticed quality of eggs from the El Cope wasnt as high a fertilization rate as before.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

Looks great! The shelving system is ingenious


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## Dizzle21 (Aug 11, 2009)

frogparty said:


> Looks great! The shelving system is ingenious


Thanks, It pretty much allows me to store them compact but make maintanence a breeeeeze. I should have the capability of storing 160 tads if It ever gets that crazy around here...lol


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## SamsonsFrogs (Mar 4, 2009)

Nice Dizz! How many tads do you think you can fit in there?

Sam Cavoulas


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## goof901 (Jan 9, 2012)

SamsonsFrogs said:


> Nice Dizz! How many tads do you think you can fit in there?
> 
> Sam Cavoulas


here



Dizzle21 said:


> Thanks, It pretty much allows me to store them compact but make maintanence a breeeeeze. I should have the capability of storing 160 tads if It ever gets that crazy around here...lol


are you gonna have any lights so you can grow java moss/duckweed/algae in your tad cups?


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## Dizzle21 (Aug 11, 2009)

goof901 said:


> here
> 
> 
> 
> are you gonna have any lights so you can grow java moss/duckweed/algae in your tad cups?


Ya Id like to get some Leds in there so I can keep a little java moss in the cups. the only problem is getting the light to the lower shelfs. I guess I can put a light on each shelf and have enough wire slack for it to be able to pull out.


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