# 100Gal Vivarium Construction Complete!



## Nai87 (Mar 12, 2008)

Sorry to keep reposting guys, but I'm really satisfied with how my first vivarium turned out and I thought I'd share it with you all one last time(finally Complete). It took me exactly *30* days to complete! I've posted a few pics of my tank before, but this time I have all of my plants and everything is finally in place! Enjoy!!!
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Pics taken with Camera Phone*

Bought supplies on the first day of construction... Boy did I need like double/triple of everything you see there. 









Tank in garage with old aquarium sand and uncleaned









Tank finally cleaned in backyard and brought back upstairs lying on its back in my room.









Installation of false bottom with 3" PVC pipes









First layer of GS foam with some random pots here and there(still loose)









Second layer of GS foam for installation of slate rocks and driftwood









Background covered up with 8-9 bottles of silicone and water feature installed (testing)









Testing Left side of waterfall









Testing Right side of waterfall









Threw in some air plants to see how things would look (left side view)









(Right side view)









(Top view)









Substrate installed









Lights added 3 x 27watt Compact Florescent 5500k Bulbs








*
Pics now taken with an actual digital camera*
100Gal Vivarium Planted and Complete! (Left Side View)









(Right Side View)









Complete Tank Shot! I can now rest....


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## carola1155 (Sep 10, 2007)

looks great!

water features look great how they are kinda tucked in the back with plants popping out in front of them and whatnot.


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## HappyHippos1 (May 7, 2007)

Looks good but beware, some of those plants might not like to be in such high humidity with two waterfalls.


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## LittleDip (May 20, 2007)

Great job!  
The water features are really nice. I like how you set them up. Looks very natural.

Have you decided what you are going to put in there?


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## Nai87 (Mar 12, 2008)

Not exactly sure yet, but I have a lot of different kinds of frogs in mind. I have 4 fruit fly cultures cycling already. My humidity is always above 95% but my glass is never fogged up though... A little weird if you ask me. Although I do have some gaps at the front and back of the top for ventilation right now, that I'm probably going to cover up completely. I wonder if the tank really is at 95%+ humidity. I just bought the thermometer/hygrometer at home depot for like 8 bucks a few days ago, so I'm guessing it should work fine.

I've also placed it in different areas of the tank and it always reads above 90%. The weird thing is, the package that it came in said it only reads up to 90%.

Oh yeah, do you guys think I still need to mist everyday with this high of a humidity? I was misting about 3 times a day ever since I've gotten the whole thing set up and just yesterday I filled all my broms' centers with water (how long does it take for it to completely dry out?) I think I read somewhere that the broms can rot if they hold too much water for too long without having a chance to completely dry out before watering again.


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## HappyHippos1 (May 7, 2007)

To keep the humidity high with a water feature you probably don't have to mist ever but it is good to simulate rain. I mist twice a week but water my plants more with a cup. Keep in mind I water plants such as ferns, fittonias, etc. Plants whose roots need water. Broms, tillis etc don't need that. Just make sure they aren't bone dry for a few days, highly unlikely with a water feature.

IMO three times misting everyday is way to high.


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## divingne1 (Mar 21, 2008)

No need to say sorry for posting. That tank looks awesome!!


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## xm41907 (Nov 26, 2007)

I have to say that I love your viv. That background layout is awesome. This is one that I will keep handy for ideas when I start to design another viv.


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## pet-teez (Oct 3, 2007)

Well, I must say this is tempting me even further into using this giant ugly empty tank I have in the garage... I got it from a friend because the back panel is busted so it can't be used for fish (she doesn't keep herps) and I keep telling myself I shouldn't use it. lol
It's either have 7 decent sized tanks (65g and under) or 3 including the huge one (if memory serves 72" x 18" x 24" or so)... if I did use the huge one I would have to make it a paludarium and set it up with the fish that are supposed to be going in my 55g (therefore taking down the 55g)... ugh. lol
Maybe I should give away the ugly monster so that it doesn't temp me further.
Nice setup


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## tkromer (Dec 20, 2007)

It hasn't even started to grow in and it already looks fantastic. Excellent work! Especially like the little water feature.


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## NickBoudin (Nov 3, 2007)

Amazing.


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## holidayhanson (Apr 25, 2007)

Can you explain how your water features drain? Does the water drain right into your substrate or did you make a seperate area for the water to drain into?

Im in the early planning stages of a 75 and Idont want to use up planting space for water features...but still want to include a waterfall to keep humidity up.

Great job, excellent plant variety. Be sure to post this in the 1 year plus viv thread This is a great forum to chime into so you can find it a year down the road.

Sit back relax and watch it grow.

Interesting you dont have any fogging....I think the vents will take care of that.


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## housevibe7 (Sep 24, 2006)

Eric, I am not sure if this is how he did it, so I will let him respond... but I know some people basically make a mini pool at the base, using gravel, and some way to keep water from the substrate (GS, other rocks, etc) so the water just falls into the gravel and straight into the false bottom.


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## Nai87 (Mar 12, 2008)

holidayhanson said:


> Can you explain how your water features drain? Does the water drain right into your substrate or did you make a seperate area for the water to drain into?


Before I added all of the substrate, I foamed the bottom mesh(Weed block) with GS and made a shape consisting of 2 ponds(One on the left and one on the right) which was connecting to one another with an S shape that ran across the whole tank(which is the stream), but it is a little hidden in the mid-back of the tank.

Here is a picture that I didn't show.









I basically cut off some of the extra weed block that was used to line the top of my egg crates(to help prevent dirt from falling into the false bottom) and I siliconed all of my gravel to it. This was used to line the pond area and the GS foam was there to help outline the shape of the pond. 

I knew I probably couldn't silicone every single bit of the weed block, but that was actually a good thing because I wanted little small holes here and there that the water could drain out to. The silicone was basically used to hold all of the gravel in place. 

After testing it, I noticed that the waterfalls couldn't output enough water to build up the ponds/streams because there was probably too many small gaps in the weed block that I missed, when smearing the silicone onto it, so I did something REALLY ghetto.....

(Don't laugh ok?)

I sat around and thought for awhile, and the first thing that popped into my head was some sort of plastic that I could use to line the bottom of my ponds which was then covered again with the weed block/gravel carpet I made and it hit me.... a black trash bag......

I wanted black because it was hard to notice, and covers all of the white from the GS foam outline. Basically, I only covered the 2 ponds with the trash bags, and left the center stream to be the main drainage. The water from the waterfalls actually fall down into the pond while filling up a bit, and you can see the water move through to the center of the stream where it is drained into the false bottom. The whole stream is filled with gravel, so it is almost impossible to tell where the water goes. 

You cant really see the stream from any of my pictures, but here's a photo outlining the stream. All of the white in the picture represent the water. 










Hope I didn't confuse you too much.


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## tkromer (Dec 20, 2007)

I think the ghetto paint drawing explained everything. Once again, great work!


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## DizzyD (Sep 19, 2006)

What kind of pump are you running in there?


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## Nai87 (Mar 12, 2008)

I'm running 2x ZooMed 501 External Canister filters. The tube that comes with these filters are awfully SHORT, so I had to go to home depot and buy an extension tube.

http://akamai.edeal.com/images/catalog3 ... 763med.jpg


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## stoney225 (Apr 24, 2008)

Is the pump hidden inside, and if so where at? Or is it outside of the tank?


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## Nai87 (Mar 12, 2008)

The ZooMed 501 is an external canister filter which means the filter/pump can be placed anywhere outside of the tank. The only thing that is in the tank are the 2 tubes; one for siphoning water into your filter and another which will be squirting the water out, which is both connected/plugged into your "in" and "out" nozzles of the canister itself. 

When you want to clean the filter, just unplug the system and disconnect the tubes and you're free to remove any dirt and particles from the canister itself. When you finish, just bring the canister back onto your desired position and plug the tubes back into it.


































Like I tell everyone else, you'll have to mess with it a little when you first install it. It'll seem like it does not work and does not have the power to siphon water, which will leave you with a very loud buzz, but once you get the water flowing it is absolutely silent. I can barely hear it at all. 

The water may not always go where you want it to go if you are trying to make a waterfall, so don't forget that water has a very high surface tension. As you can see here, I am using Java Moss to structure the flow of the waterfall. 

In the first picture, you can see where my tube is hiding if you look real close.

































Here's an overview of the leftside of my waterfall

























And the right side


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## vivariman (Sep 26, 2007)

Great depth + amazing plant colors and selection = One of the best vivs I have seen :mrgreen:


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## pilo0024 (Aug 22, 2006)

that tank looks so nice. one of my favorite's in a long time. i know you're gonna enjoy watching it fill in.


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## Nai87 (Mar 12, 2008)

I definitely will be enjoying it even more so than I am now once it grows in. Thanks for all of the wonderful compliments. 

I am planning to start a 40gal in the near future. Maybe for a pair of thumbs.


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