# Skyscraper Build (Zoo Med)18x18x36



## Fitzy (Sep 12, 2008)

It has been several years since I've had terrariums (2011ish)but time for round 2! Previously started with a paludarium, then several exos and 5/10/15 gal vert conversions but kinda got burned out and gave everything away to spend time on other hobbies.

This time around aiming for just one display tank with a simple design and make it as interesting as possible. Sooo if I am only going to have one tank, go big right? 

Enter Zoo Med 18x18x36 Skycraper









Main parts of the background - EpiWeb, Feather rock, various driftwood and Manzanita Branch









Inlet for external dripwall pump with one way valve & filter, submersible heater and temp probe









False bottom covering filter/heater/probe









Made cutouts in the EpiWeb so the rock and branch would be permanently attached to the glass.









Coming together









The main backwall assembled. Wood secured with GE silicone and then pond great stuff to fill in all the cracks.









Right before planting & moss mix









Sloped front corner so water level will be slightly exposed...more just a permanent wet area under moss to help increase humidity and moss growth. Also created a slate edge against the EpiWeb at the bottom of the drip wall. Idea here is it will carry water away from the drier part of the viv. 

Most of the drainage is leca around the false bottom. The aquarium stone was mainly a 1" border around the edge because I think it looks better. Wet area of substrate is Fluval Stratum.









Added first mist heads, driper, dwarf hairgrass and NE herp moss mix.









First round of plants back in November. Now running dual mist heads, 2 Led strips, Satellite Plus PRO in front and NICREW ClassicLED Plus in the back.

















Tank has basically sat since Dec while the background moss grows in. Recently I have been adding more plants/moss to the back wall to reduce the amount of exposure and create more hiding spots. 

No pics of that right now though


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## minorhero (Apr 24, 2020)

The skyscapers are such a fun tank size, your build looks pretty spiffy! How is the hair grass growing for you? I have been trying to grow some in my viv and its been struggling to properly carpet.


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## [email protected] (May 29, 2020)

looking awesome


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## Fitzy (Sep 12, 2008)

minorhero said:


> The skyscapers are such a fun tank size, your build looks pretty spiffy! How is the hair grass growing for you? I have been trying to grow some in my viv and its been struggling to properly carpet.


Thanks! I was really interested in a tank with some serious vertical space and at the time hadn't seen many people build one (or the Paludarium) for dart frogs.

The dwarf hairgrass really filled in at the bottom quickly however did not fair as well on the EpiWeb wall. Each clump planted in the stratum grew at least an inch and tripled in coverage within 3 months. It's hard to get adequate light at the bottom so I would chalk up the growth I saw to the substrate and water level. Recently I actually removed almost all the hairgrass in favor of Riccia.


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## Fitzy (Sep 12, 2008)

Took some pictures tonight. Over the past few weeks I've added several plants and vines all over to add depth and more coverage but needs time to grow in. Almost all are intended to be slow growing as to not be extremely overgrown in a few years so it will take a while. 

Placed Java Fern and El Nino Fern in the corner that sees a lot of water from the drip wall but not as happy with those and might switch out for something else. Seems out of place as does the lemon button fern now. For some reason I was expecting more from pet store aquarium plants 

Think I need to get my DSLR out as the LEDs kinda mess with the lighting.


















Crappy moonlight shot


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Looking good. I don't seem to see what type of frogs you are building this for, or perhaps it's not for animals?
You are very similar to the dimensions of my, "The Jungle Gym". I'm looking forward to reports about your lighting choices. Mine is lit mostly by what's "left over", using a combinations of Jungle Dawn 13w LEDs and Lowe's par 38 floodlights. It's acceptable, but very backyard mechanic.
What did you spend on lighting, if I may ask?

Please be careful with those intense blue moonlights. Most moonlight will be filtered out by the rainforest canopy. Frogs will be used to very dark nights. 
Frogs will not be used to "actinic" style lighting. In my opinion, the best use of a moonlight is to run it for about an hour after lights out. This gives your frogs time to get to there "beds" for the night, yet gives them plenty of much darker time, as well. It also gives you an hour every night to enjoy the different view and colors.

Lemon button was my original, favorite fern. They hate wet feet. You talked about possibly moving her, so, if you do, remember to keep her feet as well drained as possible. One simple way, is to plant it on a mound. Watch out for those runners. Once she takes off, she can put those runners all over the viv.

If you are keeping frogs, You've dedicated a lot of space to ground moss, rather than thick, dense beds of leaf litter. Build for your frogs, not for yourself. If that were in my care, I would immediately pull out 90% of the ground moss. It can be used on walls and wood if you still have space. The ground is so limited when you do a skyscraper like you and I have done. I try to see a vivarium through a frog's eyes. Through a frog's eyes, the moss isn't pretty, it's wasted space. Space that could be used to hide in, to hunt in, and to generate microfauna in.
Moss on the ground is strictly for your eyes. It's not for the frogs. If your frogs could talk, they would ask for leaf litter.

Finally...Seriously?!? You're going to tease me with a vivarium made for.....what?


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## TreeFrogPyscho (Jul 2, 2020)

Wow, this looks amazing. I love how the intense moonlight looks, hope it doesn't make the frogs too shy if they're nocturnal.


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## Calmwaters (Apr 1, 2018)

Looks very pretty in my opinion.


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## Fitzy (Sep 12, 2008)

Thanks for the response Pumilo. Quite detailed! Yeah I should have mentioned that, it is for thumbnails. My plan is to house a small group but right now I just have a pair of Chazutas in QT.

For lighting the Satellite was around $120 and the NiCrew was $45 w/ramp timer. The Satellite was worth the extra in my opinion for the added PAR depth, narrower LED angle, LED control and the moonlight option seemed cool. Regarding those moonlights its way brighter in the picture than in reality. I used Google nightsight, without it there wouldn't be anything you could see! The Blue LEDs are at its lowest setting which doesn't allow much visibility around the tank...only the top of broms and some of the tank floor. The moonlight timing is also not adjustable, only intensity and on/off. Brightness ramps down for 15 minutes and then moonlight for 4 hours then off completely till sunrise.

Yeah that fern is doing great. As soon as it was planted it shot off new fronds and now runners are everywhere! My thought was actually removing it for a mini tree fern that is of similar shape but thicker and taller. This idea might not work and will take a while before its ready as I'm going to try growing out of the tank from seeds.

I appreciate your comments on leaf litter. That helps push me in the direction I was thinking. The floor space was pushed out once from my original intent already but yeah you are right there isn't enough.


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

TreeFrogPyscho said:


> Wow, this looks amazing. I love how the intense moonlight looks, hope it doesn't make the frogs too shy if they're nocturnal.


Most dart frogs are diurnal with some activity just before and just after lights turn off. I would be more concerned with their sleep rhythms being interrupted due to the intensity of the moonlights, not so much their shyness, which may in fact be affected as well.


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## gotfrogs (Nov 15, 2008)

I love the look of this. Your plant selection looks amazing. I have a 3x18x36 and wish it looked that good. I have a few lessons learned for my next one!


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

How are the Tillandsia doing at the level in the tank? In my tanks, they would be getting too much moisture located that low. I only seem to be able to grow them up high close to the back vent.

Mark


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## Fitzy (Sep 12, 2008)

Encyclia said:


> How are the Tillandsia doing at the level in the tank? In my tanks, they would be getting too much moisture located that low. I only seem to be able to grow them up high close to the back vent.
> 
> Mark


They are thriving. The lowest one to the left has pupped twice, and several have flowered from time to time. 

Three of the 4 mist heads are directed towards the back. Only one is actually aimed down towards the Tillandsia and other middle level plants. From the side shot you can see from top-down they are somewhat covered by broms. I also have a small fan on the front left of the screen vent which turns on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon for circulation. With this setup the Tillandsia almost always look dry.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

I have a tillandsia in the upper, left, rear corner of my skyscraper, too. It's mounted about 12 to 14 inches from the upper vent. It is dry mounted with zero sphagnum. It does partially hit with the mister, once per day. My fan, if anything, is undersized, and not pointing towards the tillandsia. They are doing wonderfully. Looks to have about 9 heads right now.


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## JPP (Mar 25, 2015)

What did you do for "modifying" the screen top? Just lay a piece of glass over part of the screen?


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## Fitzy (Sep 12, 2008)

JPP said:


> What did you do for "modifying" the screen top? Just lay a piece of glass over part of the screen?


Yeah just glass on top of the screen. I used NE Herp glass which leaves a 1.5" opening in the front. 

With the drip wall there was too much humidity even with my small fan so I trimmed the glass 2" in the back to increase airflow. Unfortunately I'm a rookie and it broke in an unintended manner. Since I had already drilled the holes for the mist heads I just ran it. Still works fine and humidity doesn't drop below 80% ever. Sort of looks like I meant to do it that way


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## Rhino (Apr 12, 2019)

Awesome build!!
I'm going to source one of these tanks for my tree frogs

Sent from my Nokia 2.2 using Tapatalk


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## mikes02 (Sep 18, 2012)

Great build, thank you for showing the process. I have a few of these tanks that I haven't done anything with so it's great to see what is possible. I noticed you have a Sensor Push, I recently added one to my day gecko enclosure but to be honest I don't really know how to make the most of it. Any tips?

Also, does the fan on your build just come on periodically?


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## Fitzy (Sep 12, 2008)

mikes02 said:


> Great build, thank you for showing the process. I have a few of these tanks that I haven't done anything with so it's great to see what is possible. I noticed you have a Sensor Push, I recently added one to my day gecko enclosure but to be honest I don't really know how to make the most of it. Any tips?
> 
> Also, does the fan on your build just come on periodically?


Thanks for the kind words! I use the Sensor Push infrequently now, originally I used it a lot to monitor Temp and Humidity as the tank was getting established. Now my current use is making sure the Temp doesn't get too high as its summer here in New England. In winter i will be using it to monitor its not going too low. Humidity has not been a problem, the bottom half of the tank is always 80-90%, the top will dry out some but daily misting brings that right back up.

The fan comes on for an hour first thing in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. The idea was to dry out the tank a little in between night and misting, promote airflow for plants and also airflow helps feeders be a little more active during those times as stagnant air equals stagnant feeders.


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## mikes02 (Sep 18, 2012)

Fitzy said:


> Thanks for the kind words! I use the Sensor Push infrequently now, originally I used it a lot to monitor Temp and Humidity as the tank was getting established. Now my current use is making sure the Temp doesn't get too high as its summer here in New England. In winter i will be using it to monitor its not going too low. Humidity has not been a problem, the bottom half of the tank is always 80-90%, the top will dry out some but daily misting brings that right back up.
> 
> The fan comes on for an hour first thing in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. The idea was to dry out the tank a little in between night and misting, promote airflow for plants and also airflow helps feeders be a little more active during those times as stagnant air equals stagnant feeders.


Thank you for the information, that's really helpful!


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## Jaron (Jun 26, 2021)

This tank looks so righteous! I know its been a while since this thread has had something posted but if the tank is still setup, do you mind posting 1 or 2 update photos? I'm curious to how everything has grown in.


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## Fitzy (Sep 12, 2008)

Jaron said:


> This tank looks so righteous! I know its been a while since this thread has had something posted but if the tank is still setup, do you mind posting 1 or 2 update photos? I'm curious to how everything has grown in.


Still setup and plenty of growth!

Few small changes. Added more area for leaf litter at the ground level as well as some Niphidium. Back wall has several more Orchids, Microgramma and Peperomia Emarginella. Had to recently remove a Aechmea nudicaulis 'Rubra' from the almost top left that had fungus. Too bad too because it was pupping 

Recently did a trim as all the button fern and rabbits foot was making it difficult to see any frogs in the foreground before opening the door. Also one thing with tanks this big...I've learned to live with dirty side glass for the most part. As things grow outward it gets harder to clean and not be disruptive...clear front glass is all I really care about anyways.


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