# Euro viv construction journal - planted



## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

Since I needed one last viv to complete my rack and someone wanted to see a euro-style construction journal , I wasn’t planning to do it euro style but I had most all the materials I needed to make one so I did. 


First off are the tools I neded :
duct tape
glass cutter 
glass drills & drill 
wetstone ( sharpening stone )
gloves 
saw 
lots of razor blades 
dremal 
frame spineroller tool 
clamps
measuring devices 
a square 
silicone
weld on glue 
acetone
I’m sure I forgot something ?











First you have to decide how big its going to be and the size of glass you will need . This
one is 7” x 24 1/2” x 17 1/2” so the bottom will be 17 1/2" x 7" you need to know the
bottom size so you can figure the side sizes ,because the placement of the glass and
thickness of the glass will make a difference. ( I used two thicknesses of glass 1/4 &
3/16 because thats what I had around , but for less confusion I’ll use one thickness in my
explanations 1/4” ) . When measuring the sides you have to take the glass thickness in
consideration when measuring , because of the glass placement see diagram below .










The measurements need to be 1/2” smaller than the actual size to compesate for the glass 
so to make it 24 1/2” x 17 1/2 “ the sides need to be cut 24” x 17” .

I cut some of my glass to size because I had some left over from other projects . It’s not
too difficult once you get the hang of it . If you don’t want to cut your own just skip down 
. The main thing is getting the cuts square and measured right . Start by measuring and
re- measuring , mark it off using a square to make sure the cut is streight , I used a
yard stick as a guide and clamped it securly to the glass , here you HAVE to take the
glass cutter in to consideration in your measurments , the thickness of the
edge to the cutting blade must be subtracted from the measurements or the glass will
come out too big . With firm pressure run the glass cutter down the edge of your streight edge
trying to do it in ONE cut , if you miss a spot and try to go back and re-score it and it’s
not in the same line it sometimes does not break streight .



















When you get it scored , unclamp it and turn the glass over and with the ball end of the
cutter gently tap ( were not trying to seperate the cut at this time ) the glass along the
score mark . Then turn the piece of glass over and place the score line on the edge of
the work bench ( it’s probobly best to be wearing some leather gloves at this time just in
case ) and gently push down on the non supported edge of glass . If it was scored enough
it should break along your cut . If your using thicker glass like 1/4” when breaking it
along the line you might have to tilt the glass up an eigth inch or so and gently bring it
down to the work bench surface to get it to seporate . Once you get all the glass cut to
size you want to dull the edges of the glass with the wetstone to kill the sharp edges so
you don’t get cut at a later date moving it . A few passes over all the edges should do it 
taking care at the corners so they don’t chip . I used a 1000 grit stone because thats what I
have.










To figure the top size you need to know the size of your vent . To make the vent there is
already a good thread on this .

http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewt ... light=vent










Mine usually end up being around 2 1/4” deep , so cut your top piece of glass less the
size of your vent 










Now , if you want mister nozzles it’s the time to drill your hole . Measure were you want
it . You can use a drill press or hand drill . You don’t really need a cutting jig . Ive used
both ways and cut over 50 holes and only broke one piece of glass and that was because I
was being lazy . Support your piece of glass on a FLAT surface . And you need to keep
the glass cool while you are drilling . For using a hand drill I made a support piece to keep the drill from 
“wandering “ . To keep it cool and lubricated I made a dam out of 
4”pvc pipe . The support piece is just a piece of wood cut to fit inside the dam and drilled
so the glass hole saw just fits and dosen’t walk side to side . 



















I put a small bead of silicone on the pvc guide place it over the place were you want your
hole , then place the support piece in it and fill it half way with water . Holding the dam
with one hand firmly because when you start to drill it will want to move untill the
hole gets started in the glass , with even pressure hold the drill as streight and square as possible
slowly with even light pressure cut the hole stopping when you feel it go all the way
through . You will feel it and hear a difference in the sound . Easy .










Now before gluing clean the glass surfaces and edges with acetone . 



















Now comes the messy part so get the gloves ready . Start with the bottom , get the duct
tape and depending on size put a couple strips of tape on each side and the back so the
sticky side is up 










Then do the back .










Get the silicone ready , its nice to have an extra tube ready so you don’t have to stop in
the middle to cut open a new tube .










Run a nice even bead of silicone on the back edge and side of the bottom piece and along
the side of the back piece , then starting with the back , set the back pice of glass in the
bead of silicone and pull up your tape to hold it in place .Here’s where it gets tricky if
your doing it by yourself , set the side in place in your bead of silicone and tape it in
place . Now you have three sides in place it will stand on it’s own . 

Now I run another
bead of silicone along each edge that you just glued , I just use my finger to push it in a
little and put a radius on the corner edge ( It helps a little if you wet your finger a little to
keep the silicone from sticking to your fingers . You are wearing your gloves now ? ) Do the same for all glued corner edges. 










Do the other side , top and vent in the same way .



















I put my drains in the front of my rack tanks , So now you can measure , cut ( and drill
if necessary ) your front botttom piece of glass to fit in between the sides , and make
your bottom vent , which is narrower than the top . Measure the depth of the glass so the
vent is flush with the outer edge of th front glass . Now glue and tape it in .
Oops , I forgot to mention earlier if you want your drain in the bottom you should drill it when you are cutting the bottom glass before you glue it together .




























I use stainless mesh for my vents , as its stiffer than the nylon no se-em mesh it takes
more care to fit in the frameing . Note that if you are making long vents 2 or more feet , 
when putting the mesh in the frameing the tension of putting the ss screen will pull the
frameing in in the centers so your vent will look like it’s smileing and frowning at you ,
so you will have to use a little more silicone when glueing it in .














































Now you can let it dry for a day and work on other things . Like the door the lower front
piece , hinge , handles , vent , ect .

I also put a piece of glass across the bottom to catch any excess water from misting that might get through the vent to keep it from dripping out .

Once its dry you can take your razor blades and cut off the excess silicone .

This is the first time I’ve used these type of hinges so I’ll have to see wheather I like
them or not . On my other vivs it’s nice to be able to remove the door sometimes when
you have to do some work in side . These can’t be removed once glued in place . 

Its
basicly measuring and cutting everything to size nothing fancy . 










I glue the door together with the hinges before I installed it on the tank , so make sure the edges are square and in line before the silicone drys . I also waited till I had the background in and almost done before glueing the door assembly on to prevent breakage .










I use a piece of 1/4”x1/4” acrylic for the door handle 










The fan vent housing is just plexi glass measured and cut to size to fit the top vent , 
glued togather with Weld on glue . Drlii a holesaw hole the size of your fan in the top , champher the
edges for fan blade clearance and drill and screw the fan on . I use 50 mm. 12 Volt
computer fans 




























And silicone it on 










The latch is just a piece of plexiglass cut and fixed with a stainless steel screw and washers to
get the right adjustment on the door 










I choose to have my vent overlap my door glass because of the way I build my latches .
if you wanted you could build it to have the door seal on the vent if you wanted to , just
adjust the top glass size when measuring the top glass .

Now the rest is basicly stuf that has been covered a million times before . False bottom , egg crate , craft screen , fiberglass screen , great stuff , ect. ect .

I cut a "V" in the bottom of me false bottom stands so water will flow through them and not stagnate in them over time .














































just fitting the door hinge 










Heres were it gets a little different , I wanted a sloping background and only had one
can of great stuff , and since it was Christmas day and I had nowere to get more . I glued
a piece of plexi glass to the insides in the orientation I wanted my background , this way
I didn't have to build up my background with many layers of greatstuff . and added a flap just in case they decided to do some digging they can't get behind the background .










Then glued my driftwood on 










Then coated it with a thin layer of great stuff










Since I now dont have alot of bottom space for plants , while the greatstuff is wet I
pushed into it a couple cocoa fiber pots for a couple plants .




























Once dry coat your greatstuff with silicone and smash your choice of background material into it .
I used a mix of coco fiber , peat and crushed leaves on this one . The little pieces of leaves give it a neat effect .










I glued a few pieces of wood to the sides to optimize space for the frogs to crawl around
on since they use it alot in my other one 



















Now I glue the door on 





































and last I glued some thin coco fibermat to one side to give something for thr vineing plants roots to grab into .



















All it needs now is substrate and some plants .

And , oh yea some of these .














































You better do a good job bucco ! I got to raise my kids in here .



I dont think I forgot too much . 

Not bad for parts and materials I had around the basement and the$20. bucks I had to put out for glass and window frame parts ! 

Its not hard to do , I spent less time building this viv than it took me to write this journal !!!! literally .


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## Marty71 (Nov 9, 2006)

Thank you very much for your efforts here, laying out everything step by step. I am not quite ambitious enough to build from scratch yet, but when I do I will refer to this. Can you post followup pics when you have it planted?


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## wishIwereAnExpert (Jul 18, 2005)

Looks great. I really think the sloped background wastes too much space to be worth the aesthetics though. 

-Solly


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Why such a narrow tank?


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## MJ (Jun 16, 2005)

I am pretty sure it's mad to fill the gap left @ the end of a 48" rack..

It's a nice little tank man.. but IMO too small for frogs. maybe had the back ground not been brought all that way out itcouls have worked..

Again good work tho


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

Mike , The tank is so narrow because its all the space my rack has left . With 3 20h's on the rack there isn't enough space for anything else .










Mj & Solly , I sloped the background to try to optimize what space there is , With it sloped like this there is much more useable space than a verticle background and also there is only about 3-4" less floor space depth in this tank than my other small tank . ( Top right viv in the picture ) It looks narrow but it's deep and there is more space in there than it looks . Normally I would like more floor space too but the two Escudos I have in the other tank rarley are on the ground and if so they are usually twards the back near the background . They are more active in this viv than the two I have in the 20 H's and they have plenty of hiding places if they wish to do so . The picture of the calling Blue Escudo was taken yesterday from the other small viv .










This new tank is actually an inch deeper and 2" higher than the other about 10 gal .

And considering the small quaretine containers we keep frogs in for months at a time there is four times the space in here than them . 

I will not argue about the space because I agree . I would have liked to built it bigger , but I have more calling out of the small tank recently than all the others combined !


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

Here are a couple pictures with some plants . There's a little mold problem on the wood but hopefully the springtails take care of it . There are a number of broms a staghorn fern , a Anectochillus roxburghii Jewel Orchid , Hydnophytum formicarum ant plant , a couple dischidias . I want to get a little more moss and I might put a piece of rabbitsfoot fern in there too . Now heres hoping I get a couple froglets to pop out to go in here .


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## masterbreed (May 9, 2006)

i love it i shall try this myself hopefully it turns out good


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## joeyo90 (Nov 5, 2006)

i had to bookmark the page  i like the step by step guid
very cool


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## fishmommy (Dec 23, 2006)

Your rack is absolutely breathtaking!
I could just stare at it all day 
I like what you did with the wood trim to hide the gaps and tubes!


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

My Escudo's like the first one I made on the upper shelf , look what I found in there this morning


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## afterdark (Jan 16, 2007)

pigface said:


> My Escudo's like the first one I made on the upper shelf , look what I found in there this morning


Awesome construction journal!

Congrats on the tads.
-Mike


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## DIF (Jan 23, 2007)

What a great trend! 

The step by step progress was very interesting to read and see


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## joeyo90 (Nov 5, 2006)

crongrats on the tad


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## titan501x (Dec 7, 2006)

how much would the whole thing cost to build start to finish- plants included.


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## joeyo90 (Nov 5, 2006)

is there an update on what they look like now?


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

wow, this topic is more like a guide then a journal. nice job on it and the tank.

so much wasted space behind the sloped background though. could have made a bunch of caves in it for the frogs to use. then the overall floor space would be expanded a lot and you wouldn't have to have other hides where plants can be.


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

Wow , I forgot about this post . Actually a couple weeks ago I took the frogs out of this one and put them in an empty 20 H since they bred once when I first put them in it and nothing since . So only one is up and still growing still , I'll try to get a picture of it and put it up . I moved some plants around since then , since the broms got to big for the small width of the tank . And the small jewel orchid down in front was over a foot long and starting to vine all around since it couldn't stand up on its own any more . 
The slopeing background does take up alot of space but compared to the flat vertical back grounds in most of our vivs but I think it adds a little more frog useable space since its sloping and not streight up and down . The frogs I had in there were always hanging out on the slope and hunting for food there , rather than just being able to climb streight up and down on  a flat background just to get to a brom to hang out in or on . I really wish I would have thought of this when I was building my 90 gal vivs this would be awesome in a tall deep tank it would look alot more " natural " and I think it would give them more overall usable space . And you could make a couple deep caves for even more space . But it obviously wouldn't be any good for frogs that spend most of their time on the floor level .
...... :idea: Note to my self when I have to take one of the big vivs apart :idea: ......


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## Tatooineboy (Feb 21, 2008)

Beautiful viv!

Can you tell me what plants you used in the tank?

Thanks!


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

Man that was a year ago ! I cant remember this morning . :shock: 

I Think there was a staghorn fern in there ( it didn't last very long ) some dischidia ovata an ant plant ( cant remember which sp. ) A jewel orchid , a few other cuttings that I can't remember and a few assorted broms that got too big !

No new pictures yet but here's a couple of the inhabitants in the one small tank that is still up and going .


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## joeyo90 (Nov 5, 2006)

really nice looking pums


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