# New terrarium build mayan style



## Leveller

Hi folks, my name is Colin and i wanted to share my terrarium build with you.
its fair to say that i am not a "frogger" in the sense of the word but i have grown to appreciate the hobby and the efforts of the frogging community on both sides of the pond to produce unique minature jungles in the comfort of your own homes.

Interestingly enough like many people that seem to gravitate to the frog keeping hobby i too was an avid marine fish keeper and a lack of time in my current job meant that the marine tank unfortunately had to go leaving a large empty space in my living room  ( you can tell where this is heading..)

Having been following the numerous builds of the last year that i have been lurking on this forum and Dendroworld i started to plan a large terrarium to fill the space left by the marine tank, the plan was to construct a 5 foot long by 4 foot tall by 2 foot deep tank, at the time of planning this was just to house plants and would have a few lighting effects as a centerpiece in the room.

Here was the drawing for the tank from around 10 months ago.










The following images are not really a construction journal as such but more images of my progression over the last 10 months. 
Apologies for the cappy images as at the time my camera was out of sorts and i was using my phone camera, but i hope you get the view. 

I am lucky enough to have a good friend who is a glazier and was able to source the glass i would need for the tank from him at "friends rates" the entire tank made from 6mm laminated glass, my neighbour ( Dan ) was at hand to help assemble the tank and a couple of days after help me to lift the entire tank onto a pine stand that i had fabricated a week or to before hand.

To put the tank to scale Dan is 6' 3" tall










The tank was constructed in the euro style , with a few slight variations
Once the tank was on the stand the first job was to clad the stand in ply sheet and add some trim










One of the things that is a little different on the tank is the front vents, these were drilled out with a glass hole cutter and then the front of the glass was skinned with a pine veneer to which i inserted 5 stainless steel ventilation screens




















After this i fabricated a hood and added a little trim to the edges of the tank before staining/varnishing the whole tank










...end of part one


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## Mitch

All I can say is wow... I'd love to see where this is going. Subscribed!


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## leuc11

I cant wait to see this


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## frogface

Nice! Can't wait to see how this goes.


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## Ulisesfrb

That my friend will be one wicked tank when it's done. Can't wait to see the results.


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## tachikoma

I am so envious of that epic setup! lol Any idea how much it weighs?


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## Leveller

Part two..

Lighting.. 

There will probably be some rolling of eyes at this point, but i have always been a fan of halogen lighting, its cheap to install and fix , personally i find it asthetically pleasing even though it certainly costs more to run and truthfully still needs to be suplimented with at least one tube to aid in plant growth.

Another plus in my book is its very flexible in its ability to create different lighting levels and effects, the hood of the terrarium was fabricated from pine and MDF and was designed to support the lighting system and a few other electrical systems.

The tank is fitted with 6 x 50w halogen spots 










The lighting system consists of a timer dimmer that switches on and progressively increases the lighting by 20% every 30 mins to hold at full light for 8 hours before ramping down on an evening.

Background....

The background of the tank was constructed from foam as in the previous two pictures , i had always wanted the tank to have a mayan theme and was especially caught by the mayan zodiac and wanted to incorporate it into the tank, after creating a foam circle i drew up the rough design ( stylised ) and then spent the next 6 hours carving away the design , after this the foam was painted in a thinned down concrete mix.










After this had cured it was siliconed to the back of the tank










and then i started to carve and form "stones" that were going to form the backdrop










The process really did take days 










once all the "stones" were fixed to the back then they were all given a few coats of concrete



















after this stage the whole tank was given a chance to cure, i spent around two weeks at this stage spraying water onto the background to cure it off










end of part 2...


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## Leveller

tachikoma said:


> I am so envious of that epic setup! lol Any idea how much it weighs?


I honestly would hate to think, i know Dan and I nearly got a hernia trying to deadlift it off the floor , there was a moment we thought we were going to drop it lol


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## mickipedic

This is an EPIC build. Subscribed!


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## stevenhman

Very cool. Can't wait to see more!


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## boabab95

this is one of those rare times, where I can honestly say i am SPEECHLESS!!!!







 SUBCRIBED!!!


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## Leveller

Background...

The concrete had cured off and stabilized so it was time to fetch out the expanding foam, I was to use this as a joint filler between the "stones" as you can imagine doing this on an upright tank was ..err..entertaining 

one tin really didnt go very far, lol 










Here are a couple of closeup shots of the fill and expansion of the foam followed by the trimming back of the foam to more useable level



















Tin two didnt fair much better as it was a dud 










But with tin three we were making good progress










and the fourth tin saw all the joints filled and a few days of trimming cut away the excess










Then i was ready to start applying paint , i use non toxic acrylics for all my painting and drybrushing.

The first stage was to apply a few coats of black wash to deepen the shading 










before adding the earthy terracotta tones 










and then slowly drybrushing up the highlights










to the last stage , oh! and add a couple of low voltage uplighters...










end of part three...


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## frogface

Oh my!


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## chas79

I am not worthy!!!!


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## fleshfrombone

Pretty awesome stuff I've got to say.


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## Julio

wow, sweet baqckground work!!! Love the viv size.


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## Brotherly Monkey

Leveller, how difficult is it to construct a decent looking stand and hood, and do you know of any good resources I could check out?


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## Venutus1

Your carpentry & construction skills are awesome. Can't wait to see more!


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## Gamble

WOW ... Im def subscribing to this! Very interesting indeed. Cant wait to see more. u could even make a fake tree trunk in there, or find some type of dwarf tree (if they even exist) ... either way; Awesome! What a great idea.


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## Okapi

very cool!


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## GRIMM

Really nice carving work man. You should have done up a pumpkin! And I really like the size of this tank.

So I dont want to be a stick in the mud, but how are you going to plant the background of this tank? It seems with a flat rock background it might be hard to attach anything other then vines.


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## Leveller

Brotherly Monkey said:


> Leveller, how difficult is it to construct a decent looking stand and hood, and do you know of any good resources I could check out?


Honestly im not that great a carpenter, ive just worked on a method of constructing a base that will hold up a ton ( literally ) of sea water , the construction method is really crude but very strong and all the materials can be obtained from local hardware stores / wood supplys , i will finish up this thread and i will revisit this question showing a how to of sorts for the stand and hood.


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## Leveller

GRIMM said:


> Really nice carving work man. You should have done up a pumpkin! And I really like the size of this tank.
> 
> So I dont want to be a stick in the mud, but how are you going to plant the background of this tank? It seems with a flat rock background it might be hard to attach anything other then vines.


Hi Grimm and thanks! 

Well i still have more images to go, to where the terrarium is now , but it is still an ongoing project and am certainly not deaf to any good suggestions as far as plants and or any other ideas, but let me finish up and we can see where to go after that


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## Dendro Dave

Looks good, very clean...and creative. Hope to see more people trying new things  If you wanted you could carve out some of that foam between the rocks and jam sphagnum moss in there for live green moss to grow on to give it more of that old ruins being reclaimed by jungle look. Just an idea


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## Leveller

Ok, where were we..oh yes part 4

Big sticks..

I am very lucky to be surrounded by woodland where i live and i wanted to use some real wood to accent the tank, so went for a forage and found an oak limb that suited my purposes , it was newly felled ( storm damage ) and free of disease and critters, but non the less it was dried out for 3 months along with some vines that were also foraged on the same trip.










The next image shows the start of me applying the coco fibre to the expanding foam, again this was made all the more difficult due to the tank being upright and me being overcome by the smell of silicone 




















The background had the last of the coco applied and then the vines were fixed to the expanding foam and woven into the tree limb










a better shot of the vines










at some point prior to this the low voltage uplighters had thier power cable buried into the expanding foam and a 10mm hole was drilled into the top of the tank to allow the cable out, then they were powered up










a hard thing to photo it looks alot better in the flesh

end of part 4


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## Leveller

Dendro Dave said:


> Looks good, very clean...and creative. Hope to see more people trying new things  If you wanted you could carve out some of that foam between the rocks and jam sphagnum moss in there for live green moss to grow on to give it more of that old ruins being reclaimed by jungle look. Just an idea



Good idea, thanks!


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## Leveller

Ok last bit, as previously mentioned , this is still ongoing and i still have lots of little jobs that need sorting out before i am happy.

Anyways after the hardscaping was finished i put in an inch thick layer of hydroleca 










and then finally started to introduce some plants!

I managed to pick up quite a varied selection of airplants, i think they are fantastic and lend themselves to being to be fixed just about anywhere.










That's pieces of masking tape holding the airplants while the little spots of fixing silicone was curing 

Unfortunately i missed a picture or two after this bit, i was probably swept away with excitement of finally planting out, but suffice to say that i added a soil mix of compost/coco fibre/sterile topsoil into the tank and planted out.

The tank has a few plants in it at the moment , with loads of scope to plant even more , which in that time wlll allow me to monitor the tank for any problems - construction - temp - humidity etc and give me the oportunity to rectify them without disturbing any inhabitants.

I have added a few bits namely a mister since this photo but with Christmas looming i will have to sit and enjoy the tank untill the new year when i can afford to spend some more hard earned funds 

All comments and suggestions are welcome especially with any plants that can fill the voids , i have a climber running the branch , namely a Passiflora grown from seed and a native south american variety which i hope in time will flower in the tank 










So, here is the last picture from the build progression 










Cheers!

Colin


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## crank68516

Looks awesome. I had thought about doing a Aztec/Mayan theme in my 20high but thought it would be hard to do on the miniature scale. I'd maybe add some sort of climbing vine to add a little greenery to the walls and top, besides it would add a little to the overgrown jungle look.


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## Frank H

Wow! This is awesome!!


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## Morgan Freeman

I don't know what to say!

Absolutely superb work. It really is something else!


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## BlueRidge

Wow... this thing is crazy! What's going to go in there?


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## Leveller

JaredJ said:


> Wow... this thing is crazy! What's going to go in there?


A very good question, it is important that you understand that i am very patient and my first priority is ensure that the terrarium is ideal for anything to live in before i think about any animal. After i have finished planting out and i have monitored the temp and humidity ( top and bottom it is a big tank after all , 4 feet makes all the difference )for a few months then i will do some thorough research into animals - i would really like to house a pair of cobalts and a pair of electric blue day geckos, i really like the idea of people looking at the tank and seeing plant growth everywhere but then seeing a flash of movement , rather than a tank teeming with animals, a kind of less is more thing, if you follow..

But still thats a very long way off that is even if its possible..


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## Leveller

crank68516 said:


> Looks awesome. I had thought about doing a Aztec/Mayan theme in my 20high but thought it would be hard to do on the miniature scale. I'd maybe add some sort of climbing vine to add a little greenery to the walls and top, besides it would add a little to the overgrown jungle look.


Good call, i had thoughts of vines/aerial roots dropping down randomly around the tank , it makes you look through and around the tank and adds depth


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## Philsuma

Jus gotta say....good thing that viv is


*Front Opening !*


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## Chris155hp

Sick cant wait to see it finished


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## gio

wow is looks nice love ure work


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## VenomR00

I would add some bromeliads from the sponsors websites on to the background. If the temples they had in Mexico down to Peru were not recognized as historical landmarks they would be covered in vines and broms. Also look into coleus as a plant to add color. There is a variety of colors it comes as.


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## Leveller

VenomR00 said:


> I would add some bromeliads from the sponsors websites on to the background. If the temples they had in Mexico down to Peru were not recognized as historical landmarks they would be covered in vines and broms. Also look into coleus as a plant to add color. There is a variety of colors it comes as.


Good advice and thanks , that coleus is a stunning little plant , great suggestion


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## crank68516

Leveller said:


> Good call, i had thoughts of vines/aerial roots dropping down randomly around the tank , it makes you look through and around the tank and adds depth


I'm not an expert on plants by any stretch of the imagination but there may be some vine-like epiphytes out there that would attach to the background. Any you cannot forget about orchids either. Here's a pic I took on a recent trip to Puerto Rico of a orchid taking over a pillar.


IMG_1203 by crank05, on Flickr


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## eos

The tank looks great.... Superb carving work on the background.


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## Leveller

crank68516 said:


> I'm not an expert on plants by any stretch of the imagination but there may be some vine-like epiphytes out there that would attach to the background. Any you cannot forget about orchids either. Here's a pic I took on a recent trip to Puerto Rico of a orchid taking over a pillar.
> 
> 
> IMG_1203 by crank05, on Flickr


Thanks again for the advice, i will look into the orchids as it add some colour, what a great photo too!

Thank you everybody for your advice and feedback, this is still new to me and it is encouraging to receive good feedback. 

I will work on the how to for the stand and hood as promised and post it as soon as its done.

Thanks again

Colin


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## Leveller

I took a photo through the end of the tank this morning that i thought i would post, i have added a coupe of plants , yeah i know i said i wasnt going to spend any more but they were on special  and ive added a little leave litter..


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## benisio

Damn leveller, what did you do?!?

I am a big fan of your work!
Great really.

Greetings from Belgium Ben Heylen.


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## DragonSpirit1185

How are you gonna get in there to maintain this behemoth?
Huge doors on the front?
Any updates?


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## titen710

if you had an issue heating it you could go down to buzz n b's and buy the the last zoo med heat cable think its on sail right now for 50$ and its like 50'. you could wrap it into the vine and put it through the soil and it would blend real well pluse you could hook it up to a reiostat or thermo. oh yeah and i would deff put a snake in there amazon tree boa for sure. you can get them for a reasanable price and the come in every color imaginable(bright red orange or yellow). not to mention you could have a real infestation of crickets in that basterd nice job tho!


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## jpstod

Thanks for sharing the Viv.

Excellent Work there. 

What Ever you put in there will love it as will anyone getting a Chance to see it in Person.

I wish Everyone had the Room to have Tanks this Big. Definitely Gives more Options on Plants and Accessories.

The amount of detail could never be appreciated in a Standard 10 Gallon Tank.


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## jausi

Amazin!!!!!!!!!

this one of my favorite setups!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you for sharing this beautyful work, keep us update pls!!!!!


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## rjudson88

What a beautiful tank! I'd love to do a background like this for my iguana. I was wondering if you had any close up shots of that tank on the left. It looks super sweet too.


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## Leveller

DragonSpirit1185 said:


> How are you gonna get in there to maintain this behemoth?
> Huge doors on the front?
> Any updates?


Hi, the front of the viv has two large sliding doors


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## Leveller

Thanks again everybody for your feedback , i really havent done much with the tank with the holidays and everything, Ive just added a little moss and a couple of plants, im having favourable results regarding temp and humidity , so I just need to do a little tweaking and FF proofing and then hopefully we can introduce some animals.

Heres a couple of photo's ive just taken , quite remarkable growth on a few plants, oh! i nearly forgot, ive also added two four foot t8's for plant growth..


















Thanks again for your support guys

Colin


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## Leveller

rjudson88 said:


> What a beautiful tank! I'd love to do a background like this for my iguana. I was wondering if you had any close up shots of that tank on the left. It looks super sweet too.


Thanks 

The little tank on the left was my proving ground, i wanted to try some different build techniques and see what worked and what didnt , the center section ( with the idol ) actually pumped water out from under his base and then it ran down the wall filling the pool, it actually worked great and was pretty nice , but.. i had a small leak from the tank which saturated the MDF base which in turn swelled and then bust the base of the tank resulting in a rather wet floor.

I kinda gave up on water features after that , then the Asplenium got real big and i figured i would just move on to the new build and replant it 

The little tank was donated to a frogger friend who has since recycled the glass into a really good looking frog tank.

Anyways heres the only photo i have of the little tank


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## jpstod

Interesting..

Because of the beauty of the Tank and the Complexity of the Design I never Noticed that the Front was Sliding Doors. In the pictures even if your looking for the seams you barely notice them.


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## crank68516

Looks great! I'm sure it will get even better once the plants have a chance to fill in some more. Any thoughts on what you're going to put in there yet? Monkey tree frogs might be kind of cool since the viv is so high and large.


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## Hornet

WOW!!!! Dude i am bloody impressed, that thing is amazing. The only thing i'm not a huge fan of is the terrestrial planting, IMO makes it look a little too much like a fake jungle off a cheap movie set, would like to see more open ground and some vines climbing up the wall. That being said overall its a bloody brilliant looking setup and you have done very very well.


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## leuc11

Dude that is amazing I gotta do a tank like that somtime I cant wait to see it after a few monthes of growing i'm sure it will look sick


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## exboyz04

waw looks very very amazing now u got all the little plants in on the braches and other places, love the theam you have gone for, 10 out 10 bravo


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## stevenhman

Any updates?


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## jermajestyg

Sick as hell!! Updates PLEASE...im dying here haha

Also, I would love to know if you got any inhabitants and numbers/species. Thanks.

-Jeremy


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## jlb

Awesome job!


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## alex111683

Any updates?


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