# My big Vivarium construction journal



## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

This is my first post here and Well I’ve finally decided to take the plunge into getting
some darts . Ever since I first seen them when I was a kid I thought it would be neet to have them , but
didn’t think that anybody kept them , until I came across this place . This board is awesome for information , and I’ve been soaking it up for 6 or 8 months . 
So here’s the start of my construction journal for my vivariums , and before anybody
says it I know you should start small and go from there but my brain doesn’t always
agree with that ! I guess its a flaw of mine but I usually tend to over do things . And as
you’ll see this is no different !
I couldn’t find a enclosure that I liked or was the right size or wouldn’t cost an arm
and leg to ship so I decided to build it from scratch .










allot of glass , 1/4” plate and silicone !


































Drilling isn’t that hard if you take it slow and keep the bit cool I used a 3” PVC coupler
siliconed to the glass filled with water and a slow speed on my mill and no problems I
drilled a total of 15 holes and no breakage !


















I made a jig on my workbench out of a couple shelf angles and some plywood to hold
the first piece up ( the back piece of glass )










I made two little holding jigs out of wood to hold the sides in place with the back while I
assemble this monstrosity ( Did I forget to mention the size of these the base is two
foot square and it is three feet tall , 90 gals. + or - and that I‘m putting it together by
myself ) it’s hard holding it together while working with this heavy glass . The jigs are
just a block of wood with a 1/2 “ deep 90 degree groove cut in it . I glued the back glass
up and clamped it to the plywood , then glued the left side in and stuck the holding
fixture on the upper corner and it holds the side and back together so I can tape it
together for drying and then move to the other side and do the same to it . There are not
many pictures of the rest of the glass going into place because I had my hands full of
silicone !


















































I think it was harder to clean off all the excess silicone than building these things Lots of scraping with razor blades and fine steel wool and acetone . Every time I would get it clean the next day you look at it there would be 
a film on the glass , I think this off gasses fumes and leaves a film on the glass untill the silicone is completly
drys ???










They are euro style design with a flat front vent and a vent on the top with the vents made
from window screen frame and stainless steel screen from mcmaster carr 


























The doors are 2 sliding doors in aluminum cabinet track . The track is screwed ( with
stainless fasteners ) to “F” shaped aluminum channel that is siliconed to the glass on the
top and bottom , and on the sides it slides to corner channel that is siliconed to the glass . On the bottom in the track slots , I cut and glued two small pieces of plastic the length of the slots that I placed in the grooves so the glass slides easier and quieter 

.here’s the links to where I bought the track
http://www.cabinetware.com/WdsRemote2/C ... catdes=Alu
minum+Track
and here’s the link to the channel 
http://www.brunnerent.com/Tools/Portfol ... ze=0&lngDi
splay=0

















I have to silicone a clear piece of acrylic to the inside glass to seal to the outside glass make up for the spacing of the sliding track and make it fruitfly proof 
I don't like the way the upper track is in your view , but I tried different thoughts on door designs and I think this is the strongest given the weight of the 1/4" glass , maybe next time something else will come to me 

If you notice the vents are two vertical slots , I didn’t plan them that way, it was going
to be a two inch wide horizontal vent but when I was fitting up the last piece of glass I
dropped it !!! and it smashed into two pieces . So insted of getting a new piece cut I cut
it into the way you see it in the pictures ( This is actually the first time I tried to cut a
piece of glass and it actually workwd ! ) I think I like it better this way anyway it gives
more space for air to travel through .

I'm going to build an oak base and light housing also . 

Question... any idea on how much lighting should go on this ? would 125 watts of compact fluorescents be enough - too little ? I know someone here has a four foot tall vertical viv how is lighting on something that tall ? 
Thats it for now , I’m starting on the backgrounds now but thats another post . I’ll put
that up when I get that stage of construction done . 

I don’t know how much bandwith
photobucket can deal with so here’s a link to the pictures in a different format . in case
the pictures go down .
http://www.freespaces.com/pigface/frogs/frogs/index.htm .


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## Guest (May 19, 2006)

Very nice work! Thanks for posting this journal, alot of us are wondering how to build our own vivs. Looks pretty hard to me. Congrats! Can't wait to see the next step!


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

WOW I can not wait to see those completed...

What frogs are you planning to put in them?


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## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

I'm not sure what plants if any yet you're into. Not to mention I'm sure you (ah, now that I see and think about what you've done I retract my statment only for you and a few others) and everyone else here by now should find what I consider neccessary for quality, an impractability, in the slightest. But I also realize no matter what you think you do, it's never entirely selfless, although there's few people that can get as close. I use a TEK T5 light w/8 3' bulbs (only running four at two intervals at a time) for my largest enclosure with results that would be hard to match with HP sodium vapor, not to mention the huge reduction in heat. That's talking lush, but frogs wont complain. $500 excluding bulbs, like I said "impractical." Ive heard, never used, that some people have decent rusults (enough to grow the needed amount of cover) with HQI spotlights with diffusers. 125 watts will deffinately give some growth so try it and see (plus you'll have better results with the penetration of glass than I do with acrylic) and if not save it for a smaller poject, but 300 would create a deffinate huge noticable difference. Unfortunately most of your pictures didn't load so I couldn't tell if you was adding a fan or pump for air movement, if not the heat will be a problem with bigger lights. If you're really 'crazy' and don't consider this to be a hobby get into O/LED, probably the best available so far with nearly 0 increase in heat, deffinately 0 outside.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Very impressive tanks. I wish I had a mill to do work like that on. I think I'd actually cut my own channel and all the fun stuff if I did. I'm eagerly awaiting the next installation of this journal. 



> I think this off gasses fumes and leaves a film on the glass untill the silicone is completly drys ???


Not that I've seen. Usually the film is from not using a fresh razor blade to do the last few passes to get the film off. The other thing you'll notice once you get your tanks up and running is that water will condence differently on the areas that had silicone. I'm not sure if the acetone will get rid of that or not, I've not tried it.


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Very impressive. I really like the way they look so far. Keep it up!


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## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

How do you mean, condense?

In the considerable oppinion plactic/rubber in most cases isn't stable enough to hinder the buildup of elastomers.


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## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

Holy crap...awesome journal and awesome tank! What are the dimensions of these things?!

Luke


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## Guest (May 20, 2006)

That's some good plannin'. You're an engineer aren't you?? 
Come on admit it you're one of us right??


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## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Nice work! Plant em' up, and they'll be stunning!


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## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

bluedart said:


> Nice work! Plant em' up, and they'll be stunning!


That enclosure will be gorgeous regardless of light output. I can nearly see it planted entirely with moss and not much of anything else. That's the way I wanted mine (all moss/liverwort) but..... Oh well. That's the way large enclosures should look. Make sure to post about the landscaping you intend to do. That will be the deciding point on what you plant and the amount of light needed.
Finally loaded for me in total.


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## Guest (May 22, 2006)

when I first started reading this I was thinking WOW nice tank and then BAM there two! 
great job man keep up the good work!


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## Guest (May 22, 2006)

> Holy crap...awesome journal and awesome tank! *What are the dimensions of these things?! *


I missed the dimensions the first time I read through it as well. His tank size is 24" wide x 24" deep x 36" high.


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

To answer a couple questions first , in order of asking , Kyle , I was thinking in one of
them I would like a group of Intermedius or Imitators . The other some Pumilio , ever
since I’ve seen them I’ve had a stiffie for Christobol’s but didn’t think I would ever have
a chance at getting them but with the recent imports who knows now . 
stchupa , As for fans I’m going to put provisions for them in the hood , one for tank
ventilation and a couple for heat reduction . I’ll see what happens with heat and
humidity once they are up and running and then decide to add fans or not .
Mike , I never even thought of making my own channel that would be even more work
that I don’t have time for ! and no anodizing either It would have made for tighter fitting
doors though .
John_Travolta_Trivittatus, no I’m not an engineer , I’ve always been good at building
things though and figuring things out . 


Here’s a few pictures on the one background I’ve been working on . because of the
size I figured it would be easier to build the background outside of the tank and silicone
them in when they are done .









First I started with some eggcrate drilled some holes in it and glued a few pieces of pvc
tube cut on a 45 degree and glued them to the eggcrate each one has a piece of tubing
drilled and glued in them for drains , these will be planters , if I put broms in them the
roots hopefully won’t rot . And a couple tubes for a drip wall , if I decide to use them . 
then I filled it with handi foam and smashed the cork right into it . I think this will hold
better than siliconing it on .








Then for for limbs for the tree shape I took a cork tube and cut a piece of pcv tubing
and foamed it in I wrapped it all in waxed paper and tape so the foam didn’t explode the
cork tube when it expands . Then with a hole saw drilled out the cork background and
siliconed them on .
a good place to get foam . fast shipping too 
http://www.betterfoam.com/OneComponent/ ... fault.aspx
( twords the bottom of the page )


























Then allot of silicone and cocopeat 
















how its going to look inside 









I’m going to do some of the sides too with cork coco panels and some pvc tubes for
holders for film canisters also .

and a couple pictures of the stands that I worked on this weekend .
















thats it for now .more later .


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## Guest (May 23, 2006)

Well now, thats impressive! I really really like the branches idea.
Keep up with the updates!


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Very cool idea for the branches. I always wanted to use the small tubes and that's a perfect way to use them. 

I know the feeling about not having enough time. I'm about to under take making 6 plywood tanks before finals. We'll see.


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## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

Wow, looking great. The "tree" idea is very cool, quite a familiar environment for thumbs. As to the lighting, I have a 115g tank (36x24x30) which started out with 3x96w PC bulbs. A year later it is running with only one 96w. Definitely had overkill in there. So basically for this sized tank (90g) I would say go with 2x55w (if you plan on having many high light plants - will really get fireballs red) or a 36w and 55w. 96w bulbs will of course be too long for the viv. Check out ahsupply.com for their kits, I think I would go with the double 55w. And don't forget the 6700k bulbs. Good luck.

Luke


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

Well I finally got my backgrounds mostly finished and glued in the vivs . I did half of
both side glass’ also , a combination of cork , tree fern fiber and foam covered in 
cocopeat . I glued in some pvc tubes cut on angles and foamed them in so I can put the
film cannisters in for egg laying sites .


































































This one has a waterfall in the lower right corner , that I’m going to try to get it to drip
into a little stream that drains into the pond in the left front .


















I covered the half of sides with automotive window tint film so you cant see the
backof the sides and silicone .










And a picture of the light canopys so far 










Now all I have to drag them up two flights of steps to my room and start planting them .


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Wow. Keep the pics coming!!


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## biocmp (Mar 7, 2006)

what are the dimensions of this tank? Please keep going, I love this!!!


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## wax32 (May 9, 2006)

pigface said:


> I’m not an engineer , I’ve always been good at building
> things though and figuring things out .


I believe that is a SERIOUS understatement!

I wouldn't be able to even begin to comtemplate thinking about trying to design something like this. =)


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

Well I,ve had allot to do recently and its time for another update ,the last before the
plants which have been ordered .
I thought it would be a good idea to paint my room before I put the tanks up , good
idea that turned into a nightmare! There were also a couple cracks in the plaster from a
leak in the roof vent that I figured I would patch too . Well to make a long story short I
ended up replaster bording and plastering the whole wall and rewireing it for more
outlets and finally painting the whole room . Man lots of time and money that I could have
put into my vivs!
First , I got my lights ( from AHS ) 2 x 55 watt kits in each enclosure and 2 fans for each and 2
vents covered with computer fan grills and some filter material from home depot 

















you have to be gentel putting these bulbs into the metal clips its easy to break the bulbs , 
as I found out ! I'm going time them to make one bulb in each enclosure to come on then half an hour later have the other come on , then have them go off the same way 

Here are my water features the first one is a small hollow log piece of driftwood that I glued a
piece of pvc tube inside of it to keep it less wet 


























then the pump a zoo med 501 turtle pump was plumbed into it using quick connector
type fittings into the bulkhead fittings and a ball valve to shut the water off for ease of
pump maintenence , then I foamed one end of the wood and put some S.S. screen in the
other end to keep the frogs from getting trapped inside . I used 3\8 inch size tubing for the pumps and also the overflow drain , it drains pretty fast like this but I might change it later to 1/2inch pvc tubing , I don't know yet ?










the other started out as a 4 inch pvc pipe cap that I cut and shaped and a piece of 2 1\2
inch pvc pipe that I heated up and bent into shape and then cut in half on the band saw , I
notched the cup and glued the pipe into the notch and allot of silicone to hopefully keep
it from leaking .










After a test run I coated it with brown silicone and smashed some gravel into it . Both
drain into a pond in the front corner filled with gravel and slate ramps for ease of exit if
the frogs ever go in them 
after that I got the mistking system plumed in , with 3 nozzles per tank and it works like a
champ 

















then in goes the substrate cocoa peat , treefern fiber , spagnum moss, charcoal , coco
husk chips and fir bark. It looks like it should drain nicely . Now for the plants !


















































More to come when I get some plants in them .


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## Guest (Jun 24, 2006)

Fantastic!!! It looks sooooooooo cool already. Excuse me, they look sooooo cool already!!! Im so jealous!


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## cubby23 (Jun 12, 2006)

WOWOWOWOW those look so sick. Did we get the dimensions of these yet? What are you looking to keep in them? You could have a big colony of leucs.


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

They are 24 "x24" X36" tall about 90 gallons . I think in one a group of Intermedius and some pumillio in the other.


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Talk about a project! These vivs are gonna be sweeeeet when they get planted!! Great work!


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## Guest (Jun 24, 2006)

Im hoping to get/build a 48 wide by 24 deep by 40 somthing tall in two year's time. I'm glad you posted a journal!


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

*My big Vivarium construction journal ( update plants 7-15 )*

Well its update time , I finally got most of my plants in . I never imagined how many
plants it would take to fill these up ! I got them mostly how I want but well have to see
how they grow in and see how the plants do were I have them planted who knows I
might have to move something around . 
My water feature in the one with the waterfall and stream didn’t work out like I hoped it
would , it leaked somewhere and soaked the substrate in half the viv so I had to rearrange
it some , well at least now I have some more floor space for plants .
I put a bunch of plants in them and the middle and top areas seemed bare so I added a
couple more cork branches to the upper areas to fill it out and give more areas for the
frogs when I get them . 

Heres a list of what I planted so far 

Tillandsias .

Tillandsia ionantha van hyn
Tillandsia filifolia
Tillandsia tenuifolia open
Tillandsia ionantha x paucifolia
Tillandsia streptocarpa mini x
Tillandsia tenufolia bronze
Tillandsia ionantha rosita
Tillandsia stricta
Tillandsia nana
Tillandsia caput medusae purple
Tillandsiatenuifolia x araujei

Broms. 
Neoregelia red waif
Neoregelia crispata tigrina
Neoregelia little faith
Neoregelia tiger cub
Neoregelia zaslawskyi
Neoregelia cf smithii
Neoregelia midget
Neoregelia dungsiana
Neoregelia flameing lovely
Neoregelia spotted frog
Neoregelia fireball
Neoregelia 696
Neoregelia 396
Neoregelia tak grande x fireball
Neoregelia liliputiana x fireball
Neoregelia tak x grande
Neoregelia red eye 

Tropicals 
Dischidia nummularioides ? not doing so good at the moment 
Aeschnanthus longicaulis
Peperomia prostrata ? not doing so good at the moment
Hoya curtisii
Caladium humboldtii “mini white”
Anthurium clarinervium 
caterpillar fern
Myrmecodia tuberosa (ant plant)
ficus pumilia quercifolia (oak leaf creaping fig )
monocostus uniflorus 

Orchids
Ludisia discolor
Macodes petola 
Ceratostylis rubra
Masdevallia floribunda
Masdevallia infracta 









































































some of the orchids I mounted them on some cork and stuck them in place with some stainless wire in case I have to move them around if they don't do well were I have them .
Masdevallia floribunda








Ceratostylis rubra








Macodes petola & Caladium humboldtii “mini white”








one of the ant plants








some Neo midgets from Antone he's got some nice broms . Man these are tiny








































temperatures on the bottom









Temp on the top , without the fans on ( the bottom reading is the inside the tank readings )
I have to do some work here , if I have the fans on all the time to keep it cool the humidity
goes down , if I have them off the temp goes up I’m going to try to seperate the vent
from the lights since they are both under the top cover . I’m going too try to build a plexi
glass partition to seperate them from each other so I can controll both fans seperately to
try to get the temp and humidity were I want them .and keep the front glass clear and get
some air flow . 









I found two of these crawling around in the one and figured I’d leave it him in there for
some food if it reproduces . They’ve been in there for a week


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## Dartfrogfreak (Jun 22, 2005)

Looks Great!!!


Id gather more of them and increase yur chances of reproduction!


Do yo have a fan blowing into there for airflow???

If not those Tillies will more than likely rot.
As well as the orchids!!!

Wut is that Black item on the rock in the right back corner of the one viv???


NICE WORK!!!


Todd


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## Danyal (Apr 15, 2006)

have you considered putting a couple of strong fans into your canopy? PC bulbs get fairly hot and would heat up the tank, having fans blowing over them increases bulb life and decreases heat.


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

Todd its a little glass skull









Danyal , I have two fans and air intakes in the hoods , you can see the inside of the hoods in one of the pictures above . I think I just have to find a way to seperate the vent from the rest of the area under the hood and use one fan to evacuate the heat and one to circulate the air inside the viv.








something like this 









The yellow will be a plexi-glass box seperating the vent from the rest of the enclosure and the red fan will circulate air just from the vent and the green fan will suck the heat out from the rest of the box . 
If I can seal and seperate the two areas it should work to keep the temp down and circulate some air ( I have the fan for the vent on a repeat cycle timer ) and keep the humidity up .


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Everything looks great! Those N. midgets and N. dungsiana look awesome in there!

In my opinion, your temperatures are fine. 80 degrees at the top and 73 on the bottom is a nice temperature gradient. Its not like your frogs are gonna be constantly at the top of the viv ya know? Its fine, your frogs won't purposefully cook themselves.

Great job. I look forward to more pics.


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## Dartfrogfreak (Jun 22, 2005)

Do those fans move any air into the viv itself ???


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2006)

Your vivs looks soo fantastic. I also can't believe how many plants it took to plant them. 
Have you considered a heat shield? I don't have the link but AJ Cann has decribed the use of heat shield in his leaning tower of frogs viv. He describes it in his latest podcast. Perhaps it can help. 
The plant you named Ceratostylis rubra is actually a Macodes petola.


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

I made a Plexiglas partition over the top vent today , sealing off the vent from the
underside of the rest of the enclosure , I made a plexi box sealed it to the glass with
silicone and from the plexi box I clamped 3 inch flexible dryer hose to one end and
clamped it right around the fan housing on the other . I wasn’t planing to do it that way it
just so happens that the fans and the hose were the same size and made my original plans much easier . So now the air flow goes
from the bottom vents out through the top vent , through the partition then through the fan 
and out , see green arrows below . And the airflow through the hood for cooling of the
lights is completely separate from the vent airflow see red arrows . So now I can have the
back cooling fan run all the time the lights are on and not have to worry its sucking out
any humidity , and I can have my front vent fan on on a timer to give me some airflow
through the viv for the plants and keep the glass clear .( I hope ) we will see how it works
.
































Todd , The tillies have been in there almost a month and only one of them shows any sign
of dying ( i’ve moved it to a different spot to see if that helps it ) a couple of them have
grown almost 1 1/2 inches allready . 

Khamul1of9 , I had the names right I just had them next to the wrong pictures ( I have
corrected this ) I don’t know how a heat shield will work I’ll see how my mods today
help , maybe I’ll add another fan for the heat if this doesn't cool it enough ? the temp went up to 84 today before the mods , so we will see .


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

Well the modifacations I made separating the vent from the lights under the canopy
seemed to work somewhat , my temp in the upper part of my viv’s lowered about 3-4
degrees with the bottom being 72 - 73 degrees and the top staying 76 - 78 . I’m able to
keep my fans for cooling on all the time the lights are on and my vent fans on on a timer ,
the humidity varies from the mid 80’s to high 90’s . .
I was getting worried for a few days as the tank temperatures kept going up a couple
degrees every day and I couldn’t figure out why . It seemed I was paying more attention
to the temps in the tanks and forgot that the temps outside were in the 90’s , then I came
home one day and my room AC unit crapped out the temps in my tanks was in the mid
90’s ! I guess I’m lucky I didn’t have frogs in them yet . So I’m going to let the plants
settle in for a few weeks more then I’m going to get looking for some darts . Finally !


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Awesome. Sounds like you're on the right track.


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