# My new 110G Vivarium



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

Well, I took the plunge and started my first vivarium. I have kept reef tanks for years, and these little froggies really interest me. 
Please feel free to offer any advice you can, or critiques, it is my first one and I am a little landscaping challenged so any help will be great.

So I won a 110G tank in a raffle. And after lurking for a few weeks here this is how it went...

So here I have the tank, I built a housing for the pump with eggcrate and fiberglass window screen. It houses a minijet 440. 

On the bottom I used broken clay pot for drainage, I got the pots already broken for free from home depot. 

REAR VIEW









FRONT VIEW










Here I am starting my great stuff around the pump chamber. At this point I have added eggcrate above the terra cotta pot and screen above that to keep the soil up top.










I am foaming in the back here, and the three pieces of wood that I decided to incorporate into the background. This piece will be part of the water feature.










Here is coat #2 going onto the background, and flowerpots being incorporated in to hold plants.










And here I am testing the location of tubing for the water feature, the tubing will be hidden later.


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

We decided to make a pump chamber cover by creating a splintered rotting tree stump. Here I am beginning the roots around the tree.









Heres the mess I created about 5 hours in when I needed a lunch break.









These are the same roots as above completed as far as "great stuff" goes, they will be coated later.










Finished foaming... thank god... Top down view of the right side









Top down view of the left side.


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

And now for the coating the foam, this is the part I really hate 

The silicone smell got really strong, made me kinda dizzy even with ventilation.

Here you can see me starting to silicone on coco fiber. All three wooden background pieces are visible, and the tree is fairly obvious. At this point I had covered the top of the "tree stump" and then sawed it out to create a removable almost air tight lid for the pump chamber.










Heres the tree almost done, some foam still showing but almost done filling them in. 










Vaccuming out the extra fibers that I didn't want everywhere.










Finished product. Just need to cover the hose for the water now...









Close up of the finished tree.


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

PS... any input is appreciated


----------



## SmackoftheGods (Jan 28, 2009)

Input? Like what... freaking awesome tank?

You have a lot more patience than I do. I set myself up a 35 gallon and I almost tried to kill myself because it was so frustrating. Major kudos.


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

Well thank you sir, I was aggravated almost to tears a few times especially when trying to silicone the lower areas.

I have added two plants, a bromoliad and a orchid... I have started shopping for air plants too...

My concern is that the tank is so empty. I think I need some more three dimensional interest in the tank, the only three dimensional items are the tree stump, and the three pieces of wood sticking out from the background. Would something like ghostwood sticking through the tank work? Or some type of fake vine, something to give me a mounting poistion for airplants without destroying the real estate of the background and floor.


----------



## SmackoftheGods (Jan 28, 2009)

Honestly, I've had the same inclinations in the past with some of my tanks too.... "There's not enough coming _out_ of the tank!"

However, I think you've used a lot of your space quite well. At this point I think it's mostly about making smart plant choices. In my limited experience the plants make a HUGE difference. To tell the truth, I've almost completely stopped using anything beyond the midway point of the depth of the tank. It's all about the plants, now.

However, this is not to say that a couple pieces of well-placed ghost wood would not go over well, simply to say that I'm not sure they're necessary.


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

So when I planted the brom and the orchids I removed all the soil from the roots... I have an air plant to add next, how should I clean it before I add it to the tank? I'll get a picture up of the plants in a minute here...


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

Here are the pictures with the first 4 plants in.


----------



## SmackoftheGods (Jan 28, 2009)

I'd just rinse the air plants off very thoroughly with warm water.... Most primarily to get pesticides off it.

Looks good thusfar, but you ought to go to some of our sponsors and get some sweet freaking broms in that thing. Last time I checked Atone's Collector's Corner had some sweet stuff and Jason DeSantis has quite a bit... but most of our sponsors can hook you up with cooler broms than you could find in your local Walmart or Lowes.


----------



## Ziggi (Jan 23, 2009)

Freaking amazing is right!
Great tank!
It will be 20 times better once it's filled with plants and grown in!
Great job.


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

Thank you, today were going to a couple local brom dealers, hoping to find some exciting stuff. How small do you normally start these when you begin?

Also, a family member of mine offered me some tiger aloe. It lives outdoors in FL right now which is obviously warm and high humidity, do you think that would work in here? Or is aloe a no no?


----------



## boogsawaste (Jun 28, 2008)

Definitely a lot of broms on that giant back wall! I like to use a lot of driftwood in my tanks because I have mostly terrestrial frogs and easy access to the broms and spots on the backgrounds encourages them to climb. My azureus (especially my male), climb all over the thing. My male is actually 50/50 as far as time spent on the upper parts and bottom of my 25" tall pentagon tank! But it looks very nice. I've been wanting to make a 110 viv for a long time. Whenever I finally get a house (cramped 1 bedroom apartment), I will be doing one for sure and hopefully sticking it into a wall.


----------



## Jerm (May 20, 2008)

Hey man, glad to see you on here. This is Jeremy if you didn't know. I still can't believe that you got that tank. Looks great so far! 



pedan said:


> Thank you, today were going to a couple local brom dealers, hoping to find some exciting stuff. How small do you normally start these when you begin?


Which brom dealers are you going to? Let me know, I might be able to get you better prices. Are you asking about the size of the broms? If you go with older, already blooming broms you have to remember that they only bloom once and it will fade, but it will also produce pups when it is done for future blooms.



pedan said:


> Also, a family member of mine offered me some tiger aloe. It lives outdoors in FL right now which is obviously warm and high humidity, do you think that would work in here? Or is aloe a no no?


I would say that the aloe wouldn't survive long, anything that needs full sun will take a lot of light to stay alive in there. Then you have to remember that more intense lighting produces heat, and you can't keep frogs with heat. Aloe are succulents and I don't know of any succulents that would like a vivarium environment. Now if you were doing a terrarium with a desert theme they would be perfect. There are some bromeliads that need more sun than you can give them in there also so make sure that you check.


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

Today we went to the Living Difference... Mike was wonderful. He said he has 6 or 7 other customers all buying for the same reason as me.

I know this sounds odd probably, but would you mind me coming to your home at some point to see your vivs?



What type of frog is that in your avatar... we are thinking about a group of cobalt tincs


Could you recommend a local place to pick up some wood. We want to create some type of new dimension for attaching the air plants...


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

We got the plants cleaned up and planted... Here are some pictures:


----------



## Jerm (May 20, 2008)

pedan said:


> Today we went to the Living Difference... Mike was wonderful. He said he has 6 or 7 other customers all buying for the same reason as me.
> 
> I know this sounds odd probably, but would you mind me coming to your home at some point to see your vivs?
> 
> ...


I haven't been to the Living Difference. Sure you guys can come over sometime. The one in my avatar is a Brazilian yellow-head Tinctorius. They are similar to a cobalt but the cobalts are normally from Suriname and have slightly different coloration on their sides. For the best driftwood and cheaper prices, I would wait until the Daytona reptile show August 22. I know it is a month away but it is only once a year and it is the largest reptile show in the world. Vendors come in from a lot of different countries. Your viv needs a large branching piece of wood in the middle to give it depth and you could put some larger plants in there that will eventually fill in. I would love to have that much room in a viv to play with. Looks good so far, keep up the good work.


----------



## SmackoftheGods (Jan 28, 2009)

pedan said:


> What type of frog is that in your avatar... we are thinking about a group of cobalt tincs


I would discourage this. Tincs are highly territorial and groups don't really mix well. It's generally recommened that you keep tincs in pairs, sometimes trios. Even with a tank as large as yours I personally wouldn't feel safe having any more than two tincs in it. I would consider a frog more social like auratus, leucs (love the leucs and the leucs would use all the vertical space you're providing them) or some thumbs, imitators, variabilis or vents.


----------



## ray1taylor (Nov 15, 2008)

Your viv looks brilliant so far!


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

Thank you...

So that sounds like a no no on one female tinc and 4 males?


The reason we were leaning towards those, is that the blue's are what we are in love with. Any other vivid blue suggestions?


I have been watching the temperature and humidity the last few days.... With the fan in the room off we run right around 75degrees, but with the fan on it drops to like 71. Humidity is hanging about 70 - 80 range. 

Additionally I am looking into more lighting. Right now there is a single reptigro T8, but after some surfing on the net I am not sure that is enough, any thoughts on that? 

If we add more lighting we may be able to avoid the heater?


----------



## rollei (Jun 4, 2009)

What kind of light is that? It looks like the kelvin temp is a bit high. Also, how much gs/silicone does a project like that require? I have a tank that needs about 700 square inches of GS and silicone. Can anyone estimate how many cans/tubes I need?


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

Mine took 7 cans of GS, and 2 tubes of silicone.

The light is an odd one. It is a plant grow light, the acutal color is sort of pink. It peaks in the red and blue spectrums, so is more for growth than quality of viewing.


----------



## boogsawaste (Jun 28, 2008)

SmackoftheGods said:


> I would discourage this. Tincs are highly territorial and groups don't really mix well. It's generally recommened that you keep tincs in pairs, sometimes trios. Even with a tank as large as yours I personally wouldn't feel safe having any more than two tincs in it. I would consider a frog more social like auratus, leucs (love the leucs and the leucs would use all the vertical space you're providing them) or some thumbs, imitators, variabilis or vents.


Don't forget about galacts. Another great choice that have been bold since the beginning (yellows), and climb a LOT. Also a social frog that can be kept in groups.


----------



## SmackoftheGods (Jan 28, 2009)

Although aggression in tincs is more prominent in females, male on male aggression does occur. Male on male aggression doesn't even require a female present to occur (I'm speaking from experience, I was keeping three cobalts and one of them got bullied around a lot... all male). If you decide to go for tincs I would strongly suggest keeping only pairs, even in such a large tank (I know people may disagree with me on this, but this is my opinion).

If you're looking for blue frogs your choices are much more limited. If you're looking for a large beginner frog you might try some blue and black or blue and bronze auratus, many of those have some nice blues. If you're looking for smaller, more advanced frogs you may look for some caucheros or some darklands, or perhaps you may be interested in some escudo. Those are the only frogs that come to mind right off the top of my head.

My suggestion, stay away from tincs until you get some slightly smaller cages that you'd be willing to use for only a pair of frogs (or use the tank you've got now and only keep a pair of tincs, I'm sure they'd be thrilled with it  )


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

So now we changed the lighting to be a little bit more intense. We went from one repti grow light to 4 bulbs.

We have 2 6500k's, 1 10k, and the grow light all up top. The addition of the white and yellow light made the vivarium much more pleasing to the eye. 


So what do you folks think of me getting 6 juvi tincts. As they mature I can go down to one female and possibly 2 males. If the 2 males doesn't work, than just a pair. Is this a reasonable goal. I can buy the six juvie's for about he same price as a sexed pair.


----------



## boogsawaste (Jun 28, 2008)

pedan said:


> So what do you folks think of me getting 6 juvi tincts. As they mature I can go down to one female and possibly 2 males. If the 2 males doesn't work, than just a pair. Is this a reasonable goal. I can buy the six juvie's for about he same price as a sexed pair.


While that can work what are you going to do with the extras? You would have to get some extra smaller tanks to separate. It would be nice if you could get other pairs out of that group to sell/keep but you never know. The choice is up to you.

I forgot to add that terribilis or bicolor would be another frog that would love that tank and can be kept in groups. Also hard to beat their boldness!


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

The terribilis are the other genus right? Those are the ones that use more vertical space that the dendros?

With regards to other tanks to separate out the trouble makers or additional females, were aquarium people, and we have about 12 empty tanks around the house, so it shouldn't be a problem to do a simple temporary setup until I can find someone to take them off of my hands. That is of course if people think the cobalts are popular enough that someone would take my extra sexed ones from me.


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

Now you got me thinking about the blue and bronze auratus. What kind of money would I be looking at for these guys. And how large of a group and what ratio do you think would be appropriate for this tank? I am just trying to research all options in the next month before the reptile show is local.


----------



## SmackoftheGods (Jan 28, 2009)

Terribilis are pretty terrestrial. I know of some (like my local breeder's) that use quite a bite of vertical space, but as I recall not many members have a lot of luck with that. 

Generally I believe auratus are cheaper than tincs. Most juvie tincs that I've seen will go for around $50 (that's assuming you're not looking at a particularly rare morph). I've seen nine month old black and blues go for as little as $30 a piece and blue and bronze go for as little as $40. I'm not sure that ratio matters so much, but as far as space goes, if you wanna provide the "minimum required space per frog" you could _supposedly_ get away with 22 black and blues in your tank... although personally I wouldn't want to go with more than ten (and probably less than that, even with social frogs like an auratus I tend to worry about aggressive tendencies more than I probably should. Six should be no problem, but I'd bet you could probably fit ten in there if you really wanted to).


----------



## pedan (Jul 13, 2009)

I know everyone is getting tired of the unexciting pictures, but this is how I am showing my family how the tank progresses. 

So a few more today. We added some more broms, and 4 more orchids, one of which was in bloom. Added some two different Colus, and a birdsnest fern. 

I want to try to cover the dirt for the sake of the frogs. Would I be better off with moss for groundcover or smooth rocks in between the plants?


----------



## boogsawaste (Jun 28, 2008)

Most terribilis don't make good climbers as they are usually pretty plump, but I've heard of them climbing before. Them and bicolors are the true poison dart frogs.

Blue and bronze auratus are a great choice for you if you want a group. I also would stick with something like 6. That way you can even keep some offspring if you really wanted to.


----------

