# 120 gallon viv construction



## Phyllobates (Dec 12, 2008)

I thought I would share some pics of my current vivarium project. This has been a long-term project, I started buying the acrylic two years ago, but I've made some strides recently so I thought I'd post and get some feedback before continuing on. 

The tank itself measures 48"x24"x24" and will be viewable from two sides, the front (obviously) and the left side. It is constructed of 1/4 inch acrylic on the top and sides, and 1/8 inch on the bottom. It rests on 1/2" plywood.

For the background I've chosen various materials purchased from Petsmart and Petco on clearance- fern panels and forest tiles $7 each! I've filled in the gaps with waterfall foam and will coat that with silicone and coco fiber. I plan to use pea gravel as a drainage layer (its way cheaper than leca) and haven't decided on a top layer yet- maybe coco fiber and peat.

I plan to have a water feature on the left side about 6 inches wide. Because the viv sits above the sump for my 125 gallon plant tank, I had originally planned to connect the water feature to the sump but have decided against it because the aquarium sits at about 80 degrees F and I don't want to risk introducing pathogens from the fish. (Could use some feedback here, still not sure...) As far as inhabitants, I'm currently leaning towards galacs, but this is a long way off yet so who knows.

Lighting will consist of 4 40 watt bulbs 6500K. I have an extra icecap 660 ballast I might use at some point, until then I'll just use shoplights.

There you have it. Any questions or comments about the setup and/or materials are welcome, and sorry for the crappy pics.


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## Link3898 (Sep 18, 2008)

looks good so far!


i noticed the covered tank below.. is that a sump for a salt water system?


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## jubjub47 (Sep 9, 2008)

Looks like there is an aquarium to the right hand side of the picture.

Looks like a cool project. Keep us posted.


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## Phyllobates (Dec 12, 2008)

Yep, the viv sits next to my 125 gallon planted aquarium and directly over the sump for that tank. Here's a pic of room:

I should say the viv sits over the freshwater sump, the sump for the saltwater tank in the background is in another room.


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## Link3898 (Sep 18, 2008)

Awesome, the location of that easy chair is perfect! lol once this is done is going to be pretty nice


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## Fishman (Jan 16, 2007)

Sweet! I have this piece of sliding glass double pane glass that I have been saving to make a huge viv like yours for a while. It is probably the same height as yours and about 5.5 feet wide (laid on end). I am thinking a plywood box tank background, with the glass on front. I look forward to your build on this one!


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## clwatkins10 (Nov 15, 2008)

Very cool. The dimensions of that tank are perfect.


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## jausi (May 14, 2008)

Nice tank!!!!

EVEN BETTER NICE ROOM!!!!!!!!


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## iridebmx (Oct 29, 2008)

nice carpet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Nick_ (Mar 24, 2008)

Lookin good, I too like the deeper tanks. Gotta love the man cave, who ra, grunt grunt grunt....!


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## Phyllobates (Dec 12, 2008)

Lol- yes, it is quite the cave. Many hours have been spent shut away from the rest of the world, hiding from family, pampered chef parties, etc...

I thought about putting the carpet in the classifieds but I don't know if I could part with it, its just that awesome


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

that shoudl eb a nice vivarium when finished, but the reef tanka nd fresh water tank and beging to be turned into vivariums as well.


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## Phyllobates (Dec 12, 2008)

Plants!!!

Finally managed to get some plants in this thing- thanks to Spring Valley Tropicals and my local greenhouse. The moss is from Alex007. 

Need to get some plants for the left side and let it grow in for awhile. In the meantime hopefully I can decide what frogs to put in here 

Whatcha think?


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## Geckoguy (Dec 10, 2008)

Nice it reminds me of the edge of a swamp or shallow rainforest pond. I just add some more plants maybe even some semi aquatics in the water.


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## Phyllobates (Dec 12, 2008)

Geckoguy said:


> Nice it reminds me of the edge of a swamp or shallow rainforest pond. I just add some more plants maybe even some semi aquatics in the water.


Thanks! Yeah, the left side definitely needs some work. I'm thinking anubias in the water portion for sure. The back is a bit bleak too. I planted some philodendron in back in the leaf litter that I can hopefully train up the back.


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## kamazza (Sep 2, 2008)

anubias is a nice looking plant, sounds like a good choice and the philodendron should work out as well, grows like a weed for me


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## sgvreptiles (Jan 26, 2009)

What kind of wood are you useing in the tank?
Thanks
Jeff


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## Phyllobates (Dec 12, 2008)

sgvreptiles said:


> What kind of wood are you useing in the tank?
> Thanks
> Jeff


Jeff, its all ghostwood. I picked up about 8 pieces from a local petstore. At $15 I would've gotten more but it was all he had. Stuff seems to be harder and harder to come by.


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## sgvreptiles (Jan 26, 2009)

I may have to search for some. Its very nice wood.But I got 30lb of cork bark yeasterday so that should keep me bussy for awhile. Nice set up as well.


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## MrBiggs (Oct 3, 2006)

Update from the great beyond! (The 'great beyond', in this case, meaning four years and a new owner later.)

Just thought it might be interesting to update a years old thread after the tank has been modified and grown out a lot. I got this tank from Curt (the OP) in exchange for about 400 miles worth of driving and about ten hours of purgatory, also known as moving-half-a-house-and-approximately-a-billion-tanks. I intend to add a few colorful broms but besides that should be pretty much good to go as is.

Anyway, here it is:


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## 1995sportster883 (Dec 16, 2012)

That one amazing spectacle. Seeing a 4yr old viv and how it has changed, pretty interesting.

Adam


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## MrBiggs (Oct 3, 2006)

I see that there's not a ton of interest in this old build but I'm going to keep updating anyway. Maybe someone will see it and be interested in anything I've done. 

The first thing I did was to install a couple of small fans to add a bit of circulation. I'm getting quite a bit of condensation and am trying to clear that up. Next I drilled holes and connected my misting system (which takes care of both of my tanks upstairs) so that I wouldn't have to worry about misting it manually. After all that I replaced the tops with glass instead of acrylic as the original tops had warped pretty badly. I soon found out that the top of the tank itself had also warped, so even with glass tops I still had gaps. I used some door insulation strips to close those off (stuck them to the edges of the glass tops and then created a ring around the top as well). That took care of FF proofing.

Next, I added a few broms that I got from a fellow DB member. 
They are: Neo. 'Sara Head'
Neo. Ampullacea X Marmota
Neo. 'Zoe'
Neo. 'Red Bird'
and one other that I can't seem to find the label for.

Pictures to follow after I pick up this tanks new inhabitants on Saturday.


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## MrBiggs (Oct 3, 2006)

Ah, found the last tag. It's Neo. 'Rafa' X ' Betty Head'


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## Phyllobates (Dec 12, 2008)

Any updates?


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