# Virtual Terrarium Design



## allanschon (Mar 25, 2007)

I bought a couple of terribilis last weekend, as an impulse buy; I don't have a permanent tank for them, so I'm in the early stages of designing thier home. I decided to go ahead and try my hand at plywood construction, but since this is my first attempt, I figured I should think it through pretty thoroughly... I downloaded SketchUp, and have spent the last few days working on my plans. 

I haven't had time to add dimensions to the drawing, so to give you a sense of scale, the tank will be 36"x18"x24".

Here's a rendering of the tank. Plywood tank

And here's what it looks like before it's put together... Plywood Tank pieces

I'm going to design the base and hood before I start with an actual build. I'll post those as I get them completed. Once I'm done, I'll upload the Sketchup file to Google's 3D library; if anyone wants, I'd be more than happy to e-mail it to you.

If you want ideas for your own designs, go to 3D Warehouse and search for "terrarium". There are quite a few.


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## bobberly1 (Jul 16, 2008)

Looks nice. You could take a little height off if you wanted to, they dont need much height.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

cool program. Nice specs. Soon to be spoiled froggies.... just the way we like it


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## Alpha Pro Breeders (Oct 13, 2008)

You might want to re-think using plywood because of the amount of wateer and humidity it will be in contact with. Their is a marine plywood that might hold up. Either way you'll want to find a way to seal the tank that wont be toxic to the frogs.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

SEARCH PLYWOOD TANKS. Lots of success to be had. If you want more inspiration, check out monsterfishkeepers.com and look in the diy section


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## allanschon (Mar 25, 2007)

Thanks for the replies so far. 

The height is mainly for the plants, not the frogs. The inside dimensions, after I add a false bottom and substrate will be less than 18", and I know I'll have trouble finding plants that I don't have to constantly have to trim back at that height.

I've already started to think about waterproofing... There have been plenty of people who have been successful at building enormous aquariums with plywood. I figure that a viv will have far less stress on it, so I should be safe. I started another thread on exactly this topic a couple of days ago: Tank sealing thread.


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## NathalieB (Apr 23, 2007)

sketch-up is a great program! I do all my designs in it

plywood tanks are no problem if you can seal them with epoxy.
I always use betonplex, the waterproof plywood they use for concrete, but ordinary plywood + epoxy has the same result.


Your plan looks good, but I do think your tank design looks rather complicated. are all the pieces in plywood or do you want to use other wood for decorative purposes?
why not just use 5 pieces of plywood (bottom, back, 2 sides and low front).
I think the 2 little pieces of glass in the front may be the most likely source of trouble. Are you going to have a drain in your tank. Or are you going to use a false bottom?

I was also wondering why you don't seem to have any ventilation?

not meaning to critisize you in any way, it looks great already but I'm alwast interisting in the "why" and the "how" and like making tanks in plywood myself so always nice to see another aproach.

when working with plywood you can also incorporate the base and hood in your terrarium very easily. I feel this ads extra strength to the tank instead of stacking separate parts on top of each other.

here's a picture of a tank I just finished in plywood. It has the stand and hood incorporated and a side window but the principle is the same (although the sid-window is a bit of a pita)
















I just have to get a second piece to close of the light-hood and doors for my base cabinet.
If you're interested I could send you the sketch-up plans


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## Guest (Mar 3, 2009)

Awesome what i can see, so please post i larger photo! if you can.

Regards.


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## allanschon (Mar 25, 2007)

NathalieB, That's a great looking tank! I second Nile's request for a larger photo; I'd love to get a better view of it. If you don't mind, I'd love to take a look at the sketchup design as well. I'll send you a PM with my e-mail.

I'll look into the Betonplex material you mentioned. I'm still working out all of the details; this was my first pass at the structure. All of the material specifics are still WAY up in the air.

The basic design is based on a standard cabinet carcass. It probably is more complicated than needed; I guess I watch too much New Yankee Workshop for my own good.  

The boards are all 1x3 or 1x2 stock. Normally in a cabinet, they'd be 2x4. The bottom pieces are probably overkill.. I want to use them for the top frame to add some rigidity. The two small fixed windows are also probably excessive, as the top of them would likely be below the substrate surface. I may simply replace them with a wooden panel. I'm knocking around the idea of using oak for the face frame, to dress up the looks a bit. 

I'm trying to keep the top and base separate. This thing is going to be pretty heavy as is, but if I can keep the major components separate, I think that there's a _chance_ that four people could move it without tearing the all of the plants out... I'm not planning on moving, but I want to stay on the safe side.

So far, I haven't worked out the mechanical systems but my initial thought would be to have one or more drains leading to a container in the base. I'd like to use a fan to create a constant recirculating current within the tank, but I have to figure out the best way to do that. The lighting will probably be based on the 24W compact flourescents from AH Supply. I used them on my first tank, and I have been happy with them so far.

I'm gonna get started on the base tonight. I'll post updated images when I finish.


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## NathalieB (Apr 23, 2007)

Hello Guys, here you can find bigger pictures:
View image: netbeplant4.jpg
View image: betonplex.jpg

I made it a littlebit more complicated by adding the side-window, leaving that out makes it a piece of cake.
I added pictures from sketch-up, cannot attach the file because it is to large but I will send it to you by e-mail.
what I basically did was:
- make the whole frame in waterproof plywood (betonplex). The boards are screwed and glued together. pre-drill holes for the screws and if you can use a special wood-glue that "foams" so it fills any gaps. After drying I closed all the edges with a line of silicone.
- In my case I made a glass mini-aquarium glued to the bottom of the wooden tank (5cm high) because my husband wasn't convinced the tank would be water-proof. Although I am sure it would be (especially when you put an extra layer of epoxy on the inside of the tank... hey they make aquariums out of plywood and epoxy!) I glued in the glass for his peace of mind . One advantage is that I could use a standard small drain in the bottom. It's trickyer to make the connection between a drain and the plywood because the plywood is thicker and any leaks would damage the inside of the plywood. I made a smaller tank without the glass and without any leaking, so I'm pretty sure this step is "overkill"
- I then glued plastick L-profiles to all the sides of the pannels to seal the more vurnable sides of the plywood (not viewable on sketch). 
-I then glued L-profiles at the edges of the side window (orange on the sketch), placed the window on the inside and glued smaller L-profiles to the inside Sealed everything well with silicone.
-I also glued L-profiles on the inside of the "hood"-part to rest the glass on (not on sketch)
- on the front ventilation area I placed a very fine steel mesh (ff-proof) and glued it in place with (again) plastic L-profiles.
- then I placed the E-profiles for the sliding doors. low one on bottom, high ones on both sides and top. (pink on the sketch)
- I also put E-profiles for sliding doors (mdf) in the base cabinet
- then I glued two pieces of glass to the L-profiles in the top. the front piece of glass has 5 10mm holes in it for sprinklers. between the two pieces of glass is a ventilation area (10 cm). This is also made ff-proof with very fine steel mech.
- lamps (2 55Watt PL-L lamps on electronic ballast) are just placed on top of the glass with a reflector on top of them 
- a thin mdf pannel is just placed on top to keep the heat from the lamps in the hood. I am planning to place fans in the hood that blow the heat of the lamps down and also a fan that can suck the hot air from the hood into the room in summer.
- the two front sliding doors are put in and .... finished

I hope my explanaiton makes sense (It's always difficult to explain things in a foreign language and I am know to give over-complicated descriptions, even in Dutch ) Otherwise I hope the sketches give you a better idea of the set-up.

If you don't need to add the ventilation i'ts even easier. but we tend to build our tanks with lots of ventilation.

the tank isn't that heavy. before the side window and top glass was glued in two people could easily move it. I think it's still not too heavy for 4 to move it now but I'm afraid it will "twist" out of angle and the side window will break, so I haven't tried it.

I used 18mm betonplex board. I'm sure I could do it with thinner board but the price-difference is neglectable and it's so much easier to drill and put together thicker boards.


Your design looks good but there just seem to be a lot of pieces. More connections are more possible places that could start leaking.
that's also why I like the base cabinet to be part of the tank. If I would have a leak It would start to drip into the cabinet first. hopefully I notice it then before it does any damage to the floor.
the two smal windows are going to be difficult to waterproof and as you said... they'll probably only display "dirt" . Unless you want a water-feature that you can see I would leave them out. And if you want to keep it: make it one piece of glass along the whole length.
I understand now that some of the "extra" pieces are for esthetic purposes and for reïnforcement.

have fun building!


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