# Dragon Spirit Herps (Pic heavy)



## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Hello folks. It's been a long time since I have been active on here posting. 
This is gonna be my thread showing projects and my herps.
I recently acquired 3 dendrobates tinctorius azureus 
I have been studying this hobby for a long time but haven't been stable enough to take the plunge but now I'm on disability and I am more stable now 

So here is some pics of them. 



















































I am working on a vivarium for them. Right now they are in a 10 gallon tank that has been established for over a yeah now. It has 2 T8s for lighting I built a box that has 2 T8 fixtures and one bulb is a full spectrum bulb and the other is a plant growth bulb. The light fixture also has a PC fan cooling it off. It's seeded with dwarf white isopods and temperate springtails and I think there is some tropical springtails in there as well.
Here is the tank they are in:









Here is where they are on my rack. When I build their new viv that tank will go down Next to the Zoo Med Terrarium and their new one is so big it will hang off both ends of the rack haha. 









Here is the tank I'm gonna start building for them here soon. Not sure what size it is. It might be a 30 long or something. Got it for $15 at the thrift store.









It is drilled in the bottom so I'll use that for drainage. Just gotta remove the little panes of glass.









I got some cool LED lights online for cheap. One is like the Jungle Dawn bulb is swivels and everything and has the side vent. The other is a strip that has 72 LEDs and they are both 65000K.

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Here is a vivarium I'm currently working on. It is gonna be for a Whites Tree Frog. I'm most likely gonna use the LED socket bulb on this one. Might get something not so bright idk yet. I got the tank for free it was cracked on one side but I just slathered on some silicone and it's all good. The 10 gallon viv the PDFs are in was cracked all on the bottom but I doctored it up as well. I love taking damaged tanks and giving them a purpose. 
It has sliding glass doors 










Here is some plants I have around. 
I have 2 bromeliad plants that is shooting all kinds of pups. Got them for only $20 a piece. I have already snipped off 3 pups and put them in the 10 gallon viv. Next to it in some arrowhead with my baby spider plants. 









Peperomias 









Ficus









Huge snake plant for the 40G Crestie viv









Here is my little greenhouse (took the lid off for the pics) on the bottom of my rack where I have some cutting that I got from someone. Started them out when they were just leaves with some rooting hormone powder. 









Wandering Jew









Philadendron









Begonias. I'm not sure what that plant is there on top to the left. I'm thinking it might be a fittonia of sorts but it has a velvet texture. Id anyone?









I visited the local greenhouse today and there is more plants to come 










This is my Crested Gecko, Ryu, I've had him for a long time and had to beg my old landlords for me to be able to get him.









Here is his Zoo Med Terrarium and the hanging faux rock dish I made out of stryfoam, plaster and acrylic paint. His viv is seeded with dwarf white isos and springtails. They keep his tank pretty clean. I seed all vivariums with them as my janitors. 









I will be upgrading him to a 40gallon breeder with a glass partition that will have another crested in the other side. I got the tank at Petco during their $1 per gallon sale. 










I know these aren't herps but here is my fish tank that I have been working on since my last place wouldn't allow me to have anything other than a betta. Little did they know it wasn't just gonna be a betta bowl and he would have companions lol 
The betta died recently. He was shipped in from Cali. He was the brother of the first betta I got shipped from Cali which was a Black Orchid Crowntail. He was really nice but he jump out of a tiny one inch gap next to the heater and died :/
This tank kept me occupied while waiting for a herp friendly place. 











I'm sooooo glad I'm getting back into herps again it's my biggest passion.
Here is another passion of mine....vaping 
I make my own Ejuice and I rebuild all my RDAs and whatnot. 


















Well that finally ends my first post in this thread haha. Thanks for looking and I hope you follow me along my journey 

(No the thread title doesn't imply I am starting a herp business lol I just decided that would be the name of my thread)


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## Aldross (Dec 30, 2013)

That all should keep you busy for a good while.


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Aldross said:


> That all should keep you busy for a good while.


Yeah and now that I don't have to work so much and I bought a car I will have time to do stuff


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Here is a bit of an update. I got the dumpy viv done. Well sort of I am gonna add a fan and possibly some big pothos or philodendron to give the viv more hiding spots. That begonia doesn't cover very much lol.









He is on top of my rack 









Here is a video. I tried out the shake fix feature and it made the video spotty. You can see the awesome flowers of the brom in the video.





Few construction pics









Here is some wood and slate I picked up at a local pet store. I'll be using the slate for a water feature possibly. I got the wood for $26 and the slate for $3









I got my eye on another piece of wood at the greenhouse but it's gonna have to wait until my next paycheck. 

So I mentioned above I'm gonna use that 30 gallon long for the PDFs but I can't get half of that crap off it's etched into the glass. So I'm gonna get a 40 gallon breeder at Petco because they are doing their $1 per gallon sale. 
For what I got planned I want it to have nice glass.

So I have a good collection of feeders so far. I will be getting some dubia roaches soon. 
I got 1,000 banded crickets from Josh's Frogs. I have dirt in there for the females to lay eggs so I get loads of pinheads.


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Got some plants in today from a fellow member, Pubfiction 

*Peperomia emarginella ecuador*









*Peperomia prostrata*









*Anubis nana petite x2 and Salvinia minima* (Will go in the water portion of my paludarium)









*Bulbophyllum laxiflorum*









*Marcgravia rectiflora suriname *


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

I purchased these items to test out. Going to most likely use this setup in my 40G breeder paludarium. 









Most likely gonna get a nice 4pin molex power supply and some splitters so one power source runs all my fans for all my vivariums. 
1ST PC CORP. ACDC-12V AC wall jack to 12V DC 4pin Molex Adapter - Newegg.com

I recently purchased a Lenovo Y50-70 Touch from NewEgg for $900 so I got like $180 worth in EggPoints. So I can build me a very nice air flow system for this 40 gallon breeder paludarium. As you can see above I got all that stuff for only $2.99 which was for shipping  

I recently installed 40mm ball bearing long life fans in my dumpy viv and my Azureus viv.

So here is where I got my fans placed: 
First up the dumpy tank with a fan kit I got from hydrophyte here:http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/pl...39313-40mm-60mm-fan-parts-fan-mount-kits.html









I'm not too worried about having that fan near the vent because I am using wed block fabric that I got from Josh's Frogs and it does not drain worth a darn (not that it's their fault they didn't make the product). Hopefully that will change eventually. Maybe it just needs time to break in. I had to go around and punch a punch of holes in it just to get some sort of drainage. It's so damp in there the bottom of the background is moldy. 
Though adding the fan made the tillandsias happy one was a little wilty but has sprung back and brightened back up. 
Also the fan cleared up the grapewood mold quite a bit. 

Here is the fan placement on my Azureus viv:









I fashioned a bracket out of a slip lock soap holder I got for $.99 at Dollar Tree. I just hacked off the soap holder part with a little hack saw and now I have a nice bracket just like the one I purchased but not as clean but it works 
I meant to flip the "mount" the opposite way but it slips firmly into place if I have an issue with it sliding down and ulocking itself them I'll redo the mount. 

I was losing humidity so I stuck a strip of glass on top of the vent to block it off more now it stays at a constant 87%

The fan I'm using is this one: EverCool EC4010M12CA 40x40x10 mm Cooling Fan Free Priority Mail If Order 10 | eBay
This fan is awesome. Plenty of airflow and super quiet 
You can also get them from Devin aka hydrophyte in the fan mounts and kits ad I liked at the top of the post.



Here is my plan for the airflow for 40G









It's going to be a PlexiGlass "backpack" system but on the top and the top of the vivarium is actually going to be the side of the 40G breeder since I will be using the top as the front to put some sliding glass doors on there.
Idk if I will need 2 fans or not. I will see how powerful that fan up top is when it comes in. 
The PlexiGlass fan duct will be hot glued into place so it can easily be removed by a razor.
I might just use glass instead if I can get this whole glass cutting thing down if not I could always go get some cut at ACE.

Also I'm worried with the fiberglass screen being so close to the blades of one of my frogs decides to hop up there then he might lose some toes so I will soon be using wire to extend the top of that screen and make a cage.


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## Phyllobates (Dec 12, 2008)

Good looking stuff Brandon.

What greenhouse is that? Might have to come check it out 

Chris


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Phyllobates said:


> Good looking stuff Brandon.
> 
> What greenhouse is that? Might have to come check it out
> 
> Chris


Ames Greenhouse. They just have the basic stuff nothing too extravagant. 
So you're a local frogger. Awesome 

Is their any cool greenhouses in Des Moines?


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## Phyllobates (Dec 12, 2008)

DragonSpirit1185 said:


> So you're a local frogger. Awesome
> 
> Is their any cool greenhouses in Des Moines?


Yeah, we've chatted via facebook several times 

The only other greenhouse I've been to around here is the Greenhouse in Adel. Same deal there, just basics, although I did pick up a few jewel orchids there once. That was several years ago though.

Did you build the front for that 40 vert?

Chris


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Phyllobates said:


> Yeah, we've chatted via facebook several times
> 
> The only other greenhouse I've been to around here is the Greenhouse in Adel. Same deal there, just basics, although I did pick up a few jewel orchids there once. That was several years ago though.
> 
> ...


I wouldn't mind some jewel orchids lol Where abouts in Adel?
What do you mean did I build the front of the 40G breeder? I haven't started on it yet but it will have sliding glass and whatnot. 
It's really hard to find stainless mesh in the right sizes. I'm gonna need a big piece for the vents. I might actually make 3 separate vents next to each other that way it will be more sturdy to clamp the tracking to it


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## Phyllobates (Dec 12, 2008)

I mistook your dumpy viv for a 40 vert. But you answered my question. I am thinking about setting up a couple 40's too. 

Try McMaster-Carr for your stainless screen:

McMaster-Carr


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Phyllobates said:


> I mistook your dumpy viv for a 40 vert. But you answered my question. I am thinking about setting up a couple 40's too.
> 
> Try McMaster-Carr for your stainless screen:
> 
> McMaster-Carr


What size do you think I should get? 40?


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## Phyllobates (Dec 12, 2008)

I ordered the 40x40 mesh with 0.010 wire diameter- part number 9319T173 and it was perfect. I can try to post a close-up pic if I can find some leftovers.


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Phyllobates said:


> I ordered the 40x40 mesh with 0.010 wire diameter- part number 9319T173 and it was perfect. I can try to post a close-up pic if I can find some leftovers.


I placed an order for a 12"x12" sheet to test it out


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Got the mesh in today









Wow this stuff is thick 









So glad I got these cutters at the thrift store a week ago 









Might have to use epoxy to mount this stuff idk it's trying to roll back up. Maybe I should try to torch it? I would mind an oxidized look to it to be honest. Not a fan of shiny stuff lol


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