# 360 gal viv construction journal - UPDATED



## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

gonna make this topic to document all the stuff i did while makeing the huge viv i'm working on.

the viv measures 6'8" long x 2'8" wide by 5'9" tall. it is made in 3 parts which i call the base, the bin, and the viewing area and is made out of 2x4s, 4x4s, and 3/4" and 1/2" plywood. screws, and deck brackets.

Base:









Bin Section added:









Viewing area added:









Plywood added:









cost so far - under $600


added liner + brought it inside:








(sorry for the crappy pic)
ignore the sheet. its their to stop the cats from going in.


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

got some time to work on it yesterday:









installed the resevoirs. thiers 2 sterilight 64 liter bins connected with bulkheads and a 1" tube. the black thing in the bottem of the bin is the pump.









gravel added. still need to add a little bit more. the pipe is where the pond overflow will drain into the gravel.









removed the columns along the front and finished lining it

the pump is running and the water is circulating.
i hope to add the sliding door tracks to it tomarrow or monday.
will possibly add more gravel on monday aswell, then maybe start filling and landscaping it. although i would rather make the pond first.


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## Guest (May 14, 2006)

Its looking great! Wish I could be there to witness it. Can't wait to see the whole process.


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

This I've gotta subscribe to! What a project!

--Diane


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## dustin_grey (Mar 8, 2006)

:0!!! Im loving it so far. Keep updating please!!!


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## tchok13 (Apr 5, 2006)

How do you plan on attaching the pond liner to the walls? Ive always wondered how large vivariums do it. The way I figure is if you nail or tack it in, the moisture will wick through to the wood.


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## ultasol (May 8, 2006)

I don't know if you guys have problems with it in the vivaria- but I know it's a major issue with green roofs. Will roots go throuugh your waterproofing layer?


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## Guest (May 16, 2006)

Dusitn I love your avatar!! Its too funny!


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

the pond liner is in two pieces. the dirt bin section is one piece adn the viewing area is another piece.
i put in the lower piece first tacking it in at the top of it. then i put in the upper piece and tacked that it at its top as well. the upper piece overlaps the lower piece by about 6 inches on the inside of the viv to keep water from hitting the nails on the lower piece.

silicon or pond liner patches over the nail heads could also work i suppose.


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## dustin_grey (Mar 8, 2006)

Khamul1of9 said:


> Dusitn I love your avatar!! Its too funny!


Haha thanks! I appreciate it. I made it myself .


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## Guest (May 17, 2006)

Thats wicked, and you dimensions make it over 600g


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

overall i guess.

the 360 comes from measuring the inside dimensions of the area that will be used to hold the substrate, frogs etc.


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## Guest (May 17, 2006)

zaroba said:


> overall i guess.
> 
> the 360 comes from measuring the inside dimensions of the area that will be used to hold the substrate, frogs etc.


Ahh yes that makes sence, im going to be following this thread regularly hope it all goes well.


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

*Finally an update.*

i'm finally getting time to work on this thing again.
so i figure i'll post a message here so people know its not abandoned 

i removed all the gravel and am ready to put in the false bottem, made a hood for the tank out of left over wood and mounted the 48" florescent light in it, finally put a screen on top of the tank, and got nice new hosing for the pump with a valve and a 2nd hose so the pump can be used to drain the res if needed.

will take pics tomarrow.



psst, mods, this topic should probably be moved to the parts/construction thread


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## Homer (Feb 15, 2004)

Wow, that thing is built like a tank (Sherman tank, not aquarium :shock: :lol: )! Is this going to be a load bearing room divider, or is there going to be a heavy canopy to this? I'm just curious as to why you used 2x4's and 4x4's. It looks like you've made some good progress!


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

Homer said:


> Wow, that thing is built like a tank (Sherman tank, not aquarium :shock: :lol: )! Is this going to be a load bearing room divider, or is there going to be a heavy canopy to this? I'm just curious as to why you used 2x4's and 4x4's. It looks like you've made some good progress!


the design is mostly due to overall weight estimations and me not wanting to take chances (as i tend to have not so good luck  ). the origional plan was to have 1ft of substrate in it plus a real rock back and mountain in a corner.

plain dirt weighs about 100lbs per cubic foot. at 1ft of substrate in the 2x6 foot area, thats about 1200lbs right thier. thier was origionally the gravel in the bottem, which weights MUCH more then the dirt. turned out the 4" of gravel i had in the bottem weighed over 500 pounds by itself. add that to the about 800 pounds of dirt that would have been in it and all the water that would be in the gravel and dirt, plus the real rock backing/mountain. overall, the tank would have had to hold up probably over 2000 pounds.


of course, more recent plan changes will have me putting in a false bottem and sinking the surface a little so instead of a surface flush with the doors, the main surface level will be 4" or so below the doors. still plan on making a background and mountain out of real stones, but that might change to small pieces of stone stuck to styrofoam or whatever instead of larger pieces siliconed together.


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

*Finally an update!*

Finally an update!

i added a double layer of egg crate to create a stronger false bottom and started filling it with substrate. but now i ran out of stuff to mix so will have to wait until after work next week before i can do more 









i don't like the thought of all the wasted space involved in making a mountain, so, it will be pretty much hollow, filled with large caves that will add to the surface area for the frogs along with providing dark hiding spots for them.










the opposite end of the tank, where the pond is located.

bunch of plants that will be used are sitting around still aswell


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## Guest (Dec 3, 2006)

Oooooh CooL!!! Will you be putting in a background?
Nice plant selection. I would try some anthuriums, see as how you have the room and all.


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## Jason DeSantis (Feb 2, 2006)

Hey if you need some bigger plants, I have a couple large plants around 18-24" tall. I think 2 black velvet and some anthurium. They were hydroponic grown, so they are frog safe. Oh ya, that looks awesome I cant wait until its done.
Jason


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

What a clever idea to reduce weight with the "cave method!" Glad to get an update on this immense project!


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## Guest (Dec 3, 2006)

I use the cave method too, but not to reduce weight, I do it to make land at a higher "altitude" and simultaneously have soil that stays drier because it is not in direct contact with the gravel/leca and water reservoir.


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

That's right, now I remember your caves, too. More great reasons for them. Hope I remember all this when/if the time comes to build again...


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

more cave work and upper stream added. was gonna make nice rock cliffs for between the caves to hold up the soil, but it'll end up getting covered with mosses anyway so i didn't bother. plus with the flat rocks, i can easily take them down later to put plants between the caves.

still don't know what to do about the back. i'm thinking of sticking rock pieces in a 'sheet' of greatstuff then hanging the whole thing from the top of the tank.


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2006)

Nice work. You're gonna need some good plants to put out a good root system to secure that soil.
How about some tree fern fiber sheets? You can break up the pattern with some driftwood attached via silicone.


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

tree fern panels might work. moss could grow on it and ivy grow up it.
besides that i was thinking of making a sheet of gray greatstuff and just carving it to look like rocks. not gonna do the rock wall thing due to the massive weight it'd have.



its planted now, stream and waterfalls running (mostly) fine. although some of the plants didn't do so well in the long wait to be planted, they make free leaf litter . i covered most of the soil with cocofibre which makes it look alot nicer.


























i'm also close to putting on a front for it. scrapping the sliding door idea for now due to its cost. i've got extra double pane windows lying around so will use them for now. they will be a bit bulky, but they will work.


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## Guest (Feb 18, 2007)

Nice work. You need some anthuriums.


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

new lighting inside the hood since the old one (dual 48" flourescent tubes @ 1900 lumans each) weren't putting out enough light so some of the plants died, and then one side of the fixture stopped working so more plants started dying. this new hood contains 10 CF bulbs @ 1600 lumens each and has switches for all 10 bulbs with one switch being a master switch to turn off all the lights.


















how it currently looks with the plants, wood, etc. ignore the dirt on the windows. they seem to enjoy collecting it from the air. also need to add more plants now that i finally got the lighting fixed.

hopefully if i put in some more creeping fig and selaginella, it'll survive this time.


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## Quaz (Nov 13, 2005)

if you use a bit of moss you can cover up all that plastic of the water feature, the plastic caves, and the dirt. It'd really come to life. Throw a little leaf litter on top of the moss and bam! it'd really look good.


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

yea, i had planted moss in there, along with creeping fig and some other ground cover plants that i got from black jungle. they were going ok for a while, but then the origional light started to have problems and woulden't work right. the new ground cover plants died.

so will be getting more this week. am also hoping to have it grow on the wood.


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

How about a pic of the entire tank from a distance?
What room of the house do you have this monster in?
And are there any inhabitants yet?
Keep of the work, looks very promising so far.


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

hmm...whole tank shot? ok:
















its in my bedroom, and those are as good as i can get.

theres currently nothing in it but snails and wild fruit flies.
i'm not gonna consider putting darts in it until i have all the problems sorted and its nicely established.

oh, ignore the sliding door tracks, i was origionally planning on putting in sliding doors but went with hinged pieces of plexi instead.


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## porkchop (Aug 29, 2005)

Wow... Thats enormous !
It'll be cool when grown in...


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## fleshatomb (Jan 24, 2007)

Wow, just what did you have to buy your wife to her to approve of that behemeth? lol 

looks great, are you done with it? or are you gonna do a background or any thing else to it? wow just wow. lol, amazing.


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## OneTwentySix (Nov 11, 2004)

fleshatomb said:


> Wow, just what did you have to buy your wife to her to approve of that behemeth? lol


I'm sure the conversation went something like this: "If you buy that, then you're gonna be sleeping in it!" 

Good thing it's big enough and in the right room! 


Anyhow, that looks pretty damned amazing. Can't wait to see it when its completely finished, with frogs.


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

fleshatomb said:


> Wow, just what did you have to buy your wife to her to approve of that behemeth? lol
> 
> looks great, are you done with it? or are you gonna do a background or any thing else to it? wow just wow. lol, amazing.



simple, i'm single 

nah, its not done yet. i still don't know what to do about the background. i'd like to put tree fern panals or some other long lasting safe thing on the back that plants can grow on and will last for years. but the trouble is finding it or enough of it.

plus, i'm still finding minor problems here and there, more then a year after it was set up.




minor update...
i'm going to replace the stream/pond system later this week with something that is more leak proof. mainly just 2" PVC pipes and fixtures cut lengthwise and easily directing the steam where it should go. I plan to coat these pieces in silicon and put sand on them.

i really hope to have some leucs in it by the end of the year.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

what are you planning to put in it??


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

I hope to have a bunch of leucs in it by the end of the year.


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

it's been 2 years since i started building it, and i'm finally satisfied enough with it to get some frogs for in it. I plan to buy some Leucs this weekend at a reptile expo. thinking of getting 5 of them, 3 females and 2 males.

over the past few months i redid a lot of it. i removed a bunch of plants that either were looking ugly or weren't doing well and added a bunch of new ones. also removed the hinged doors and replaced them with a home made sliding door system. theres a rain system in the tank, but its not on any timer yet (theres a different topic telling about it). the pond/waterfall system is now made out of 2" PVC pipes that are cut lengthwise that i put aquarium silicon on, coated in decorative gravel, and then covered them in sand to get between the gravel. the background is similar to the streams, it is 1.5" PVC pipes cut lengthwise and hanging on right angle hook screws that are screwed into the back of the tank, i then sealed the holes and around the pipes with hot glue. the plants on the background are ivys and some wondering jew. i hopeing that the background will become a nice cascading wall of ivy and wondering jew.

the whole thing now looks like:








i hadn't cut enough pipe so the left end doesn't have anything yet. but by saturday it'll look the same as the right side.

stream detail









left end:









right end:


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## slipperheads (Oct 17, 2007)

Quite a journal, thank you for sharing!


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## carola1155 (Sep 10, 2007)

that thing is a beast! I'm anxious to see what it looks like when the back walls grow in and such...
keep it up

btw... nice wallpaper


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## arielelf (May 23, 2007)

Some creeping fig would like your terraces that you created. They grow so quickly and they really fill in walls nicely.
I am envious of the shear vastness of your tank. I want one that size!


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## thiefness (Oct 26, 2007)

Are you just going to let the leucs breed and breed and raise the tads themselves until the tank is swarming with leucs? :lol:


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

yea, was planning on letting nature take its course in it. i got 3 at the hamburg show on saturday, so hoping they aren't all the same sex. I want them to breed to upp the numbers in it to 5-10, then will sell extra frogs.

however, if i see that the tads/eggs aren't surviving by themselves in the tank, will have to pull them to hatch/raise them.


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