Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How many of you have seen the "living vivarium" article in the september issue of Reptiles (and also, why are they so far ahead on the months)? That may be the coolest viv I've seen outside of a zoo. For those of you that haven't seen it yet, it's 6'x3'x4' made with and oak stand and canopy. It's set up like a rainforest complete with 8 automatic misters, a pond, waterfall, 55 fish, 26 frogs, 12 lizards, a lot of shrimp, snails, a preying mantis, and one smooth green snake. It also has feeding tubes where insects come out of randomly.

I would love to do something like that, but it would have to be on a smaller scale. Does anyone have any experience building a water-tight terrarium? I was thinking I could frame the whole thing with wood, lay in some plexi sheets and seal up the joints. Anybody done that sort of thing?

--scott
-----
0.9.0 Ball Pythons
0.1.1 Leopard Geckos
0.0.1 Egyptian Tortoise
0.0.1 Bearded Dragons

.. it was very cool.

As for waterproofing a wooden cage, some people earlier were talking here about using DryLok I believe, which can be used to make a wooden cage watertight enough to be used as an aquarium.

I always wanted to do a filtered in-cage pond kind of thing, but the few times I tried it (back when I had an iguana), I didn't have the funds to do it "right".

The really cool part was the structure they had set up, pipes plumbed down to chambers with either fruit fly culture or a chamber where tiny crickets were put, so flies and crickets would gradually crawl out to be hunted by the viv inhabitants.
-----
Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.0 BP, 1.0 Hog Is., 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 GTP

I believe in the article the auther mentions that the lower part of the paladrium is actually a glass box with divider.

Many a large terrerium/palaudrium are built that way because glass is relativly cheap and when its a stationary item weight isn't a concern, usually. Also glass is water proof.

More or less they build a aquarium, google for instructions and than design and build a cabinent around that. The upper portions can literally be sealed with resin, polyurathane, or whatever your fancy. Since there is not a direct contat between the substrate or water feature to the wood. You could do the same thing in the lower portion but why risk it.

In some cases they build the entire unit out of glass and than build the cabinent portion to support it. If calculated correctly this is very durable construction technique. Remember because the glass is not doing the supporting job you can use 1/8" plate glass very cheap and can even be salvaged from remodeled homes, old office buildings etc.

Best of Luck
-----
Jeremy

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" July 16, 1945 Robert Oppenheimer

0.1 Sunglow "Khal" RTB **Coming Soon**
0.1 Snow "Khal" RTB **Coming Soon**
1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow RTB's
1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.0.14 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's
1.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's
0.1 Suriname RTB
0.0.15 Normal Suriname Hybrid's
0.1 Anerthrystic RTB
3.6.17 Red Bearded Dragons
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.3 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
1.0 Child

Hey, this sounds real cool, can anyone post a pic? I love living vivariums, I just know I could never ever keep up one, I'm too impatient with things.

TS