Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, here are a couple vivarium questions-

1. When you build a tank with a waterfall, how do you hide the pump? I can't find a way that I can hide my pump, yet still be able to get to it to adjust the water flow, or take it out to clean it if it gets clogged with moss (which WILL happen eventually in a tank with java moss & riccia growing in it). How can this be done efficiently?

2. Where would I find a plastic/rubber strip to use as a hinge in a glass lid? Glass canopies have this rubber hinge in them. Understand what I'm saying? I'm thinking about setting up a 10 gallon on end, to do a vertical setup (seperate from the one with the waterfall- this would just be an interesting setup), and I want to put about a 6" piece of glass on the bottom in the front, and then hinge another piece of glass on top of it.

3. Vivarium plants! a) what's your favorite place to buy plants from? I checked Black Jungle, but they have almost no mosses, and that's part of what I want to get. and b) What's the sturdiest type of vine I could get to grow in a tank that would be large enough to hold something along the lines of an ATB?

>>1. When you build a tank with a waterfall, how do you hide the pump?

Most people build the tank so that the pump will be accessible somehow. Usually it's concealed inside a compartment made using pieces of cork bark or some other material. If you think about how to access your pump as you design and build your vivarium you should be able to incorporate it into a compartment that you can access once the vivarium is complete. Typically access is through a lift off panel or some other structure that conceals the compartment hiding the pump. I've also see it as simple as the pump being hidden behind a rock in a water feature or occasionally I've seen the pump hidden underneath an upturned ceramic pot which is then concealed artfully in the water feature. The key is using your imagination.

>>2. Where would I find a plastic/rubber strip to use as a hinge in a glass lid?

There are a number of sources for different hinge types. TAP Plastics sells an acrylic piano hinge that a lot of dart froggers use to build similar vivaria to what you're envisioning. You can see their hinges at:

http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/search.php?PHPSESSID=&search=hinges&searchform.x=0&searchform.y=0&searchform=Submit

These type of hinges have to be siliconed to the glass. I personally don't like that method as I have doubts about the long term security of the join between acrylic and glass. I know a bunch of people who've done cages this way and had no issues. For my own experiments I prefer a different type of hinge that actually holds the two edges of glass. You can find it at McMaster-Carr. You can see their hinges at:

http://www.mcmaster.com/

You have to type in 'hinges' and then scroll down until you find 'Plastic Piano Hinges'. The hinge I like is the 'Slip-over Plastic Piano Hinge.'

>>3. Vivarium plants! a) what's your favorite place to buy plants from?

I have a couple neat greenhouses near me where I can find some interesting plants but I also shop the home centers because you can find interesting stuff occasionally at Home Depot or Lowe's. However, for buying really cool obscure stuff I like Black Jungle as well as Tropiflora. Their site is:

http://www.tropiflora.com/

Tropiflora has lots of good deals and their pricing on cork bark in bulk is one of the best prices out there. Mosses can be kind of seasonal so you have to keep looking. It's a live product to supplies can fluctuate especially since no one really sells 'propagated' moss. Instead all the moss you see for sale is 'wild collected.'

>>b) What's the sturdiest type of vine I could get to grow in a tank that would be large enough to hold something along the lines of an ATB?

Sorry, but you're not going to find any vine sturdy enough to hold up an ATB that will at the same time grow well in a cage/vivarium environment. Your best bet would be to buy a decorative vine such as the ones sold by Black Jungle and then buy a vining plant like Ficus pumilla or some type of ivy, Pothos, or Philodendron species and train it to grow along the 'dead' vine. With time and some effort you can create a convincing alternative to trying to grow a live sturdy vine.
-----
Matt Campbell

"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in." John Muir

Thanks! I'm going to go with an external sump that will house my pump, so I solved that one on my own.

Also, for a hinge, I found a nifty way to make one out of packing tape. It's what I'm going with for now, although it will eventually be replaced with something better.

I'll have to check out Tropiflora. Haven't ever heard of them before. Thanks for the tip there.

And for the vine, I'm not looking for something that would actually support an ATB, merely something that wouldn't be ripped out too easily by an ATB. I missed saying that in the original post. I think I'm going to go with what you said, and I also found instructions on how to make a fake vine by coating some rope in silicone, then rolling it in coir. Going to try that, and see if I can get a pothos to grow along it.

thanks!

You could build a tank using a false bottom to house the pump. Make the bottom out of PVC pipes and plastic egg crate. It is then easy to make a trap door for access down into the sump area.

As far as making a glass front I would just use gravity. Just make sure it has a sturdy lip to rest on. Stick on velcro can also be used in all sorts of creative ways.