Reptile & Amphibian Forums

yea so i finally got my camera back so i can now post pictures of the project i havnt shut up about..here is the vivarium i built last month from scratch.im pretty proud of myself and feel it came out pretty good considering it was my first attempt at vivarium design/construction.these pictures do it no justice and really must be seen in person.its made entirely of glass that i salvaged from the garbage of a window replacement company.it has full sliding glass front and hinged (partially)screened top.features a waterfall,misting system,full spectrum lighting(mainly to show off my blue chondro).growing inside are several tropical plants,3 species of live moss,litchens,2 species of palm tree,vines, jungle succulants,earth stars,air plants,a purple ornimental pepper plant and the center piece is a flowering bromieliad where pools of water collect in the center and serves partially as a waterbowl.once it fills in and the moss begins to grow on the dead wood accents and the tree bark back wall,i feel it will look even better and more like a jungle.i really enjoyed building this but maintaining it is an everyday chore.you must have a lot of time to maintain it but if you do,its really worth it.i love looking at it at night.in the center of my living room,with the house lights turned off and the vivarium lights turned on,it really looks awsome.its like a glowing rainforest in my house.i was worried at first that the fragile nature of some of the plants i decided on,would make them easy victims to my chondros crushing force.i couldnt have been more wrong.the way my snakes move(and im sure most other chondros)is a very deliberate,slow crawl,that considers every move and does not trample on anything.very gentle.so all of my plants are damage free after the first week.anyway,i hope you enjoy my pictures.i know its a lot of work and thats why many chondro keepers decide against planted vivariums and opt for false plants,but there really is no comparison.if you have some spare time,you should really consider displaying your snakes in an enclosure that truly compliments your snake beauty.

looks good... vary cool design... what did it all cost so far???

might be something fun to do for one of my chondros...

Shiloh
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Shiloh Hawkesworth
kansas
(Midwest Serpents)

hmmmm,i really dont know what it cost.most of it i salvaged from the trash,like the glass and wood.the only things i really bought were the lighting,plants and pump for the waterfall/misting system.i really cant even count the plants because most of them i bought in the bargin bin at home depot for 25 cents each.you can get plants for a quarter but they are mostly dying.it didnt matter because most plants for sale were too large and i could only use like a piece that was 10 percent of the original,so the bargin plants are good because they all have at least a 20 percent section that is still alive and well.the wood i collected outside as well as some of the plants(live moss and litchens).there were a few plants i paid full price for(palm trees) but not many.id say i only have about 50 bucks invested in the project,everything else i already had or found outside/garbage.i already had the helix(that would have brought the cost up a bit if i had to buy it)what i like the most is the cage itself.fishtanks dont have a sliding glass front and the vivariums you can buy that do, have plastic trim on the edges that obstruct your view.i had in mind a cage totally made of glass with nothing that wasnt clear.i couldnt find one for sale,so i decided to make it myself.now there is nothing preventing you from seeing "all"of my snake when on display.i like that and it looks fantastic in person.chondros are one of the best things god created so i feel they should be displayed with that in mind.

Very cool,

Im thinking about dong backgrounds in my cages, However im pretty lost when it comes to that sort of thing. Do you have any good websites you can reccomend that give decent tutorials?

I was going to leave the floor with mulch as the moss and plants seem really difficult to maintain one the chondro deficates.

Let me know how that works for you.

Good work!

VERY Impressive! Looks like the work of a pro and I have really enjoyed the photos you have been generous enough to share.
Someone asked about a good website for vivarium design and I have found http://www.blackjungle.com/home.htm to be quite helpful with such projects, though there are others, not to mention a forum here on KS dedicated to such projects...
Thanks again for sharing and post some photos later, when the moss starts to fill in..

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

I can see why you wanted to talk about it!! Awesome setup. Looks gorgeous!
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1.0~amel corn~C.S.
1.3~Aztec Okeetee corns~Coatl,Maya,Acatl,Tepin
0.1~Green tree python~Tempest
0.2~Rhodesian Ridgebacks~Akilah, Ona
1.0~Black fat cat~Topper
3.0~Horses~Zaarah,Galliano,Achilles.....

thanks guys,yea julian black jungle is ok and they sell a lot of stuff you can use but i have heard that they are very over priced and the live moss,plants and cuttings are supposidly very small for the money.as far as designing back walls,well there is a method that i was going to use that is supposed to be really easy to build,easy to clean and maintain but i decided to use real tree bark instead because im a really big fan of moss and i am hoping to get moss to grow up the back wall.anyway the method im talking about kinda goes like this.you lay the cage on its back,glue some wood and whatever you want all over the back and then fill in all the cracks with "great stuff triple expanding foam"its sold at home depot for filling in cracks.anyway,after it dries you cover the foam by painting on a layer of silicon(same stuff you use for aquariums)only instead of clear you should use black.then,before the silicone dries you sprinkle on some cocco bedding and press it into the wet silicon.when it dries brush off the excess and the finished product looks really nice.oh yea,after the foam dries and before siliconing it you can carve in caves and clifs and holes to place plants.as far as the feces problem,well i have just experienced my snakes first defication in the vivarium and it worked as i imagined it would.i chose i species of moss for the floor that is very short and tight haired(like outdoor carpet)so i can remove the feces easily with a paper towel.that removes the bulk of it.as far as the liquid part,well i incorperated what dart frog keepers call a false bottom.its basically a layer of pvc under the substrate to collect excess water to drain into.i basically spray water over the moss to wash the leftover waste into the fase bottom and the water can be drained out through the drain i installed.frog keepers with a well designed vivarium never worry about waste because the theory is that an ecosystem develops with benificial bacteria and micros that actually clean the waste and turn it into plant fertilizer.i imagine a chondros entire feces may be too much for this small,limited ecosystem to handle but if i remove the bulk of it and wash the moss,im hoping the tank will clean the rest(mine only go to the bathroom once every 2 weeks at the most).there is a rumor going around that chondros need the common "sterile,fake plants setup"to thrive and a vivarium with live plants will harbor disease and kill the snake.i did some research and i found that there is no logical reason to believe this and actually,once the ecosystem is created,it will be safer because their will be good micros constantly cleaning all waste.a fake setup that is cleaned with bleach on a regualar basis,can cause outbreaks of disease because through cleaning it,youre also killing all the helpfull microorganisims.hell,frogs are considered one of the most fragile animals in nature and are used as an indicator of how healthy an enviornment is,so i figure if this type of setup has proven successful for keeping and breeding darts,well then it should be safe for chondros as well.the only drawback is,you must be 100 percent sure your animal is clean before introducing him because if he gets mites or something,i see no way of ridding this type of enclosure.too mant places to hide and noway or sterilizing without killing all plants.

but julian,all that said,are you sure you wanna get into something like this??you have a really nice,large collection.that in itself id imagine would be enough.you start messing around with this and youll become a hermit lol. seriously though,maybe a nice display for your favorite of the bunch would be fun.