Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, I've done it. Finished the vivarium for my dad. I still need moss, and I need a water dish, but those are minor. Moss, he won't get until spring. The cheapest I can get it shipped this time of year is $35! That's insane, for a $6 piece of moss. After I give it to him, and I can work on this at home, i'll build a water dish out of mortar & rocks, or clay.

It actually only took me a couple hours to do. Wasn't too in-depth at all.
Did the whole thing in my grandmother's basement.
In the vivarium... ah.. the one in the back left corner is an English hedera, in the front left is a peace lily, a bromeliad in the middle, pothos in the back, phyllodendron in the front, and a croton on the right side (the bright leafy one). They were all $.50 at Wal-Mart!

The bottom of it is lava rock, with a couple layers of screen on top of it, topsoil, then bed-a-beast(coconut fiber). Except for the aquarium, the whole thing was about $15. The aquarium was free for me, so I don't even know what a 20H would normally cost, but it's a pretty cheap project.

So what do you guys think?

thanks,
Ronnie Nocera

I would suggest building up more substrate toward the back and even higher in one corner, and maybe putting in a cork bark background with a bromeliad or two, so that it's not so flat. All of the current plants are going to get pretty big relatively quickly, especially the croton and the philodendron, but those can be replaced over time with more miniature species. Adding a piece of driftwood of some sort, and perhaps a small piece of curved cork bark for a hide-cave, would give it more character and look more natural. Adding some moss such as Java over the substrate, and rather than scattering the smooth rocks evenly over the surface, arrange them to simulate a stream from one of the built up heights, would improve it artistically.

The drainage layer is adequate and will work just fine for most plants. Your Dad might want to use one corner of the vivarium to worm a finger down into the bottom so an aquarium air tube can be inserted when necessary to syphon off excess water that may accummulate in the lava layer from misting and drainage.

In any event, if it is covered so it maintains humidity and has enough light for the plants, it will keep a couple of darts such as leucs, P. terribilis, D. auratus, maybe tincs or galacts. It would not be adequate for any of the thumbnails except as a nursery tank, since these guys like an arboreal situation with lots of upper reaches.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus

Thanks for the tips. You can't see it from the pic, because of the angle, but the back left corner is about 8 inches higher than the right front one. And if you read my post, you'd see that I am putting moss in it, but I'm waiting until it doesn't need "cold packed" for the winter, because I'm not paying out the wazoo for shipping. We can pick it up at shows pretty cheap, too, rather than shipping it, but I can't do that without my dad knowing, so it had to wait until he got it. The rocks are spread around just to kind of take up space for right now. It looked really empty without any moss on the bottom.

And about the driftwood- I put deer antlers in instead. They weren't in when I took that pic.. should've shown them in it.

One thing I came up with on my own for it, that I and a couple people I've told about it have really liked, is that it has a built in hide. I cracked a flower pot in half, and half-burried. It's under the English hedera, so the plant wraps around and grows in front of it, and a pile of dirt partially obscures it. It helped build the "hill" in the corner, and utilized the space more efficiently than just building the hill, and adding a hide elsewhere. I have two coconut halves to use, too, but they need cleaned first.

This isn't the most realistic vivarium, but I had a tough time with that because it's so small. A 20 high doesn't give you much space to work with. It's going to go in the waiting room of my dad's photography studio, and I couldn't build it too big.

You don't need a huge tank to get creative. This is just a 10 gal put on it's side.

Sorry, this should work.

Yes--this is nice--with the bromes on cork above the substrate--kind of a jungly look over all. The maranta on the left will get too big relatively soon, but can be cut off below the soil line if and when it does, re-rooted for another purpose, and be replaced by something smaller if it's a problem. Over-planting at first to make a vivarium look more mature is a common practice and there is nothing wrong with this, because it can easily be thinned out.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus

The underground hide is a nice idea. I do think you need to move the bromeliad to either a cork in the background or wire it to a branch of some sort--or perhaps to the deer antlers??
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus

How do I go about that? How much dirt does it need to be in?

Thanks,
Ronnie Nocera

No soil for epiphytic bromes is necessary. For attaching to a branch, you can just wrap the anchor roots in a bit of long brown sphagnum and attach it with fishing line, dental floss, or the like. For a cork back, you can staple or silicone it to the bark, although long stainless staples are sturdier. I often use bamboo skewers for support until the bromes establish themselves if the background is soft enough to push them into. You can also use a bit of sphagnum wrap to encourage the anchor roots to take hold. I usually have more than one piece of cork bark on a background, so put the bromes where they join together and stuff sphagnum into the curve of the bark in the back for the anchor roots to get a better hold. (The edges of the cork bark are siliconed to the glass where they meet it.) Misting will keep the axils and center of the bromes filled with water. Any detritus, frog droppings, dead fruit flies, etc. that get into the axils help nourish the bromes. There may also be some arial roots hanging down from some bromeliads in humid tanks that may take up some nourishment from the atmosphere. In any event, the ephiphytic bromeliads like most of the Neoregalias and Tillandsias, Cryptanthus, etc., don't require soil or additional fertilizers. The heavier roots are for anchoring the plant, not for taking up nourishment. In fact, your bromeliad (depending upon the species, which I can't determine from the photo) may eventually rot in its present position, as they require perfect drainage while they remain damp from the atmosphere.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus

Hm. Thanks for the information! Here's a couple pics of the bromeliad. Can you tell what species it would be from these?

Thanks again,
Ronnie Nocera

It's impossible to tell without seeing the bloom, but I'd treat it as an epiphyte in any event. I'm posting a Guzmania lingulata hybrid photo just because I have one on this gallery and it's convenient. The Neoregalias bloom down in the main vase, while some of the others such as the Vresias, (which this might be) rise above the leaves in a fan of blooms, sometimes combining red and purple together. Vresias seem to be more commonly found in the house plant sections of the big outlets, but that's just guessing.

Whatever it is, it's a nice colorful plant, and I would treat it as an epiphyte.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus

Hm. Here's a picture of the bloom. I'm going to post pics of a couple plants in the habitat design board, but here's the bloom of another of the same species of that plant. You should check out the post on the habitat & design board. it's titled "Plant identities".

Thanks again for the help,
Ronnie Nocera

Hi:

What are you thinking of housing in the tank(as far as animals are concerned)? Nice selection of plants. Great contrast on the varying foliage colors, and textures. The differences draw the eye around. I also like the idea of differences of textures in the hardscape to do the same thing you have already started. I found that when I used a variety of woods-say cork on the background(also a nice place to affix some epiphytes for using the entire vertical space), and ghostwood(layed diagonally from back to front to create depth), and a broad flat piece of cypress(maybe across horizontally)can draw the eye across. Then if you group the nice foliage that you have already beautifully assembled, you'll get an even more dramatic impact. The foliage will work in concert with the wood to move the eye, draw attention to the architecture.

Then when you get that moss, you could fill in the holes, give it that finished look that it almost has.

I'm sure your Dad will be very pleased at the hard work you put in to create in the tradition that he probably does as any artist: improving upon himself over time, always a work in progress and in a constant move to find a better expression.

Your gift is sure to delight him.

Maggie