my prospective viv... thoughts?

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Posted by archie on April 28, 2003 at 10:16:59:

In Reply to: my prospective viv... thoughts? posted by jmorris on April 25, 2003 at 12:32:18:

Sounds like a great plan. just a couple of suggestions/ideas.

1. I personally would not worry about the anoles drinking contaminated water. If you are going to put a mister in the tank, I doubt they would drink from the stream.

2. Since you are making a custom cage, why not drill a hole and use that as drainage (along with the fasle bottom). Silicon a drainage valve and some hose to the bottom of the tank and run it to a bucket under your tank and run the pump from the bucket up to the back of the tank (you could drill another hole for the input). This way maintenance on the pump would be 100% easier (you will have to do maintenance at one point). Also, you could run a filter in the bucket, since you are worried about the anoles drinking the water. Also since you are going to be running a mister, I would be worried about the tank filling up with too much water (since you are only going to have a short false bottom).

3. I love the look of those light. Assuming those lights put out as much light as they look like they will, you are going to have superb and very bright light. How do you plan on mounting the lights? are you going to use a reflector of some sort? also depending on how much ventalation you have in the tank and how close the lights are to the top, etc , I also don't think you will need a spot light of any sort, I bet you the top of the tank will be a nice 85-90 and there will be a great gradient as you go down.

4. Have you looked into order the acryilic yet? Do you know prices, shipping etc? I ask becuase I am interested in some of this stuff, but I never got around to looking into it seriously.

5. All I have to say, is take your time and plan, plan, plan... It sound like you are going to put a lot of resources into this tank and I would hate to have it thrown together in a rush (I say this becuase I know this is what I would do... I get too excited when putting together a new tank...)

overall all sounds great.... please if you can, take pics as you put it together, and of course of the finished product.

Dave

:I am currently making a 16" wide x 16" deep x 36" tall viv for some green anoles. I'll be usign a substrate mix loosly based on the ABG mix. I will incorporate a shallow false bottom for drainage, and a partitioned pool with a stream running into it from a sump. I am separating the drainage and flowing water in order to minimize the chance of the anoles drinking water contaminated by there waste, as they are quite susceptible to parasite build-up. I'd like to plant a wide asortment of plants, including ferns, tillandsias, tropical moss, and pothos, in this tank.

:I will be lighting this tank with 2 85 compact fluorescents, this is the bulb, as well as two 20 watt compact fluorescent coil UV Bulb made by ESU, with a NANO ballast from hellolights.com. With all this c.f. light, I may not even need a spot bulb for heat, but I may need to add one... we'll see. I will be misting via a Barrs misting system. the lights will be in a hood above the tank, with a sheet of .138" thick Solacryl (UV transmiting plexy) between the hood and the tank.

:As for plants, I found this great tropical plant supplier which has a wonderful variety of tillandsia, including a Guatemalan clone of Tillandsia Usneoides (Spanish Moss), which is supposed to be more tropical than the original from the US. I'll probablly also get some plants from T&C Terrariums and/or Black Jungle

:That's the plan so far... any comments or suggestions?

:Jared

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