Although I still enjoy fish, I'm finding my interest moving away from them over time and my focus shifting more towards vivaria. Even though this is an aquarium forum, I figure some members here might take interest in vivarium construction and assembly.
I'm using the term "biotope" here rather loosely. Without visiting the places myself, and without extremely large enclosures as well as illegal plant cuttings, soil samples, water data, etc., it would be impossible to accurately recreate any part of the habitat. Instead, I have to rely on lists of native plants and a handful of photos. That said, I'm aiming to evoke the slightly drier tropical forests of northern Queensland, Australia and especially the Torres Strait Islands. Future posts will delve further into this aspect of the viv. I know we have a number of Australian members here. I don't know if any of you live in the region I'm emulating, but if you do, I would love some firsthand insight.
-----
I decided to build my own tank from scratch, since I have some unique space restrictions that wouldn't work well with traditionally shaped pre-constructed tanks. My living spaces are generally small and awkwardly-shaped due to the building's construction to accommodate multiple tenants, with most areas being communal. This makes tank placement difficult, so I had to go with custom dimensions to make things work. I ended up going with 30"x12"x24". More depth would be better; I wish I had the ability to fit an 18" deep enclosure, but I hope to have at least slightly compensated for that by extending the length to 30" instead of the typical 18". I also plan on decorating in a way that adds as much depth and reduces as much negative space as possible to make up for the narrower tank.
This is my second time putting this tank together, if that tells you anything about how the first go went. I was really shaky and nervous the first time around, and also didn't cut the silicone tube tip enough, which meant my silicone beads were too small and I ended up with a lot of air bubbles in my seams. Even though this thing won't be holding water, it seemed like bad news for long-term stability, so I tore the whole thing down and spent many, many hours scraping off every last bit of silicone with razor blades.
This time went much better. Here's the assembled base tank, complete with ominous (and necessary) warning message to my housemates. It'll need a lot of clean-up, but at least it's assembled. The glass is woefully dirty from sitting around for ages as I slogged my way through silicone scraping. I did make sure to thoroughly clean the faces and edges where new silicone was applied, don't worry.
Next steps (after cleanup) will be background construction, then installing the sliding glass door tracks. After that, it'll be moved to its stand and I'll construct and install the screen lid, put in the false bottom and substrate, finish decorating/planting, and install the doors.
I'm using the term "biotope" here rather loosely. Without visiting the places myself, and without extremely large enclosures as well as illegal plant cuttings, soil samples, water data, etc., it would be impossible to accurately recreate any part of the habitat. Instead, I have to rely on lists of native plants and a handful of photos. That said, I'm aiming to evoke the slightly drier tropical forests of northern Queensland, Australia and especially the Torres Strait Islands. Future posts will delve further into this aspect of the viv. I know we have a number of Australian members here. I don't know if any of you live in the region I'm emulating, but if you do, I would love some firsthand insight.
-----
I decided to build my own tank from scratch, since I have some unique space restrictions that wouldn't work well with traditionally shaped pre-constructed tanks. My living spaces are generally small and awkwardly-shaped due to the building's construction to accommodate multiple tenants, with most areas being communal. This makes tank placement difficult, so I had to go with custom dimensions to make things work. I ended up going with 30"x12"x24". More depth would be better; I wish I had the ability to fit an 18" deep enclosure, but I hope to have at least slightly compensated for that by extending the length to 30" instead of the typical 18". I also plan on decorating in a way that adds as much depth and reduces as much negative space as possible to make up for the narrower tank.
This is my second time putting this tank together, if that tells you anything about how the first go went. I was really shaky and nervous the first time around, and also didn't cut the silicone tube tip enough, which meant my silicone beads were too small and I ended up with a lot of air bubbles in my seams. Even though this thing won't be holding water, it seemed like bad news for long-term stability, so I tore the whole thing down and spent many, many hours scraping off every last bit of silicone with razor blades.
This time went much better. Here's the assembled base tank, complete with ominous (and necessary) warning message to my housemates. It'll need a lot of clean-up, but at least it's assembled. The glass is woefully dirty from sitting around for ages as I slogged my way through silicone scraping. I did make sure to thoroughly clean the faces and edges where new silicone was applied, don't worry.
Next steps (after cleanup) will be background construction, then installing the sliding glass door tracks. After that, it'll be moved to its stand and I'll construct and install the screen lid, put in the false bottom and substrate, finish decorating/planting, and install the doors.
Last edited:
