need some feedback/advice

[AS.Legion]

OK.. So I am building my first tank and need some advice.

Here is my basic design for it:
(sorry that it is skew but photobucket is messing around) the bottom is on the right. the solid lines will be wood with 3 glass panes in front.

So the design is for a crested gecko. I am planning of building a waterfall in the back and have live plants. the false bottom will be made of clayton covered by a net and substrate.

The glass on the 2 sides will be inlaid by 1cm into the adjacent wood and the middle glass will be a door.

So... what do you guys think and can you see and shortfalls? or any heads up?

Thanks

[bradmiller]

looks cool - should try using sketchup no need for rules and pencils - and does the measurements well enough to make cutting ans sizing lists.

[AS.Legion]

Cool... thanks for the tip:

OK.. so what I will be doing is updating every weekend, with my goals for that week.

Goals for this coming week is play around with styrofoam to create a fake backwall (just for practises) and to at least build the partial tank up.

One of the problems I foresee is that I cant completely build the Vivarium up due to space limitations when I do the interiour decorations. Especially the waterfall and rock wall

[AS.Legion]

So here we got the first rock I made.
This is my first attempt, so please no "This looks ugly" unless you got some advice of making in better.

I used Expender foam to get the basic form and used a knive to cut it into a better shape:



I used grouting to cover the design and mixed some black acrylic for the 'shadow'



After the grouting is done and I drybrushed it a bit this was the finished result:




I am getting the wood today or tomorrrow so I will hopefully post pics again soon.

[bradmiller]

cool... looks fairly real.
does it form any other function than being a rock i.e. a hide as well?

[AS.Legion]

At the moment not.... although one could customize it pretty easily.
For now I am just playing around with the effects because of the rockwall I am building for the Vivarium.

[AS.Legion]

So. The weekend has passed faster than I would like but oh well.

I have started on constructing the bottom cupboard that the Vivarium will stand on.

I just have to mount the top piece and the door. After that I will start on the Vivarium.

As usual, any feedback is appreciated.

[lerikoen]

You sure are putting in a lot of effort - I love that, something about doing it yourself makes it even more special. Keep us updaterd on your progress! And sorry if this is a silly question, or if you've mentioned it in another post, but what will go into this vivarium?

[bradmiller]

looking good - did you seal the joints properly?

[AS.Legion]

There are no such things as silly questions.
I am building it up for a crested gecko but a lot of the actual space will be taken up by plants.

As to the sealing.
This part is just a bottom cupboard that goes with the Vivarium. I could not find any furniture that would suit the Vivarium so I decided to design a cupboard for it as well.

For the actual Vivarium I am using non toxic, water resistant wood glue for all the joints. the bottom level wil be sealed with silicone which I will cure for at least a week.

Other than that I stil need to sit down and actually think about it.
I know I will incorporate a PVC pipe in the backwall for access to cables and pump, as well as using clayton as a fake bottom. Doing research as each stage is completed.

[AS.Legion]

OK.

So I just ran into another hickup with the tank. The wood that I bought (melamine) is not strong enough to use a router on in order to mount the glass into the wood itself.
So I bought some normal railing. I will use painter mate in order to cover the railing once it is on so the end result will not change from my original design (looks wise)


On other news.
I picked up my crestie yesterday evening from a member here called Bjorn. Thanks a lot mate. All the way to the end he kept in contact and would recommend him for sourcing.

Seeing that one cannot sex them 100% I got 2 names: Azure if it is a male and Azura if it is female.

[kfc223]

Well done so far, most if not all of us use those rails when installing sliding glass.

Your little girl/guy looks great! Bjorn sells great quality stuff and good prices.

[AS.Legion]

Te problem is, and why I did not want to use them, is that it wont be sliding glass... so it will be intersting

[fastback]

It might be a bit late, but why not build a frame out of wood for your glass to sit in, will look better than rails?

[AS.Legion]

If you look at the first pic you will see the wooden frames.

I should hopefully be done this weekend. Then I will post a few pics.