need some feedback/advice

need some feedback/advice

Postby AS.Legion » Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:55 am

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

Here is my basic design for it:
Image (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
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby bradmiller » Thu Sep 27, 2012 10:03 pm

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

Postby AS.Legion » Fri Sep 28, 2012 6:41 am

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
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby AS.Legion » Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:06 am

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:

Image

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

Image

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

Image


I am getting the wood today or tomorrrow so I will hopefully post pics again soon.
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby bradmiller » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:56 pm

cool... looks fairly real.
does it form any other function than being a rock i.e. a hide as well?
You know, you can touch a stick of dynamite, but if you touch a venomous snake it’ll turn around and bite you and kill you so fast it’s not even funny.
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby AS.Legion » Tue Oct 02, 2012 1:05 pm

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.
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby AS.Legion » Mon Oct 08, 2012 6:14 am

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.

Image
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby lerikoen » Tue Oct 09, 2012 10:50 am

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?
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby bradmiller » Tue Oct 09, 2012 11:03 am

looking good - did you seal the joints properly?
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby AS.Legion » Tue Oct 09, 2012 1:42 pm

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.
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby AS.Legion » Fri Oct 12, 2012 5:51 am

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)
Image

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.
Image
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby kfc223 » Fri Oct 12, 2012 7:21 am

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.
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby AS.Legion » Fri Oct 12, 2012 7:32 am

Te problem is, and why I did not want to use them, is that it wont be sliding glass... so it will be intersting
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby fastback » Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:14 am

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?
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Re: need some feedback/advice

Postby AS.Legion » Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:23 am

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.
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