Wow! The gecko looks amazed too! ;-)
Jared Morris wrote:
The giant viv I was talking about back in may is finally finished, and the gecko moved in. The plants have some recovery/growing in to do, and there are always adjustments to be made on a project this large, but all in all, it turned out very nicely if I do say so myself.
It is 7' tall, 2' deep, and 4' wide. the cage itself is 4' tall, 2' deep, 4 feet wide. It is made of birch plywood, sealed with Aquatic Ecosystem's Sweetwater epoxy on the inside (green) and Man'O War Spar marine varnish on the outside. The back wall is covered with corkbark panels from herpsupplies.com and a waterfall of my own design on the far right. The water fall flows into a 5 gallon pool sectioned off from the rest of the floor by two pieces of slate held into place and sealed with Black Handi-Foam from Aquatic Ecosystem's. The water then drains through a standpipe (aquarium hobbyists will know what I mean) into a 10 gallon sump and returned the 7' up by a Rio HF 10 pump. Humidity is kept up with a Sunbeam Ultrasonic Humidifier plumed up to a 1/2" PVC manifold circling the ceiling of the viv, allowing for even distribution of the fog. You'll notice a screen vent below the front window, and at the top of the back wall, this configuration helps promote air circulation without dramatic loss of humidity. It is lit by a 4 x 55 watt Bright Kit from AHsupply.com, with a double-pane Solacryl panel between the lights and the viv. I also added two 4" Hamilton fans to the top of the lighting canopy, one blowing in, the other blowing out, to keep heat buildup to a minimum (these gex like it pretty cool). The Plants include Dracenia, Schaefflera, Lady Palm, Pothos, and Philodendron, with plans to intoduce more exotic additions in the future. I will be adding some liverworts and tropical moss to the land, and some Java Moss and possibly other emergent plants to the pool/waterfall area. The substrate is the Tropical Planting Mix from T&C terrariums (based on the ABG mix), and sits on a screen covered eggcrate drainage platform, 1/2" over the viv bottom. The bottom is plumbed with two 1" bulkhead drains to a 5 gallon bucket underneath. Oh, and the wood is Manzinita I collected in Grass Valley,Ca.
By the way, it currently only holds one male Uroplatus henkeli, but will soon hold a trio when I add two captive bred females.
Thanks for looking,
Jared Morris
-- Hartley Enterprises, Inc. Technical Writing Services ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HeartSong Sanctuary Asian turtles, crested and day geckos, and frogs http://home.netcom.com/~mhartley/
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