Tiger salamander vivarium building.

[grius]

I get so inspired every time I see your work. What is the secret to making those rocks look so textured?

Thanks!
It is fun that some here get inspired off my work

First i put about 5mm thick layer cement that i while its moist work up a little with sharp tools and brush.

 

[JWERNER]

Im confused by your use of the term " wall chart". Im thinking a chart that hangs on your wall with some sort of graph/statistics.:rofl:

Is that supposed to be a back ground for the terrarium or is that going to be hung on your wall?

 

[grius]

Im confused by your use of the term " wall chart". Im thinking a chart that hangs on your wall with some sort of graph/statistics.:rofl:

Is that supposed to be a back ground for the terrarium or is that going to be hung on your wall?

Hehe it is a background poster(maybe a better word

 

[Azhael]

Most impressive!
I would be a bit concerned about the burrowing possibilites, are you planning on providing more possibilities or will it be just the selected areas? I would personally allow them to choose where to burrow instead of pre-selecting the spots, but i suposse your idea can work.

Again, very impressive work, i´m amazed.

 

[JWERNER]

You know, when I first saw that picture of your " wall chart " i had to look at it for quite a few minutes to try to determine if its your terrarium or something out doors that inspired you

That looks impressive for a cling on paper type back ground. I usually do not like a paper back ground. I have to always have a 3D DIY back ground but thats nice!

Now, Im wondering why you cant make a canopy and fit it just like a aquarium canopy regardless of your wall chart.

What are you doing for a lid?

 

[grius]

Most impressive!
I would be a bit concerned about the burrowing possibilites, are you planning on providing more possibilities or will it be just the selected areas? I would personally allow them to choose where to burrow instead of pre-selecting the spots, but i suposse your idea can work.

Again, very impressive work, i´m amazed.

Thanks for those kind words!!

Mm, i first had in mind to build that hill from loose substrate and place the stones directly on the bottom. But if i should do that i will never se one of my tigers again, he/she is a real diger periodically that even wount come out when it is feeding time. I mean if i dont dig him up he may stay underground for to long, so i dig him up hand he eats like crazy. For the moment he lays in a cork hide and comes out directly, but that is not allways the case. And in this much substrate it would be impossible to find him:/ The other one dont dig much and are more active. This is maybe nothing to care about? However it do give me problem to control that he get enough food and vitamine/minerals.

One thought is to cut down some of the landscape so i can have a thicker layer substrate on topp off that, but then i would have to buy new silicone and do it all over again..Too exspensive hehe. I hope they like the new tank, im extremly excited!

 

[grius]

So i did a test today to see that my hole drainage idea work, and it do.

YouTube - TomasSyrsa's Channel

 

[grius]

Most impressive!
I would be a bit concerned about the burrowing possibilites, are you planning on providing more possibilities or will it be just the selected areas? I would personally allow them to choose where to burrow instead of pre-selecting the spots, but i suposse your idea can work.

Again, very impressive work, i´m amazed.

I thought about what you said and decided to lower most part of the landscape. So now i have space for 10cm+ substrat both on left and right side landscape. Much much better.

And today i went to the advertising agency to press the background poster , and it looks great! nice colours and absolutly ok sharpness. So i will get it home tomorrow.

 

[grius]

A quick update.


First i have to tell you that my background poster idea is destroyed! it only gave the tank a more artificial look. So i will not use any background, this is much better i think.

And im planing on place more tree trunks on the landscape, what i can see it looks much better. Those ferns is just something i picked up yesterday during my leaf and grass search, they are allready kind off dead hehe, but that is not so strange as they stand in a open dry terrarium. I shall thou pick some ferns the day before tigers is moving in, just too see if they can survive.

I have a really hard time too find ferns, i have talked to dartfrog but my ferns i want are out off stock för the moment. And the ferns i can find in large plant department stores are certainly sprayed with chemicals for slugs and so, i cant use those. hmm.

 

[JWERNER]

Why not try some tree fern panels or coco fiber panels?

You could even cut a sheet of foam to the size of the back and just attach lots of bark to it. Make sure to keep it running up and down in the same direction so it looks real.

 

[grius]

Why not try some tree fern panels or coco fiber panels?

You could even cut a sheet of foam to the size of the back and just attach lots of bark to it. Make sure to keep it running up and down in the same direction so it looks real.

No nothing like that hehe, im satisfied with how it looks now and i dont have the time to fix a foam backgound.

Regards,

 

[KennyDB]

It looks FANTASTIC! Great job!

 

[grius]

It looks FANTASTIC! Great job!

Thanks Kenny

Tomorrow i shall silcone the landscape on place, rest of the plywood and glass rail.

 

[grius]

Okey so now the terrarium are almost done and i only have too buy some wood(Oak) angel trim to cover all those ugly plywood edges.

I know, that box just looks stupid hehe, but i dont care this time.

And last thing is to cover the coolbox with same plywood as the terrarium. Well i also have to buy some form off LED as night light.

So now i will let the silicone dry until after the expo(next monday) and start furnishing then. I still have probleme were to find unspyaed fernd etc, but do you guys use plants from plant store?

 

[Dreamtheory]

Wow your doing an amazing job! I hope soon I can maybe start a project like this for my Salamander and my new water dragon I just bought yesterday.

You definitely inspire me to do this as well.

I know you use euro's but how much do you estimate that you have spent on this project? I'll have to find a Euro to USD converter but that's fine with me =)

 

[grius]

Wow your doing an amazing job! I hope soon I can maybe start a project like this for my Salamander and my new water dragon I just bought yesterday.

You definitely inspire me to do this as well.

I know you use euro's but how much do you estimate that you have spent on this project? I'll have to find a Euro to USD converter but that's fine with me =)

Hi Dreamtheory.

Glad i can inspire you =) I like this way off furnishing, tree standing from bottom to the roof looks quite natural most of the time.

Well im not entire sure, but i estimate around 800euro belive it or not. This is thoug for everything like freight costs, tools, material, light etc . But i still cant understand HOW i manage to empty 14st tubes silicon on this project. So around 150euro just for silicone, i im ashamed hehe.

Update from 3days ago.

LED i bought some days ago that i wll use for night light. That turned
out perfect really, and the glas surfase are pretty cool so no extra heat there. But of curse it have to paint it darker (blue/green light i think) and for that i use acrylic as i have done before

LED-spotlights 3-pack

I lowered the light on the camera before i took these night pictures, but still i got more light then in real life( you can se that on the stones )

On sunday-tuesday the tigers can move in after a long waiting

I will use ferns from the forest here. And today my glass arrived.

 

[Dreamtheory]

Hi Dreamtheory.

Glad i can inspire you =) I like this way off furnishing, tree standing from bottom to the roof looks quite natural most of the time.

Well im not entire sure, but i estimate around 800euro belive it or not. This is thoug for everything like freight costs, tools, material, light etc . But i still cant understand HOW i manage to empty 14st tubes silicon on this project. So around 150euro just for silicone, i im ashamed hehe.

Update from 3days ago.

LED i bought some days ago that i wll use for night light. That turned
out perfect really, and the glas surfase are pretty cool so no extra heat there. But of curse it have to paint it darker (blue/green light i think) and for that i use acrylic as i have done before

LED-spotlights 3-pack

I lowered the light on the camera before i took these night pictures, but still i got more light then in real life( you can se that on the stones )

On sunday-tuesday the tigers can move in after a long waiting

I will use ferns from the forest here. And today my glass arrived.

^First off, those LED's lights are awesome, I love that. Makes it look like moon light!
2. Holy ****! 800 euro! lol Well seeing as i should be able to pick everything up in stores out here in California, I should be able to save a few hundred.
3. Dang that's a lot of silicon, but definitely worth it.
4. I love the tree stumps, that's actually my favorite part, it definitely gives your habitat a realistic feeling to the next degree.
5. Do you think its possible you could come up with a detailed list of all the supplies you used on this project? I'm going to be starting a project for my salamander this weekend =)

 

[JWERNER]

Woo hoo! More pics!

That's awesome looking! What color LED's did you use? The first pic looks like white but the second looks like blue. It can sometimes be hard to tell in pics.

If you need them dimmer you could hook up a dimmer switch.

I kind of want to do a night light but I don't agree with such bright blue lights being natural as some other people claim but that's just my opinion. I have been thinking about just dimming white LED's or even a white cold cathode light. I have seen the cold cathode dimmed down on other forums and it looks amazing!

I hope to see a new video soon!

 

[Dreamtheory]

Hi Dreamtheory.

Glad i can inspire you =) I like this way off furnishing, tree standing from bottom to the roof looks quite natural most of the time.

Well im not entire sure, but i estimate around 800euro belive it or not. This is thoug for everything like freight costs, tools, material, light etc . But i still cant understand HOW i manage to empty 14st tubes silicon on this project. So around 150euro just for silicone, i im ashamed hehe.

Update from 3days ago.

LED i bought some days ago that i wll use for night light. That turned
out perfect really, and the glas surfase are pretty cool so no extra heat there. But of curse it have to paint it darker (blue/green light i think) and for that i use acrylic as i have done before

LED-spotlights 3-pack

I lowered the light on the camera before i took these night pictures, but still i got more light then in real life( you can se that on the stones )

On sunday-tuesday the tigers can move in after a long waiting

I will use ferns from the forest here. And today my glass arrived.

1st off. I love the lighting you added. Definitely a nice moon light touch. Great Choice!
2. Holy ****!? 800 Euro! Thats alot, but I'm sure i can save a few hundred out here in California.
3. Wow thats a lot of sylicone, but definitely worth it! You habitat is amazing.
4. The wood tree's are an amazing touch, thats my favorite part of your habitat!
5. Can you make a detailed list of all the supplies you used to make this? Because I'm going to start a new project for a better habitat for my salamander this weekend =) I just came into some money because i just sold my 2nd car today

 

[grius]

^First off, those LED's lights are awesome, I love that. Makes it look like moon light!
2. Holy ****! 800 euro! lol Well seeing as i should be able to pick everything up in stores out here in California, I should be able to save a few hundred.
3. Dang that's a lot of silicon, but definitely worth it.
4. I love the tree stumps, that's actually my favorite part, it definitely gives your habitat a realistic feeling to the next degree.
5. Do you think its possible you could come up with a detailed list of all the supplies you used on this project? I'm going to be starting a project for my salamander this weekend =)

I like that LED light to, but i want it a litle darker, so i will use acrylic piant to fix that.
Hehe yes it have been expensive i must say, some misstakes that have cost a litle also. Background poster 50euro in the garbage among other.
Well i belive 8st tubes would have been enough, and i dont know what happened with those other tubes=)
Im glad that i put two more trees in there! now i can se the hole forest look. I dont know if you guys have notice that the stones are longer out from the backwall? I have siliconed a foam 50mm plate extra because the stones was to close the wall. Now i have more room for substrate and the middle extra three trunk.

Yes i can do that.

1) Plywood(form plywood in this case)
2) Casco SuperSet glue and screws to make it extra stabile.
3) Glass silicone both black an transparent.
4) Plastic balcony floor and insect net to make the false bottom. But i supose you can get your hands on egg crates?
5) White insulation foam plates(dont know what you call them)
6)Standard cement that i mixed with fine sand and water.
7) Tapecrete(cement bound that also is great for paintning) You can also put some in your cement/sand and water blend to make it extra strong.
8) Paint pigment powder in difirent colours, that you blend with Tapecreter and water to paint with.
9) A hole bunch of brushes, mixed sizes.
10) Epotex aquarium vanish if you using wood as terrarium material.
11) Cosos/moss/leaf mix on black silicone/foam.
12) T5 fluorescent lamp holder and 1st 6500k(daylight)
13) LED as moon light.
14) Plastic tubes fro drainage.
15) Rainsysteme, most for the plants but also becase they seems to like rain time to time. And it looks nice
16) Glass and E-slide strip.

That is what i can come up with, hope it helps.