New Salamander Vivarium Project

[SkinksGalore77]

I am starting to build a vivarium for my northern red salamander and possibly get one or two more tank mates. I am going to make it 1/4 water and 3/4 land with a river going down the entire land section. The tank is very large it is 48X18-1/2X24" (LXDXH). I am going to keep it as cheap and simple as possible. So far I have the tank, 2 cork bark tubes, 2 plastic bins, fluval 305 filter(which I already had), 5 3oz tubes of black aquarium sealent.

Here is a picture of the empty tank
file:///C:/Users/Robbie/Pictures/Aquarium.jpg

These are how the cork bark tubes looked after I trimmed and cut them to size
file:///C:/Users/Robbie/Pictures/CBT Piece #1.jpg
file:///C:/Users/Robbie/Pictures/CBT Piece #2.jpg

And here is it as the full river. Its 36-1/2" long
file:///C:/Users/Robbie/Pictures/Final CBT Riverbed.jpg

I just finished waterproofing the cork bark tube riverbed and setting it up in the tank.
file:///C:/Users/Robbie/Pictures/After Waterproofing #1.jpg
file:///C:/Users/Robbie/Pictures/After Waterproofing #3.jpg

Feel free to leave feedback and I hope you enjoy ill post more pics when I get further. Thanks

 

[Azhael]

The pictures aren´t working for me.
Please upload them using the attachment manager integrated in the forum.

 

[SkinksGalore77]

Whoops sorry about that.

 

[FrogEyes]

file:///C:/Users/

That's not an online address. It's a location on the hard drive [drive "C"] of the computer you are using. For anyone else to see files there [which they can't], they would have to access your HD. Assuming 100000 people viewed this thread at one time, would you REALLY want that happening?

 

[SkinksGalore77]

Ok sorry guys but ive actually decided that im going to make this a very detailed vivarium so it is going to be a while longer before any real progress is made. Ill keep you updated

 

[SkinksGalore77]

Ok so I finally got around to doing some work on the vivarium the last couple of days after waiting for a few things to get here in the mail. I will explain the process up until now in detail. I started by taking some measurements and figuring out how I wanted it to look, there have been a few changes along the way but nothing mager. The cage measures 48X18X24" (L,W,H) 1/4 of it is going to be a water section(not including the river) and 3/4 will be land. I got a piece of acrylic from TAP Plastics cut to size for the divider leaving barely any space between the divider and the cage sides, but before I sealed it in I got a piece cut out for the river to sit in so the river can be a little deeper. The river is just 2 large pieces of cork bark tube that I cut to size and stuck together to make it one 38" piece. To be sure no water leakage happens on the land side I have taken a shower curtain and cut a piece out to cover the bottom half of the cork bark tube, I stapled it into the cork bark and where the river sticks into the water sectiong a little bit I have folded the shower curtain back and used black aquarium sealent to glue the shower curtain to the divider hopefully shown well in the new pictures. To save money on the land side instead of using a ton of pebbles or clay pebbles for the false bottom I found a plastic bin that fit the measurements I needed perfectly for the cork bark riverbed to sit on. I have also attached cork bark to the back and sides, I made it sideways to make it look like a scene next to a large fallen tree. I have also cut a small piece of the plastic bin under the cork bark riverbed out in the back right corner because I am going to put a PVC pipe to the bottom of the cage so during the rainy season when lots of water goes through and under the substrate I can easily drain it. I also have a piece of cork bark to hide the PVC pipe and make it look more natural. Thats all I have done so far but I will update anyone who's reading this once I get further which should be soon as long as the watertight test for the riverbed goes smoothly tomorrow. Hope you enjoy. Whoops also I forgot to mention that I decided I was going to put a large plant in one corner and it had a long tall branch so I decided to start trying to train it to stay down so it can go across the cage. Enjoy

 

[SkinksGalore77]

I finally finished the cage up. It took so long because initially the first watertight test worked perfect but after I set up the entire cage a leak sprouted and over a period of about 5 days it was a full blown leak so I had to take the entire cage apart and adjust some things to make it work. Anyways here it is, at last. Sorry about the bad picture quality, all I have is a cell phone camera. Enjoy

 

[SkinksGalore77]

Here are the rest of the pics, again sorry about the bad quality.

 

[Scorpion]

it looks awesome!

 

[Nettuno]

very naturalistic, compliment! it is very beautiful.

 

[SkinksGalore77]

Well unfortunately i've run into another problem. The cork bark riverbed has started to grow mushrooms in it so I am going to have to replace it. So to anyone thinking about using cork bark in the water please dont. I will update soon