# My Tall Tale



## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

Thought i'd share the progress of my 60x45x90 tall Exo with you all. I didn't take any photos of the construction so i'll try explain what i've done so far.

I built quite a high false floor for this build as I want it to hold quite a lot of water. I made a large space in the front left corner for a pool area but also made a slightly smaller pool area at the back left where im housing a pump. In the area between the pools i've filled with old filter sponges to stop any debris getting into the pump and hold some good bacteria.

Over the back left pool area i've used 2 old filter boxes from Juwel aquariums to construct a duct that runs the height of the tank. I used a dremmel to cut in vents in both to draw air in and out. In between the 2 boxes I created a holder for the fan to sit. The fan can be easily taken out for access down into the pump section. The tubing for the waterfall runs out just below the bottom vent and will flow down the wood piece into the pool.

The background is just the typical foam, silicone and coco fibre method (glass siliconed first) with a few pieces foamed in. The main driftwood piece is 1 large piece and one smaller foamed together and covered with silicone and coco fibre. It was wrapped in cling film when the background was foamed and put into place to create a recess where it would sit, so it doesn't have to be fixed in place and can be removed if needs be. It also sits on a second false floor to give more area for substrate. 

The back and sides were sprayed with a black gloss spray paint to make sure no foam shows through. The only things left to do for this build is get the glass top cut, find something to stand it on and spray paint the front panel but I will build up the pool area first so I know where to leave paint free. Then comes the fun part......PLANTING!! :2thumb:

I have most of my plants sitting in a greenhouse already so this build should hopefully be up and running soon. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask away.


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## Scubadiver (Jun 13, 2014)

That looks fantastic! I'm in the middle of a similar build myself at the moment, can I ask what spray paint you're using?


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## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

Scubadiver said:


> That looks fantastic! I'm in the middle of a similar build myself at the moment, can I ask what spray paint you're using?


Thanks. It's Wilko's own brand black gloss spray paint, costs about £4. It's only used on the outside of the glass.


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## Scubadiver (Jun 13, 2014)

Ah, gotcha, I just re-read it. As you might have guessed I'm pondering inside colour solutions


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## soundstounite (Sep 6, 2009)

Nice pops:no1: whose it for?

suba you can create a similar effect to papa by using black silicone on the inside of the tank,use a damp flat bit of wood sort of like a chisel shape to spread it,soaking the wood means the silicone won't adhere to it,so a douddle to work with and keep clean. Papa sorry for the derail I hope that is what he was after

seeya

Stu


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## Scubadiver (Jun 13, 2014)

Thanks! Yep, black silicone and eco earth is what I'm using so far, paint sounded interesting until I read it properly! (It's a big build....)

So yeah Papa, who are the planned occupants and when are the plants going in? :mf_dribble:


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## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

No that's fine Stu, always welcome the knowledge of others :notworthy:

It's most likely going to be a group of leucs or mysties. Need something that will take full advantage of the space. This will be quite heavily planted so would have to be bold too so yeah that's what im thinking : victory:


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## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

Forgot to add to the beginning of this thread, the lighting is 2 Beamswork LED plant canopies. x48 0.5W, 6500k LEDs, 1980 Lumens each.

The fan is a Zalman ZM-FI PLUS (SF) 80mm connected to a Zalman Fan Mate 2 Speed Controller. I then cut off the 3pin connector of the controller and wired it up to a cheap AC Adapter I matched up with the equipment.

And the pump is a simple submersible pump from All Pond Solutions.


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## soundstounite (Sep 6, 2009)

Don't know about knowledge bro,but we all try to help each other so thanks for being so understanding.:no1:

Ha brill leucs or mysties now there's a hard choice actually a seriously hard choice:bash::bash:. 

Got it, to save you agonizing over this choice which is going to be impossible , it will cause you stress ,premature aging and hairloss:gasp: I've come up with a brilliant solution based on my complete inexperience and useless grasp of dart keeper psychology.

Dude ya totally have to build another viv,init:whistling2:,so ya can have both:mf_dribble:

Buddy I'm sorry ,I'm fighting some very hard core stuff, so needed to make some one smile. Both leucs and mysties will use every inch you give them. Both species are bold,tricky to pick which as bolder,I guess,but I suppose mysties might get the nod there. Mysties seem to like people,it's a silly comment to make,but they are how they are for us at least. I can pretty much call our lot to the front of viv if someone is in the room and gets close to their viv they gravitate to the front to see what is going down. Leucs seem not quite so interested in us. I'm really nit picking here buddy,just to try and give you a little more insight. We keep both side by side ,so as far a room variables,in viv conditions pretty much identical. It seems to work well. Maybe uvb and vit A might be more of importance to the mysties especially when cycling up to breed. I think mysties are overall in a better place now than when I started keeping them,as a whole the hobby seems to fair much better now with breeding success than just those few years back when we started

Which ever frog you choose I think they will enrich your life bro,both are full of character and supremely entertaining to watch and care for,choose the one that appeals most to you pop's, as with any dart. These will hopefully be your mates for a long time ,two fantastic species of dart

Oh papa best have your name please,can't keep calling ya pop's it's making me feel too young to have a grown up kid myself:lol2:

all the luck dude

Stu


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## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

Made my day that reply Stu hahaha :2thumb:

Don't worry I have many plans for future vivariums haha. 

This one will hopefully be completely ready for frogs in a few month so with luck i'll have there will be plenty of both available for me to play an unbearably long game of "eenie meenie miny moe" and i'll get the other species later haha. 

I still need to stock my other viv with my first frogs. God knows when that will happen as I have no spare cash atm. My other half wanted to get me some for my birthday this Saturday but as luck would have it im not sure if we're breaking up or not. Swear I could fall into a bag of tits and come out sucking my thumb lol :blush:

Steven :welcome:


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## kwiky (Sep 3, 2006)

Well that's mysties pretty much sold to me as my next frog too.. My daughters wants me to get pums though Lol

Cracking build by the way


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## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

I realise it has been forever since I have updated this thread, apologies, life has a way of getting in the way of things as we all know. Still not 100% finished, want to move a few things around, add a few more things, etc.

I haven't filled up the base to get the waterfall running as I do not trust the chest of drawers to handle the weight. Anyway here is how it's looking as of today.


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## Basin79 (Apr 1, 2014)

Stunning.


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## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

Thanks man. Im wanting this to get very brom heavy on top. Will be ordering a few more plants asap too.


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## frogman955 (Feb 7, 2010)

Looking good Steven.


Mike


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## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

Thanks Mike hopefully this grows in as well as the other viv.


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## frogman955 (Feb 7, 2010)

I`m sure it`ll be fine.



Mike


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## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

Just little update on this.

A few more broms are in this tank, but only until their pups are ready to remove then i'll have a little rearrange. Added a maidenhead fern up top, im prepared for some die off from it so close to the lights but as I found from my ex's crested tank I set up, once acclimatised they should love it up there.

Also this tank is now home to my four young netted leucs, who are loving all that space and height. So maybe it's time to clear out the pool section and risk filling the false bottom to get the waterfall and pool in action. Fingers crossed the drawers can handle the extra weight!


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## demon3000 (Nov 23, 2013)

Very nice looks great well done :2thumb:


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## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

Thanks man. Got an image in my head of how it's going to look when it matures so hopefully it lives up to that :2thumb:


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## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

Getting some surprise visitors in the vivarium. They only seem to live for a day or two. And they must be tasty as when they die, the springtails and woodlice soon make it disappear.


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