Smoke-Town's vivarium build thread

[Smoke-Town]

Hi guys. I recently bought 2 young crested geckos from the local reptile expo. They currently reside in little 2 and 2.5 gallon containers while i hurry up and get this tank set up. So here goes.

I started with this 30 gallon long tank. Which I know isn't ideal for these geckos as it has low walls. But that's what I had available so it'llbe fine for a year anyway or wwhenever I build a bigger one.

The tank is drilled near the bottom corner as I used it for a salt water system years ago. So I decided to use that to my advantage and make a false bottom and keep that open for an easy drain spot via turkey baster.
I also wanted the tank to have a clean look and not just a dirt floor so I'm trying something a little different by using foam floor boards with cut out "garden spots". This also will hopefully make it less likely for these guys to ingest dirt. You may at first think that this layer takes away more crucial vertical space but if these 1 inch thick foam boards weren't here it would just be another inch of soil anyway.
So here you can see I cut 8 pvc pipe piece at one inch and placed a sheet of egg crate over it giving me 1.5 inches of space under the false bottom. This is then covered with a fine stainless mesh. I added sides to the false bottom just to keep everything clean as possible but it's not necessary if you egg crate the whole bottom. But mine has a border so the dirt won't be against the glass.
I also cut out a few little water dishes.. I added coins to give them a little weight.

 

[Smoke-Town]

Then I went along the Hudson River and found some driftwood. Baked it for 25 minutes at 250 degrees and cut it to fit and bored a few holes.

then I started working on the background using egg crate as a base and then coating it with great stuff. One word of caution. . The great stuff kinda warped my egg crate so it isn't straight anymore. I've yet to address this issue but I'm sure I'll figure something out once it dries up and all. If I were to do it again I would nail down the 4 corners or try to find 1 inch thick egg crate for back instead of half inch if they make it. But here it is

 

[Smoke-Town]

I built a little hide in the wall with a little hill to go over the raised section of false bottom for the drain. I also carved all the great stuff to resemble rocks.
then I painted a base coat of dark gray by pouring black acrylic paint into the drylok waterproof sealer. Drylok covered everything good. No issues with the great stuff other then that it makes some air pockets that are hard to get into but I'll work on those after this first base coat dries. Of course it's rainy and humid and may be for a few days so this is as far as it goes for now. I have a fan on it and hopefully it will be dry enough by tomorrow to do more work and test fit it and mock up with some plants. I may add detail to the 3 foam floor panels if it looks too fake or sterile. But I may like it with the flat floor. We will see soon. Should look cool either way. Something different. Thanks for looking. Comments and criticism welcomed.

 

[Smoke-Town]

K. Everything is dry today. Put everything together to make sure all fits well and to take a couple mock up pictures to get an idea of it. I think I like the flat featureless ground. I think it will look good once plants and soil are in. So I'm gonna keep it like that for now. Abg mix and moss and a couple plants and screen top are in the mail. So probably Monday or Tuesday for that. Today or tomorrow I will paint everything again but I need to go buy more black paint so I might not get around to this until tomorrow. Well here it is for now. Looks pretty cool.

 

[Smoke-Town]

K I put more dark gray in all he recesses. Then went over all the tops and some sides with a lighter gray. Then finally dry brushed everything with a very light gray for high lights. U can see one picture has it half done to show how much difference in depth and details it makes. Also put a little paint on 2 dishes for water and food. Just waiting on abg mix in the mail. Not sure when it's gonna come

 

[Smoke-Town]

These pictures are a bit clearer. You can see all the deep air pockets still yellowish and how sloppy I was near the wood. But you can't really see any of it when it's all together plus I will be putting some mosses in those areas. And I glued on the stick that I forgot about when I sprayed the foam on. Hopefully it sticks well.

 

[GeckosAreCute]

Man would you sell one of these in the future. I may sooner or later have a first batch of baby crested geckos and I will need a second terrarium and I like the wood and rock style and stuff like that you made.

 

[Smoke-Town]

Hey. It's been about 8 months since the tank has been up and running and it's gone through several changes. I changetthe sticks around once in a while and some plants come in and out like the jades and orchids. The biggest real change though has been the flooring. That cut out fake floor was cool when it was new but way too impractical to keep cleaned so i ripped them out and used layers of stones. Much better.
here's a handful of pictures from between then and now.
I've actually thought about making and selling these. I'll be making a large custom enclosure for these guys with a cool piece of furniture I have if this terrible York winter ever ends. I learned a lot from this build and I'll be trying some different things with it that i think will work better. After that is done I may make a couple 30 or 55 gallon enclosures to sell.

 

[Smoke-Town]

 

[LepoInc]

Obviously you probably wouldn't them together if they didn't, but the anole and crested get along? And are capable of living together? That'd be pretty cool because I've never wanted any anole's until I saw this

 

[Smoke-Town]

Anoles are actually great little pets. Justbe aware they need crickets every 2or 3 days which can be annoying so you'll need a little cricket pen so you can buy several dozen at once to have food on hand as needed. But they offer so much movement and personality during the day when the geckos are on the ground sleeping.

I'm not interested in turning my build thread into a husbandry war as I'm sure many self proclaimed experts are cringing their teeth at my mixing species but they have all been together for 8 months without ever an issue not even while all were awake and hunting crickets. They compliment each other well with similar (not identical) living requirements and with space occupation. During the day the geckos sleep on the ground in little dirt hole or under a plant and the anoles sun bathe and stay at top half of tank mostly. During the night the anoles mostly stay sleeping at the top while the geckos explore all over. One anole sleeps right on that middle plant and the geckos don't bother him.

 

[Smoke-Town]

2 prowling geckos and a sleeping anole. Last night



This is the piece I'll be turning into their new home as soon as we get some spring time weather. Already comes with a light. So it's a good starting point and great dimensions.





This my piebald ball python next to the lazards.