My first vivarium!

[RanaVenenosa]

Nice viv - great size also. Like your idea of ledges. Frog will love em too. Hey - I saw your light choice, if its only 2 watts that will not be enough light for your plants -particularly the brom. You might consider the Exo terra 3 bulb fixture and buy some 12-14 watt LED screw in units from light your reptiles (new sponsor) I use them myself and they work nice. You could also use standard CFL but they put off more heat - although some people say the light quality is cheaper per lumen. Anyway, You should be able to ship from USA no problem ( I say this because I bought some Hungarian music CDs about 9 mos ago and didnt have any issues)

Regards

[Philsuma]

Nice size - love those "Euro Vivs". Heh

Keep us posted with pics !

[Convertible]

Nice viv - great size also. Like your idea of ledges. Frog will love em too. Hey - I saw your light choice, if its only 2 watts that will not be enough light for your plants -particularly the brom. You might consider the Exo terra 3 bulb fixture and buy some 12-14 watt LED screw in units from light your reptiles (new sponsor) I use them myself and they work nice. You could also use standard CFL but they put off more heat - although some people say the light quality is cheaper per lumen. Anyway, You should be able to ship from USA no problem ( I say this because I bought some Hungarian music CDs about 9 mos ago and didnt have any issues)

Regards

Thanks RanaVenenosa! The ledges on the wall were just too empty, so I thought sphagnum would look good there and it kinda worked out well so far, the whole tank looks a bit better.

As for the lamp, I'll have to try out, it should be enough for that size, but we'll see.

Nice size - love those "Euro Vivs". Heh

Keep us posted with pics !

Thanks Phil, will do! What's the difference between Euro and US vivs?

[Stu&Shaz]

Hey Marcel good work buddy,in answer to your Q about euro vivs the main differance is ours keep the flies in :lol: sorry guys only joking couldn't help myself.Marcel i'll let our american friends answer this,as i'm intregued as to what they say.
Marcel if your can gently train some or your sunny(the ficus) towards the background you'll find that it will climb all over it it'll look beautiful in time,ficus put out little sticky roots on their tips and use these to climb with. Depending on how much water your substrate holds it might be too wet for your brom there,personally i don't plant many on the floor it can be too moist for them and cause them to rot,but it very much depends on your substrate and its water retaining properties,do you understand me mate,i'll try and word it again if not. Have you tried the companies in germany will they ship to you in Budapest?
Great start my friend,we wish you every success
regards
Stu

[Philsuma]

Euro viv - A much older design with superiour front and top ventilation. Tends to be more "cube like".

American viv - Mass produced Exoterra and Zoo Med designs. Lots of different sizes to choose from and they are actually more fly proof than you think. They have a lot of little mass produced options - places for cords to enter into the viv, screen tops - removable.

[Stu&Shaz]

Euro viv - A much older design with superiour front and top ventilation. Tends to be more "cube like".

American viv - Mass produced Exoterra and Zoo Med designs. Lots of different sizes to choose from and they are actually more fly proof than you think. They have a lot of little mass produced options - places for cords to enter into the viv, screen tops - removable.

Actually Marcel joking aside,serious for a minute,your doors should have a little line of silicone on the rear door in the center where to 2 doors meet,i can't see it in your picture,if its not there you need to install it or your flies will walk out straight between the 2 doors as there is a gap created by the runner.
Regards Stu

[Convertible]

Thank you so much for the replies, Mates!

Marcel if your can gently train some or your sunny(the ficus) towards the background you'll find that it will climb all over it it'll look beautiful in time,ficus put out little sticky roots on their tips and use these to climb with. Depending on how much water your substrate holds it might be too wet for your brom there,personally i don't plant many on the floor it can be too moist for them and cause them to rot,but it very much depends on your substrate and its water retaining properties,do you understand me mate,i'll try and word it again if not. Have you tried the companies in germany will they ship to you in Budapest?

Stu, thanks for the ideas, you are absolutely right about the ficus, I'll try to run them onto the wall, shouldn't be too hard. I still don't have my lightning received, so there is nothing installed at the moment, but the plants seem to go strong anyways. I hope I'll get my LED this week, I've ordered from E.N.T. which you kindly suggested (couldn't order via the website, but we found a way to order through simple mailing, so shipping to Hungary isn't a problem). I undestand what you're telling about the bromelia, I'll try to avoid to pour directly water on it, I mist mostly the other plants.

So here are a few pictures I made yesterday, I'm really sorry for the poor quality, I used to have a Nikon D70, but this is made on my phone:





Here are some I made when I had my cute animals, and my Nikon D70, only to justify the above quality:

[Convertible]

Actually Marcel joking aside,serious for a minute,your doors should have a little line of silicone on the rear door in the center where to 2 doors meet,i can't see it in your picture,if its not there you need to install it or your flies will walk out straight between the 2 doors as there is a gap created by the runner.
Regards Stu

Yeah, I've been thinking about that already, I'll use a mesh strip. Thanks for pointing that out!

[RanaVenenosa]

Wow your photos are fantastic. Great job. If your not a professional, you should be.

Hey I saw your viv pic - appears sunlight is hitting the viv?? is that direct or reflected light?? Direct light will heat up the tank - you will want to move it (assuming it is in its permanent spot now) before adding frogs.) it also occurred to me you could be using lighting gear for photography - but if your not Id sure feel bad if you lost a frog because no one spoke up.

[Convertible]

Wow your photos are fantastic. Great job. If your not a professional, you should be.

Thank you, appreciate it, those pictures are already 5 years old, tho...

Hey I saw your viv pic - appears sunlight is hitting the viv?? is that direct or reflected light?? Direct light will heat up the tank - you will want to move it (assuming it is in its permanent spot now) before adding frogs.) it also occurred to me you could be using lighting gear for photography - but if your not Id sure feel bad if you lost a frog because no one spoke up.

The viv is on the bookshelf, which is near a window, so there is some spreaded light, but no direct sunlight. My ex gf made once a mistake: she thought it would be healthy for our bearded dragon to put outside the tank on the sun... grave mistake, we never did such thing again.

[Convertible]

Riiiiight! I'm glad to announce, that my package arrived today. E.N.T. is doing a very good job! The package was in excellent condition, the stuff inside was well placed, not shaking, no damage, no nothing.

So, here is what I got:

- Drosophila



- Breeding set



- Pea aphids (no adult yet just eggs I guess)



- Colembola (unfortunately still phone cam, so you won't see anything, except if you have a very keen eye)



- LED





As Stu advised, I made my ficus find it's way towards the wall, time will tell...



Not sure about the plant's name, but very cute, nice colors!



My future frog's home!



I used up half of the Colembola's box, seeded them in the viv, I'll keep the other half for breeding purpose, if I don't mess up. I'll wait a few weeks, until I'll get my first frogs, probably september.

[Stu&Shaz]

Hey mate marcel i'm too much a novice myself to give you advice but i'll chuck ideas at ya for you to think on and then maybe ask more experiance guys,than me for their opinions .So a couple of thoughts, how big are the holes in your mesh,our vivs use a stainless steel mesh,of 0.4mm,which is flyproof and holds the airflow down a bit,hence making the ability to reatian humidity easier,i am worried your holes might be to big,its difficult to get a perspective from photos,buddy be warey of using mesh for that door gap,when the doors slide the mesh might scratch them,i wrote to you about how to overcome this but my computer doesn seem to have posted it,well i can't see it on your thread,you can buy a little strip on backing or if you are confident you can diy it.
have great fun with this mate,go slow get all so you are happy with it,you'll soom have your frogs time just slips away,chuffed about your new supplies getting there ok
al the best mate
Stu

[Convertible]

Hello Stu,

yes indeed, those holes are quite big. I'm sure the fruit flies will have an easy access to my living room, if I don't take action. :lol: But of course I will. I'll use the same mesh like I did for the substrate.

[Convertible]

Right, it's been 2 weeks since I got my fruit flies, I decided to separate the original box into 5 different boxes... the result is overwhelming. All 5 boxes are completely full with maggots and already hatched flies. Awesome, I have no so many fruit flies I won't be able to feed them all to my frogs.

I noticed as well: on the bottom of the bromelia's leaves (in the water which pent-up) there are a lot of small, oval, white eggs. If I'm not mistaken, springtails have round eggs. Springtails are dwelling as well. Unfortunately I cannot make a picture of it, camera sucks, but anyone got an idea what those could be?

I still have 1,5 week to get my frogs, so I wanna make sure everything is OK!

[RanaVenenosa]

I raise spring tails in charcoal and leaves or peat w leaf litter on top so have not actually taken time to audit for what the eggs may look like, but when I see baby springs they sooooooo tiny, I am thinking your brom may have eggs from an imported and possibly unfriendly guest. If it were me I would remove the brom and clean with a quick soak in water (add just small amount of bleach) then scrub off the eggs.

Yes, on FF i still throw away more than I actually feed to my frogs. Extra FF are insurance policy for food. You could always try to sell FF to locals if its worth your time.

Good to see your coming along well with your preparations.

[Convertible]

Thanks for your reply!

Those eggs are not sticking to the leaves. They just float on the water which pent-up on the brom's leaves.

Here is (again poor quality, phone cam...) a picture of what they look like:

[Stu&Shaz]

hey marcel,looking good mate...great about your ff's always good to have too many. Mate are those springtails in your brom pools? do they move? i have seen them float in little rafts like that,as you say difficult to see from the pics
Stu.

[Convertible]

Stu, those "eggs" are floating on the water surface, and I see springtails walking nearby, that's why I tought those might be their eggs as well.

[Stu&Shaz]

Stu, those "eggs" are floating on the water surface, and I see springtails walking nearby, that's why I tought those might be their eggs as well.

honestly i don't know mate,i would guess they would be too big to be springtail eggs,but i truely don't know what they might be,hopefully someone else will know what they are.
Stu

[Convertible]

Yesterday I was picking up my "bronzies", to be specific: 5 of them. Unfortunately no pictures of them, just a few random from the breeder's vivs, enjoy.