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Dart Den

Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

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18" cube, hood and stand build
#1
I picked up an 18" Zoomed cube in a trade and decided to give it the full stand and hood treatment. I don't have a frog room so my vivs are placed around the house. I prefer that they look like furniture grade display vivs. This build is a simple pedestal with what is hopefully a unique top. So here are some shots:
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This is a slim line hood that will house three 13 w Jungle Dawns, a moon light and a blow hole style vent that will cool the hood and draw air from the upper front vent in the viv. Fast forward to the finish stage:
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This viv is for my son who's a Spider-Man fan. So I dug around in the attic in my bin-o-spare PC mod parts and...
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In terms of the design idea, here is the inverted hood with the 80 mm fan installed:
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It will pair up with the front vent along the top of the viv. Here's a picture of the vent, glass and privacy appliqué installed. I opted for a sheet of cut glass siliconed directly to the frame this time:
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The viv is assembled and seeded with springtails, dwarf striped isopods and jungle micropods. I'll post tank shots tomorrow!
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#2
Nice job. Very clean looking.

Let me know if you need some spiders to finish off the theme.
brad
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#3
:lol: thanks! This has been a fun one. I have to keep everything hidden so my kid doesn't press buttons or yank cords. Both fly and kid proofing on this project!
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#4
Very cool work there Jim ! Let us know how that monsoon works. Is it the 2.0 version ?
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#5
Yeah it's a 2.0 so we will see. Every once in a while the amazon price drops on them so I got this one for under $90 - the lowest I have seen from amazon has been about $75 shipped.

I have another running 4 heads on my two 18x18z24's that has been working fine for over a year once I switched to an external timer. I have a big enough FB in this viv that I can take a flood if something with the timer goes bad on this unit. I wonder if some of the issues come from using the refill cap - I don't use it, I remove the cover and top up directly into the reservoir. Anyhow I will definately keep everyone posted Smile
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#6
Here are a few tank shots. I've already moved around plants since I took this photo so we will see what the final planting looks like in a few weeks:
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And the future inhabitants who are eager to get into their new digs:
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Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#7
Jim
Nice Job! Very prof looking. That is great that you can share the hobby w your kids.
Scott - North Dallas
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#8
Thanks Scott! Yeah it's pretty cool how into the frogs he has gotten. Both kids like them but my son has really been into counting froglets. He's pretty stoked about his bakhuis and he checks their QT viv each day. I am pleased with the bakhuis - they are constantly out and show no fear. They will be perfect for him.
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#9
My wife made a comment on the frogs few days ago..."oh those blue frogs are pretty... hmm you can actually see them most of the time. Why dont you buy more like that?"
Scott - North Dallas
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#10
:lol: I had a similar experience - the only requirement from the better half was "can you get him frogs he will actually see?"

He was giving a frog tour the other day (he likes showing off his frogs), he went by the azureus viv and said "there are two blue ones in here" ... pause ... "there they are! see?" Then he went to the red galact viv ... " there are red ones in there, but we can't see them. Sad " Bakhuis it is....
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#11
Assembled the components today. No lights yet - 13W JungleDawns from Todd should be here in a week or so. Man do I hate waiting Smile This stand is 19" high, plus 1" of foam, so the viv sits 20" off the ground - perfect viewing height for a preschooler:
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The vent seems to be working well. The weather stripping has made a pretty tight seal around the perimeter of the hood, and the glass cleared up within 20 minutes of turning on the fan:
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Tight fit on the molding - no little fingers getting in there:
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Here's the back of the cabinet where the mister and power strips are located. Everything is velcro mounted in case I need to take anything down or move them. I'll finish off the cable management once the lamps show up:
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Timers waiting for their JD lamps...
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Mister, fan, and moonlight timer power, fan speed controller to the far right:
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I'm trying these from Todd:
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Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#12
First day of temp and humidity data is back and it's pretty consistent! I am surprised at how well our new AC unit is holding the temperature and humidity (our first dehumidifier). The ambient temperature in the zone is 75F and the RH is roughly 50%, but that is in a different room, so it could be the ambient temps are 2 degrees lower where the viv is located. Here are the time series plots from the first day - keep in mind there are no lights installed yet:
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The temps are rock solid (don't worry about min max right now, just the "average" row)! I expect we'll see a fluctuation in temps once the lamps are installed and running, but I hope it won't be too high with the hood design. I'm a little concerned about the RH being as high as it is. I'm going to back off the mister cycle a bit and see if I can get it down into the 80's. Overall, I'm pleased with the initial data. We'll see more variation in the gradient shading once a get a few more days of data in.
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#13
Meanwhile over in QT a shot just prior to dumping flies. Talk about aggressive eaters:
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Kind of reminds me of that scene in ALIENS when they pop the ceiling tile and see the xenomorphs crawling slowly, inevitably toward them and you get that sinking feeling of doom. Smile Quite beautiful frogs and so bold. Waiting on QT and fecals sucks! Wink There is just something about tincs ...
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Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#14
JungleDawn LEDs should be here midweek! Until then I have been fine tuning the temperature and humidity of the viv. Here is the hourly averages across multiple days for temperature and relative humidity:
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Here you can see the impact of increasing the exhaust fan speed from the minimum to the maximum setting:
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The temps have dropped about 2 to 3 degrees and the humidity has come down from the high 90's to the mid 90's. I suspect the temps will rise and the humidity will fall slightly when the LED lamps show up.
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#15
And a few more shots of the future inhabitants:
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Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#16
Lights are in from Todd at lightyourreptiles.com! Figured I'd share the unpacking process. I picked up 3x13w Jungle Dawn LEDs with fixtures that I can mount. I also picked up a blue LED strip.
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Alright! Next post will be pictures of the installation of the bulbs. I have not even finished tapping this message out and my daughter has confiscated the pink LED pen. Smile
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#17
ahh..the Christmas-like joy of the 'unboxing', so much so that you shared it with us. I feel like Todd just sent ME a box of lighty goodness. LED pens...marketing genius!
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#18
No kidding Phil! They were supposed to arrive yesterday but they were delayed ... oh the agony of waiting ONE more day Wink

The lights were easy to install. I used wood screws and washers that I had on hand. I have four timers running the four fixtures. I'll plot up the timing sequence and pictures of the lighting effects tomorrow. Here's a pick of the slimline hood with the fixtures installed.

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More tomorrow!
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#19
Philsuma Wrote:ahh..the Christmas-like joy of the 'unboxing', so much so that you shared it with us. I feel like Todd just sent ME a box of lighty goodness. LED pens...marketing genius!

The LEDs pens have turned out great for checking in cups and broms for eggs and tads!!!.

we will start on your Christmas goody box when you are ready, Phil. Smile

Cheers
Todd
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#20
OK! Now I am going to bore you with cable management shots!
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Phew! If I still have your interest, here's how the lights are wired. I kept everything on it's own cheapo digital timer. I had a few spares from decommissioning a few fish tanks. I have four total timers, three on the 13W JungleDawns + mini-mounts and 1 on the moonlight. I staggered the start times by 2 hours moving from right to left to simulate the sun rising. I then staggered shutting off the fixtures from right to left by two hours, simulating the sun setting. Here is the timing chart with hours of the day represented by each row:
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That's it! I have [more] plants arriving mid-week since I managed to melt about 50% of my first batch from the local nursery. This time I have an order coming in from NE Herp. Cool stuff! I'll be checking the data recorder later and I'll post back on how the pre-lighting environment looked. I'll pull more data for the next week to get a handle on what the temp/humidity conditions look like with full lighting.
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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