Custom terrarium hardware finally found - gimmie some input!

[swords]

Hi folks! I've finally found some parts I've long needed for building a custom landscape vivarium which I didn't know where to get until now. I found them at the most unlikely place: Rockler's woodworking shop. I'm going to go buy them on Thursday if they're available in the local retail shop otherwise I'll order online.

The parts in consideration:

Here is a free swinging (no drill) glass door hinges for 1/4" glass panels:
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=132

Here's the low profile magnet catches to go with that (I would use a magnet set on top and bottom)
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=142

And what seems for me the creme de la creme, the "dutch" sliding door track that holds two 1/4" glass panels:
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=2275

If you were going to build a custom vivarium of 4 ft W x 3 ft H x 2 ft D with most of the whole front as glass (24" W x 24" H doors if swinging and 24" x 26" panels if sliding) would you use the sliding track or the magnet/hinge setup? Could the magnet/hinge setup "go bad" in a very high humidity environment as a jungle viv with possible waterfall?

My 56 gal viv so far only has one female Anole (hatched out of an egg hidden in a plant pot a year or so ago) but I was thinking if I get the new one setup and stabilized nicely by mid summer or fall I'd like to get a group of dart frogs or some other sort of small, colorful & singing frogs in there. Any species suggestions for these criterion I could do some research on?

 

[seedjar]

Seems to me that the slider would be less prone to accidental breaking. The only real advantage in swinging doors is that you can open both at the same time. With sliding doors, you can take the panels out of the track to get the whole doorway open, but it is a bit of a hassle. On hinges, you always run a risk of opening/closing the door too hard and breaking it (which should be pretty unlikely with 1/4" glass,) or leaving the door open and then cracking your head on corner (something I do regularly on my kitchen cabinets.) All in all, it's a pretty even call. Unless you're particularly accident-prone, I say go with whatever you like the look of best.
Definitely off-topic, but why did you italicize "small, colorful & singing?"
~Joe

 

[blokeman]

i think the swinging door would be a sharper look, and what about those magentic touch latches, those would absorb/damper more swining motion (in regards to the accident prone comment), more than the low pro one's at least, but might run the risk of jamming up i suppose. GREAT FIND! my friend is making a custom terra, i'll let him know about these products...

 

[swords]

My main fear is the critters escaping the enclosure as I mist or otherwise work on the tank. They won't last with my two cats around, lol!

My fave design is the sliding track, after years of lusting after the European vivariums. I'm just wondering if there's anything I'm not considering about a sliding door.

I guess I italicized the words cos those are my main requirements for a set of frogs. I'd definitely like them to be daytime active as well. I love the Red Eyes but since they sleep all day that's rather dull.

 

[seedjar]

Who cares if they sleep all day? Put in a set of night lights ("moon lights," perhaps?) in the blacklight or far red spectrum so that you can see at night without disrupting the photoperiod. If you're interested in that kind of frog, I say you should find a way to make it work. (Don't tell me you're not up at night to enjoy them, heh.)
As for the slider, I think it would definitely be a better choice over swinging doors if you have jumping critters. With a swinging door it's either open or shut - as soon as it swings wide enough to allow access, something as small as a frog should have little trouble getting around the edges. I agree with bloke than swinging doors look nicer, but it sounds to me like they aren't as practical for your application.
Have you seen the vivariums where the doors are raised above the base of the tank? There's a strip of solid wall that runs along the base of the front and the doors are mounted above it, so that the bottom of the tank is totally walled in and you have to get in through the top half of the front wall. I think that might be a good design choice for frogs since they'd need an upward trajectory to get out - my thought is that hopefully that would make it easier to notice them as they escape.
This sounds like a really fun project - I'm totally jealous. Keep us posted.
~Joe

PS - About frogs, have you read about how people find frogs hunting in Heliamphora pitchers? I think it would be really cool to do a tank with some Helis and associated frogs. You could do some interesting waterscaping stuff with mosses, rock shelves and waterfalls - maybe even make a "cloud waterfall" with an ultrasonic fogger? How unbearably cute would it be to see some little tree frogs nestled into pitchers, waiting for their dinner to come along? Arg, now I need to make one for myself!

 

[D_muscipula]

I have swinging doors on my 3 foot terrarium, it has two of them on the front and it makes it very easy to access the plants. One thing I would like to say is that glass is heavier and easier to cut yourself on if it is not beveled. I built the tank out of glass but the doors are plexiglass, you can't tell the difference.

 

[swords]

Yup Seedy, you've got it! The front doors will be raised 8" off the bottom (and 3" down from the top). There will be an 8" brace at the bottom and 3" brace at the top where the door track or magnets would sit.

The viv itself will be built of wood that's covered inside with fiberglass tub surround (making the wood waterproof), after assembly all interior joins will be siliconed like a fish tank.

Next goes in a huge but shallow (4" deep) under bed storage bin that just fits the inner dimensions of the tank as a "for sure" waterproof resivor. The back and side walls and probably 2/3 of the resivor bin will have "organic land masses" built up with Good Stuff urethane spray foam impregnated with driftwood, rocks, net pots and cork bark tubes. All foam will be hidden by black silicone and coco coir, so moss, orchids and other goodies can easily grow all over it.

Not sure if I'll do a waterfall coming out of the back wall or just leave the resivor as a place to collect run off from watering and the daily misting, like a mini "bog".

 

[JMurphy97]

Nice I'm trying to get ideas to build something like this for my plants, just out of wood. Post pics when it's done.

 

[seedjar]

I want to see this thing in action. I order you to build it, immediately!
~Joe

 

[swords]

I wanted to do this a year or so ago. I even bought 15 tubes of the "correct" (non-toxic) black silicone and a bale of coco coir. I just didn't get round to it cos I couldn't locate these sliding track parts.
But when I wake up later it's off to Rockler's to see if they have them in stock.

Every terrarium shop should sell these door parts for us DIY grow chamber / vivarium nuts. I suppose they wanna sell prefab Eco-Terra units (which seem nice) but some of us just can't fit our dreams inside a 18 - 24" cube. If they could put out a model at least 48" L x 24" H x 24" W I'd probably buy several.

I've gotta build a stand for the thing to sit on, I've already got the melamine for that. The cabinet stand will be 48" x 36" x 24". Basically the same size as the vivarium on top.

When I get going on the project (stand and vivarium) I'll take pics along the way.

Now the main task will be catching the Anole. I'm big and slow and she's tiny and fast. I've seen vids on You Tube of people reaching into their vivariums and their Anole hops onto their finger (frogs too). I rarely even see my Anole other than her tail and an occasional shed skin hanging in a plant. Do you think if I introduce a few more females at the same time as when I put her into the new viv for the first time she'd be more sociable / not so fearful? The Anoles at the shops lay around all day in groups letting kids gawk at them and tap the glass - they don't care they just close their eyes and go back to sleep or whatever they were doing before someone tapped the glass. My lone Anole sees me look at the terrarium from across the room and instantly hides. There's a rumor that a lizard lives in my terrarium, not that I'd ever see it but something is eating all those crickets!

Anyone have some tips on catching an Anole who has that attitude?

 

[seedjar]

Maybe you could devise some sort of trap? My first thought would be to use a tall container and put some bait at the bottom. But lizards are usually strong climbers, so I don't know how well that would work. If it's afraid of you, perhaps you could give it some sort of tempting hiding place that you can easily move to the new terrarium.
That's a shame that she's all skittish. Are Anoles easy to socialize? Unless there's a risk of fighting breaking out, I'd definitely give some thought to bringing in a few pet-shop Anoles to put yours at ease. I'm not sure what you'd do to hand-tame a lizard like that. Hand feedings? Sit by the tank whenever it eats? Maybe you should ask those YouTube folks how they did it. I've got a parakeet that likes to sit on my finger but I don't know how much of that training would carry over to an Anole - parakeets crave attention so it's pretty easy to make friends once they figure out that you don't want to eat them.
~Joe

 

[swords]

It's weird. My killifish used to keep on spawning while I was pruning the plants in their tanks (A. australe). The dragon gobies would eat from my hand, the cats obviously don't fear me or they wouldn't trash the house every morning at about 9 am, but this little cuban anole is always terrified. She's only known me as the source of food and was never in the wild, since she hatched from a potted philodendron I got off Ebay. The current viv is fully planted with lots of wood (her fave spot is to sit on the black brace just under the lid, hence only ever seeing her tail). I do see her dash down grab a cricket and shoot back up to the brace but only rarely does she sit in the open (when she sleeps on the glass at night I can see her). Maybe it's beacuse I come at her from the top? She's currently a 56 gallon cube aquarium. I've heard that's why they make the european viv with front access as it spooks the animals less to have a hand approach from the side than above (like a predator would).

I really would like to set up & watch the dart frog life cycle / tadpole rearing in a bromiliad cup. I'm attracted to the DF cos they're small, very colorful and I've heard that they sing in the evenings to call their mates and when it mists in the terrarium (I'm setting up a mister). I'm just kinda fearful of spending the $50-90 per frog having never taken care of frogs before.

 

[Finch]

Don't break it! How's that for awesome advice?!

 

[swords]

I picked up the sliding rails today, $18.01 with tax for a "4 foot" track that holds 1/4" panels. It's actually about 44". I was always under the impression that "4 feet" translated to 12" x 4 = 48"...

It's good to know where to get these sliders finally though! Now if the hardware store will bevel their glass that they sell cut on demand I'll be in biznezz!