# New Vivarium Contruction under way



## James_Scott (Jul 14, 2013)

Hi guys
After posting my last vivarium I had a lot of interest of how I did it. So I thought I would begin to post the progress of my new vivarium construction as a step by step tutorial. 
This vivarium will again be for keelbacks and it is important to build the vivarium to suit the requirments of the animal.
Keelbacks are hardy colubrids and their needs are simple. In my previous enclosure I heated the water but as the snakes are getting larger and I am switching food over to trout I have decided to keep the water at room temp and use a heat mat or heat cord under flat rocks such as slate as a heat source. I should also note that my snakes are in a dedicated herp room which is warm anyway.
Lighting is from a 4foot led floodlight.
Filtration is from an external canister filter.
I will go into more details as time progresses.

After building a stand and resealing an old 4 foot tank its time to build the false bottom. The false bottom raises the land area above water level and still allows water to flow through the entire tank. It is made from egg crate diffuser and held together with cable ties. Under the egg crate I have placed small footings which are used for hold steel bars when setting concrete slabs. But stacking them I can set the height. These take the stress off the egg crate when I start placing decorations.





The next stage will be to cover the false bottom with flywire screen to prevent debris from falling into the water.


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## NickGeee (Jul 14, 2013)

Can't wait to see how it turns out, loved your last one!


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## James_Scott (Jul 14, 2013)

nickg said:


> Can't wait to see how it turns out, loved your last one!



Thanks Nick
I was only going to have a shallow pool so it would make it easier to catch fish, however I too your advice and went with a deeper area. I figure they only swim to catch food not for recreational use so I have comprimised and gone 2/3rds land and 1/3rd water. I have also raised the back higher than the front in this tank to give the illusion of more depth.


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## dragondragon (Jul 15, 2013)

Wouldnt there be some dead spots under the egg crete just a though gotta be carful about that. How much do you get egg crete for i cant find it any for a reasonable price. Looking good if it looks half as good as the last one your its gonna look sick


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## James_Scott (Jul 15, 2013)

dragondragon said:


> Wouldnt there be some dead spots under the egg crete just a though gotta be carful about that. How much do you get egg crete for i cant find it any for a reasonable price. Looking good if it looks half as good as the last one your its gonna look sick



The false bottom can have dead spots if your not careful. The water will travel through the path of least resistance so it is important to place obstacles under the egg crate to make the water go where you want it to. I will show more images of this as I go. I actually have a wall blocking direct access from the spray bar to the drainage pipe to force the water to travel through the visible water outside the false bottom. This ensures proper filtration takes place. 

The price of the egg crate is not cheap. I can't remember exactly how much but I think it was around $45 per sheet of 120cm x 60cm.
It is just enough to do this tank. There are alternatives to egg crate but I just think it is easier to go get one sheet instead of looking for a cheap alternative that may take weeks. Regardless how you build one of these enclosures the outcome won't be cheap. There are a lot of components required not to mention the cost of plants.


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## crocodile_dan (Aug 15, 2013)

Interested to see if there are any updates on this exciting project?


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## dragondragon (Aug 15, 2013)

From my experiance with keeping fish i would think you would need no dead spots cause it will make the water quality bad maybe you could put some kind of filter media under the egg crete and run the water underneath


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