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Wow this is amazing. I wish i had this much talent. Is the wood in there real or fake? I cant believe it only costed 4,800. I wanted to know why you dident use all native flora?(not critasizeing you love the looks) i was just curios. P.S a good way to deal with the splashing is to cut a slit in clear aquarium tubeing and lay it along the gaps.
 
With the main water body being heated to the appropriate temperature, do you have problems with condensation on the main enclosure glass in cold weather? Does this run down the glass into the base of the enclosure? It's been my experience that this is a big problem with large bodies of warmed water inside the enclosure space, unless the enclosure is totally open at the top to allow appropriate ventilation of moisture-saturated air.

Jamie
 
With the main water body being heated to the appropriate temperature, do you have problems with condensation on the main enclosure glass in cold weather? Does this run down the glass into the base of the enclosure? It's been my experience that this is a big problem with large bodies of warmed water inside the enclosure space, unless the enclosure is totally open at the top to allow appropriate ventilation of moisture-saturated air.

Jamie
I partly agree with you partly. A simple computer fan or two(maby 3 because of the size) will take care of the condensation.
 
I partly agree with you partly. A simple computer fan or two(maby 3 because of the size) will take care of the condensation.

Then your energy bills skyrocket because all the warm air is being removed...?

J
 
Then your energy bills skyrocket because all the warm air is being removed...?

J
I don't think a couple computer fans pushing out minamul air would raise your electric bill to much. I'd rather have a little higher energy bill then an amazing display cage you can't see into because of condensation.
 
Wow this is amazing. I wish i had this much talent. Is the wood in there real or fake? I cant believe it only costed 4,800. I wanted to know why you dident use all native flora?(not critasizeing you love the looks) i was just curios. P.S a good way to deal with the splashing is to cut a slit in clear aquarium tubeing and lay it along the gaps.
the gaps in the glass are deliberate to provide ventilation. The only time he was splashing around in there was when he first got put in and went crazy for a little bit..then he just moved around normally. I just used plants that i thought would make it look the best. The trees in there are artificial and manufactured by us. Condensation is an issue we have been looking at...considering a coating on the glass to stop it fogging up on cold mornings or alternately there is a fan driven venting system that we are working on that blows air onto the glass keeping it dry.
 
They'd need to push out a lot of air in cold weather to avoid condensation on large areas of cold glass. I've been involved in public displays of reptiles for decades, and although I probably sound negative, I've seen lots of enclosure ideas like this that look great to start with, but end up being management nightmares because of the amount of work required to keep them in tip-top shape. They look OK for a few days or a week, then after a few decent cold days when lots of water runs down the inside of the glass into the base, where it's practically impossible to remove or dry out... Anything that effectively encloses a body of warmed water needs to be able to be easily dismantled for ease of management, especially where occasional large amounts of animal wastes are concerned. One of the things which make snake enclosure bearable to live with in the house id that the wastes usually dry out quickly (if they're not removed immediately), but put a reptile in or over (as in GTPs) a large body of warm water in an enclosed environment, and you quicly end up with poo soup which would need several square metres of effective, mature biofiltration to deal with.

Jamie
 
I love the Tillandsia unesoides you are useing. Pretty soon it's going to turn into a Tilley forest. Tillandsia is one of my top tree Bromeliaceae Genus favorites. As far as the fans go. I looked at the size of the enclosure and computer fans just won't cut it lil. (I really need to double check before I post.)
 
Like jonez, one word- that looks good. What thickness glass do you use in a croc enclosure??
 
They'd need to push out a lot of air in cold weather to avoid condensation on large areas of cold glass. I've been involved in public displays of reptiles for decades, and although I probably sound negative, I've seen lots of enclosure ideas like this that look great to start with, but end up being management nightmares because of the amount of work required to keep them in tip-top shape. They look OK for a few days or a week, then after a few decent cold days when lots of water runs down the inside of the glass into the base, where it's practically impossible to remove or dry out... Anything that effectively encloses a body of warmed water needs to be able to be easily dismantled for ease of management, especially where occasional large amounts of animal wastes are concerned. One of the things which make snake enclosure bearable to live with in the house id that the wastes usually dry out quickly (if they're not removed immediately), but put a reptile in or over (as in GTPs) a large body of warm water in an enclosed environment, and you quicly end up with poo soup which would need several square metres of effective, mature biofiltration to deal with.

Jamie

As far as the biofiltration system im pretty shure he said theres a large state of the art one installed.

@ just plain nuts i have a couple questions.:D What type of lighting are you useing? What types of lighting are you useing? What type of filter system are you running on this? What materials did you make this out of? Are you running a monitoring system? If so what kind? And last but not least lol do you have any construction pictures?
 
As far as the biofiltration system im pretty shure he said theres a large state of the art one installed.

@ just plain nuts i have a couple questions.:D What type of lighting are you useing? What types of lighting are you useing? What type of filter system are you running on this? What materials did you make this out of? Are you running a monitoring system? If so what kind? And last but not least lol do you have any construction pictures?

Filtration is a complex business, and filters which are designed to deal with the relatively trivial and small amounts of waste that fish pass, are not designed to, or capable of, dealing with large dumps of faecal material in an appropriate time-frame. To deal with that amount of material, you would need far more moving water than could be accommodated in a unit like that - many similar exhibits in public facilities have large, sun-exposed external algae beds which the water flows over constantly, and probably 15 or 20 times, at least, the volume of water contained in the display tank itself. You need a particulate filter for the solids, and a very extensive bio filter for the nitrogenous waste. Doesn't matter how state-of-the art a filter is, if it's not big enough, it won't do the job.

I know I seem to be knocking the concept here, but I'm not. I've kept reptiles & amphibians in public exhibition areas for many years, and I know what sorts of problems these displays present. Such displays are not "set & forget" - they must have constant attention to a range of potential problems, sometimes several times a day, if they're not thought out. It's almost impossible to satisfactorily house a reptile in a self-contained unit like that - when water quality deteriorates (which it will), the inhabitants are compromised.

Jamie

Jamie
 
i run the same filtration in my display tank with a slightly smaller volume, with fish crayfish and a large snake and it has absolutely no trouble with it at all. I do monthly half water changes and had never had to cleam the filter in it's 6 months of operation...even with the snake pooing in the water the levels are always perfect..I am no aquarium expert but whatever works. The croc tank is designed with one of these filters as standard with easy addition and housing of more of these if ever needed. It's not designed to hold 2 metre monsters, and a 3 foot croc or turtles should be well under its control. All our enclosures are also setup to easily drain and refill through hoses and valves without trudging buckets of water around your house..There will always be knockers...it comes with the territory i'm afraid
 
Actually Ben, I'm not a knocker, I'm sorry that you see it that way, but there is a significant problem with any enclosure in which the water from which the snake (or other reptile) drinks from also collects its faeces. That's just a fundamental principle of good husbandry, and a totally valid point. Doesn't matter how good the filter is, if it doesn't move enough water to wash the contamination away immediately, first time, never to return, it compromises water quality and therefore may compromise the health of your animal. I bet that if you did readings of the bacterial content of the water in you system, it would show a very significant loading for days after the dump, not to mention the bacteria coating the decorations within the tank, each of which would need chemical treatment to remove promptly.

Jamie
 
so the water in the streams and creeks and puddles that crocs and snakes live in and drink from is sterilised? I'm sure there would be a degree of bacteria in the aquarium but animals and humans are actually designed to tolerate this..it's only once we start sterilising everything that we make ourselves prone to it. Just my opinion, i know you mean well and i appreciate your input.
 
There is a big difference between pathogenic faecal bacteria such as E.coli & the various Salmonellas for example, which are endemic to reptile guts, and the usual non-pathogenic bacteria, protozoans and other organisms that inhabit bodies of wild water. It's the concentrations of each that are important - the pathogenic (harmful) bacteria exist only in very low concentrations in healthy wild water, hence its relative safety. In a small closed system, the safe limit is way overloaded the first time a critter craps in it. It will eventually level off, but it takes time. In the wild, the volume of water, and the number of "good" bacteria etc are far larger, so organic waste such as faecal matter is broken down faster, and is rapidly diluted to harmless levels.

In principle, the problems are fairly easily solved - pump the water out into a hydroponic plant bed and/or a sand filter and circulate back into the tank - this will rapidly break down organic waste. In practice, it's a bit more difficult to install if you have limited space. Setting this up need not be expensive, but it does require space...

Jamie
 
Just want to add to the prior comments on the aesthetic; that is a stunning tank, well done.
 
Ita an amazeing tank. I think it will serve its purpose just fine. It will be houseing turtles. They dont produce a mass amount of waste. So IMO with monthley or bimonthley water changes in conjunction with the filtration system the water quality will be fine.
 
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