Charoozz's custom bioactive display tanks

[Charoozz520]

As someone who has multiple large vivariums, I wanted to try to make something like what I have but on a smaller scale. My goal was to have a rack full of display tanks for each species of mantis I owed. I know I could have easily gone with exo terras but building my own was cheaper and besides I like making my own background, rather than using the Styrofoam insert included.

So after searching forever, I finally found these awesome acrylic containers that I can hack into a display tank. 
These containers measure 7.25" x 7" x 12.75" with a hinged lid:

Using a 2 1/8" hole saw I drilled two holes (one on each side) to install air vents for cross ventilation:

Then I cut a piece of corrugated plastic to size and using silicone attach it to the front bottom of the tank, this allows me to have a drainage and substrate layer without everything spilling when I open the door:

Next I drilled more holes on top for ventilation and hot glue tulle on top for the mantis to grip on. Then I installed a magnetic catch so the door remains safely close:

I decided after building two of them that the catch will work just the same if attached to the top of the tank instead of inside (which blocks some of the view)

And the base tank is done, now its time for the fun part  

Using a paintbrush, I applied a thin layer of gorilla glue and water to each side of the wall and then press coco fiber into them to make the walls of the enclosure. I am sure this gives the mantis a better grip then just regular plastic. Also it makes the tanks look much more natural.

After the curing process, its time to decorate and plant! 

For both tanks I use a thin drainage layer of leca (clay pebbles), a screen mesh, then a layer of substrate.
Then the first tank I added a layer of leaf litter, seed pods, and springtails, here's the end result:

The second tank, I did a bit differently, since Spinys prefer low humidity, I added a layer of sand and some fake succulents/dried grass:

I am working on the third tank and still got another three to go, once they are all done they will go on their own display shelf, currently they share a shelf with my dart frogs:

 

[Synapze]

Awesome enclosures! Where did you acquire the containers?

 

[Charoozz520]

Awesome enclosures! Where did you acquire the containers?

Thank you! Opps I totally forgot to link it. Amazon  mDesign Stackable Closet Plastic Storage Bin Box

If you buy the 6 pack it comes out to $11.66 each

 

[MantisGirl13]

Thanks for the link! You have beautiful enclosures, what a great idea!

- MantisGirl13

 

[ohaple]

Awesome idea. Very well done. I love bioactive. Tell us a little more about the bioactive part. You mentioned springtails. Have you used isopods? What about live plants (if any)?

 

[Charoozz520]

@MantisGirl13 thank you! I hope this will help anyone who is looking into building custom tanks or bioactive enclosures

@ohaple So far just springtails, I will be adding some isopods soon though, just waiting for my dwarf purple culture to grow a bit more (I kind of use a lot of them recently to setup my other tanks). As for plants, the pseudo's tank is all live plants I am using Pothos and a mini fern which both require low light requirements. I am also going to try some other peperomia and creeping fig species for the other display tanks that needs higher humidity (Hopefully setting up an Orchid tank soon). 

The Spiny's tank I am currently just using artificial plants, but I am going to swap them out with some snake plants and see how they do since they can take drier soil and humidity as well as low light. As for microfauna, I did add a few darkling beetles and confused flour beetle to see if they are effective. I might keep a spot damp and see how isopods do in there.

 

[ohaple]

@MantisGirl13 thank you! I hope this will help anyone who is looking into building custom tanks or bioactive enclosures

@ohaple So far just springtails, I will be adding some isopods soon though, just waiting for my dwarf purple culture to grow a bit more (I kind of use a lot of them recently to setup my other tanks). As for plants, the pseudo's tank is all live plants I am using Pothos and a mini fern which both require low light requirements. I am also going to try some other peperomia and creeping fig species for the other display tanks that needs higher humidity (Hopefully setting up an Orchid tank soon). 

The Spiny's tank I am currently just using artificial plants, but I am going to swap them out with some snake plants and see how they do since they can take drier soil and humidity as well as low light. As for microfauna, I did add a few darkling beetles and confused flour beetle to see if they are effective. I might keep a spot damp and see how isopods do in there.

Awesome. I keep springtails and isopods in my bioactive. Dwarf purple will be great since the manic won't eat them, but if you add enough of other species they will reproduce faster than the mantis can eat. Plants are my biggest challenge. We have had the best luck with bromeliads, pothos, and philodendron.

 

[Charoozz520]

@ohaple yes and the leaf litter helps them hide, I haven't seen my spiny too interested in the beetles since shes usually on the top half of her cage, confused flour beetles are way too tiny (size of a hydei).

And I know what you meant with plants, most plants require more lights than people think and if you keep dart frogs like me and want bright red bromeliads, well lighting is going to be very important   but the end result is very satisfying: 

 

[ohaple]

@ohaple yes and the leaf litter helps them hide, I haven't seen my spiny too interested in the beetles since shes usually on the top half of her cage, confused flour beetles are way too tiny (size of a hydei).

And I know what you meant with plants, most plants require more lights than people think and if you keep dart frogs like me and want bright red bromeliads, well lighting is going to be very important   but the end result is very satisfying:

Yeah, we have a red bromeliad. It seems to do fine in a 12x12x18" vivarium with about 12W of aquarium LED lights. Our bigger challenge is water.  Yours is beautifully planted. We haven't done nearly as much vertically. Once our mantis passes it will be difficult to resist getting a crested gecko. We struggle more in aquatics since imbalances lead to plants dying or algae thriving.

 

[Charoozz520]

Yeah, we have a red bromeliad. It seems to do fine in a 12x12x18" vivarium with about 12W of aquarium LED lights. Our bigger challenge is water.  Yours is beautifully planted. We haven't done nearly as much vertically. Once our mantis passes it will be difficult to resist getting a crested gecko. We struggle more in aquatics since imbalances lead to plants dying or algae thriving.

Yes luckily with Dart Frogs they don't mind the humidity so I have an automatic mister setup. I also have a fan inside the tank that circulates the air so it doesn't get stagnant. As for vertical and adding more depth to your tank here's a simple hack, get a nice growing pothos, and plant it towards the back, then since they like to vine you can use stainless steel jewelry wire or even cut up some paperclips and make a U shape, use these to hold the stems in place on the background (you should be able to press it into the Styrofoam background just make sure the hole is big enough that you don't crush the stems. This way you can guide the pothos to grow up the background.

As for a planted fish tank, are you going high tech or low tech? I agree it is a huge balancing act, before I got into mantises I had a high tech tank that I have to spend tinkering with everyday. It looked nice but it was a lot of work (I literally trim a bucket full every week). Unfortunately, I went on vacation and the person who was taking care of my tank didn't do everything I asked so it was a pond of green soup when I got home.

Here it was before it turn into a disaster, maybe one day I will start it over

 

[ohaple]

Yes luckily with Dart Frogs they don't mind the humidity so I have an automatic mister setup. I also have a fan inside the tank that circulates the air so it doesn't get stagnant. As for vertical and adding more depth to your tank here's a simple hack, get a nice growing pothos, and plant it towards the back, then since they like to vine you can use stainless steel jewelry wire or even cut up some paperclips and make a U shape, use these to hold the stems in place on the background (you should be able to press it into the Styrofoam background just make sure the hole is big enough that you don't crush the stems. This way you can guide the pothos to grow up the background.

As for a planted fish tank, are you going high tech or low tech? I agree it is a huge balancing act, before I got into mantises I had a high tech tank that I have to spend tinkering with everyday. It looked nice but it was a lot of work (I literally trim a bucket full every week). Unfortunately, I went on vacation and the person who was taking care of my tank didn't do everything I asked so it was a pond of green soup when I got home.

Here it was before it turn into a disaster, maybe one day I will start it over

That is beautiful. Ours isn't nearly as heavily planted. If you can afford the time and money, the Apex system is awesome. We set up a 75g for my dad with automatic water changes, co2, lighting, and feeding. Makes it so that the only thing you have to do is trim plants from time to time.

I have one of each.

Our high-tech is a 10g with CO2, a C2 Fluval HOB, and a Kessil A80. We started that tank about a month ago after our main low-tech got infested with blackbeard algae. It is going ok but I am a little gun-shy and am starting low on CO2 and light, slowly creeping up to give more leeway for error. We just got our first algae over the weekend. Filamentous brown-clear algae that I haven't seen before. Planted with lilaeopsis, purple temple, flame moss, and hydrocolyte. This tank has crystal red shrimp, blue velvet shrimp, nerite snails, and celestial pearl danios. We are keeping it on a 7 hour photoperiod for now, with CO2 trailing one hour ahead of the photoperiod. I dose Seachem ferts per the instructions on the bottles, which is not ideal for high-tech from what I have read. This photo is from immediately after planting and setup, the carpet is coming in nicely and the temple is growing partially emmersed. The Lilaeopsis hasn't taken off yet.

My low-tech is a 2.5g which gets Excel daily. It has a few s. repens bushes, a small anubias nana, and a monte carlo carpet. Growth is pretty slow (haven't trimmed once in 4 months), but the only algae I get is diatoms. It has one nerite and 7 crystal red shrimp. It has a 6w LED Cobalt light (with red and blue) and gets a 8.5 hour photoperiod. Excited for our berried female to hatch out her eggs, she has been carrying nearly 40 days. I don't have a photo on hand, but it makes for nice office decoration.

 

[Charoozz520]

@ohaple always wanted an Apex system, I will probably invest in one when I move next year (We are going to be neighbors! Moving to Denver). I never really liked seachem ferts except for Iron/Excel. I would recommend Thrive, this is what I used when I had my tank running. They also have a shrimp safe version and a low tech version as well. Lilaeopsis takes a while to settle in and take off. The Hydrocolyte should grow and spread nicely, I love using the plant as it can grow emersed as long as it stays moist (I have it on the wall in my Dart Frog tank). Brown algae is normal in newer tanks, I had them too when I first started, usually just siphon it up when I do water change. Once the plants starts growing in it will out compete the brown algae, just make sure the algae isn't covering the plants/suffocating them.

Loving the CRS! I always wanted to get into these but I always seem to have badluck with shrimps unfortunately  (except for Amanos those things are almost bulletproof).

 

[ohaple]

@ohaple always wanted an Apex system, I will probably invest in one when I move next year (We are going to be neighbors! Moving to Denver). I never really liked seachem ferts except for Iron/Excel. I would recommend Thrive, this is what I used when I had my tank running. They also have a shrimp safe version and a low tech version as well. Lilaeopsis takes a while to settle in and take off. The Hydrocolyte should grow and spread nicely, I love using the plant as it can grow emersed as long as it stays moist (I have it on the wall in my Dart Frog tank). Brown algae is normal in newer tanks, I had them too when I first started, usually just siphon it up when I do water change. Once the plants starts growing in it will out compete the brown algae, just make sure the algae isn't covering the plants/suffocating them.

Loving the CRS! I always wanted to get into these but I always seem to have badluck with shrimps unfortunately  (except for Amanos those things are almost bulletproof).

Thanks for the fertilizer tips. It sucks, we had a very good lilaeopsis carpet growing in the tank that got overrun with BBA. I liked it enough to try it again. The hydrocolyte is new to me, but is growing quite quickly. If I can keep it trimmed low and dense I really like the look. I need to get far better at aquascaping, but I only started last November so I am a bit new.

Yeah, apex is super pricey, but it is pretty quality from what I have seen. My dad put sensors on the flow for everything, multiple leak sensors, etc so that he always knew when he needed to clean the filter, do a water change, etc. He had co2 controlled with their ph probe so he could reliably keep CO2 at a set level rather than trial and error.

I like keeping shrimp. Sometimes it is frustrating when a few die and you can't figure out why, but overall they are cool.

Denver is a good spot. I live near Longmont and commute all around the front range for work and to visit family.

How do you go about deciding what plants to put in your vivariums/aquariums?

 

[Charoozz520]

@ohaple so I went to extreme measures when I had a BBA outbreak and unfortunately this wouldn't work since you have shrimp. You pretty much get as many circulation pump as possible then dose hydrogen peroxide (I forgot the exact amount) you let that circulate for about 30mins then do a 50-80% water change. In the next few days you will see the BBA melt away. Another safer option but not as effective is to get a syringe and squirt Excel directly on the BBA/Algae. 

One thing I learn and I am still learning on planting is to go slow, you have to envision how the plants will grow into the space in a month or six or a year. I know I have a tendency to overbuy plants as I want them all and ending up cramping everything in which doesn't look so nice. Bromeliads if happy will start throwing out 2-3pups so just remember that means more space for them or you will need to cut them and replant them somewhere else. Vining/wall cover plants take time to grow in (at least the nice ones do). Creeping Fig is a blessing and a curse, once it settles in it grows super fast but it also become uncontrollable and can choke out other plants if you don't keep it in check. (The oak leaf variety is better and slower growing). Marcgravia is a nice plant but its pricey and takes time to fill in the space. So just like with an aquarium you want foreground plants, midground plants and background/vining plants, and of course epiphytes like Bromeliads to break the uniformity.  If you ever want to have an option for higher light plants but don't want to spend too much on lighting I would recommend you look for some LED Flood Lights on amazon. I use two 50 watts for dart frog tank and those lights only cost me $40 total.

And when choosing plants for both aquarium and vivarium I like to put contrasting plants next or behind each other, you want to make sure that plants has different leaf colors or leaf shapes next to each other as this help build depth. (If you have time read up on the golden ratio, which is what a lot of planted tank enthusiast use when planting their tanks).

 

[ohaple]

@ohaple so I went to extreme measures when I had a BBA outbreak and unfortunately this wouldn't work since you have shrimp. You pretty much get as many circulation pump as possible then dose hydrogen peroxide (I forgot the exact amount) you let that circulate for about 30mins then do a 50-80% water change. In the next few days you will see the BBA melt away. Another safer option but not as effective is to get a syringe and squirt Excel directly on the BBA/Algae. 

One thing I learn and I am still learning on planting is to go slow, you have to envision how the plants will grow into the space in a month or six or a year. I know I have a tendency to overbuy plants as I want them all and ending up cramping everything in which doesn't look so nice. Bromeliads if happy will start throwing out 2-3pups so just remember that means more space for them or you will need to cut them and replant them somewhere else. Vining/wall cover plants take time to grow in (at least the nice ones do). Creeping Fig is a blessing and a curse, once it settles in it grows super fast but it also become uncontrollable and can choke out other plants if you don't keep it in check. (The oak leaf variety is better and slower growing). Marcgravia is a nice plant but its pricey and takes time to fill in the space. So just like with an aquarium you want foreground plants, midground plants and background/vining plants, and of course epiphytes like Bromeliads to break the uniformity.  If you ever want to have an option for higher light plants but don't want to spend too much on lighting I would recommend you look for some LED Flood Lights on amazon. I use two 50 watts for dart frog tank and those lights only cost me $40 total.

And when choosing plants for both aquarium and vivarium I like to put contrasting plants next or behind each other, you want to make sure that plants has different leaf colors or leaf shapes next to each other as this help build depth. (If you have time read up on the golden ratio, which is what a lot of planted tank enthusiast use when planting their tanks).

I think I must be crazy or stupid. I also went nuclear on the BBA. I took the plants out and soaked them in a mixture 1:1 of Excel for 1 hour. Rinsed. No effect. Tried the same with Hydrogen peroxide. No effect. Finally I just wanted to see how extreme I could get and used 1:1:1 and soaked for 7 days. The plant was super dead, but I still couldn't scrape the BBA off and it hadn't changed color like I saw on tutorials online.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[Charoozz520]

@ohaple that’s pretty intense I would say it took about 7-10 days before the BBA started dying off. It would slowly turn pink or red that’s how you know it’s starting to die then it turns white and just disappears. 

 

[ohaple]

@ohaple that’s pretty intense I would say it took about 7-10 days before the BBA started dying off. It would slowly turn pink or red that’s how you know it’s starting to die then it turns white and just disappears. 

My goal now is to just never get it in the first place.

 

[Mantis Lady]

As someone who has multiple large vivariums, I wanted to try to make something like what I have but on a smaller scale. My goal was to have a rack full of display tanks for each species of mantis I owed. I know I could have easily gone with exo terras but building my own was cheaper and besides I like making my own background, rather than using the Styrofoam insert included.

So after searching forever, I finally found these awesome acrylic containers that I can hack into a display tank. 
These containers measure 7.25" x 7" x 12.75" with a hinged lid:



Using a 2 1/8" hole saw I drilled two holes (one on each side) to install air vents for cross ventilation:



Then I cut a piece of corrugated plastic to size and using silicone attach it to the front bottom of the tank, this allows me to have a drainage and substrate layer without everything spilling when I open the door:



Next I drilled more holes on top for ventilation and hot glue tulle on top for the mantis to grip on. Then I installed a magnetic catch so the door remains safely close:



I decided after building two of them that the catch will work just the same if attached to the top of the tank instead of inside (which blocks some of the view)



And the base tank is done, now its time for the fun part  

Using a paintbrush, I applied a thin layer of gorilla glue and water to each side of the wall and then press coco fiber into them to make the walls of the enclosure. I am sure this gives the mantis a better grip then just regular plastic. Also it makes the tanks look much more natural.

After the curing process, its time to decorate and plant! 

For both tanks I use a thin drainage layer of leca (clay pebbles), a screen mesh, then a layer of substrate.
Then the first tank I added a layer of leaf litter, seed pods, and springtails, here's the end result:



The second tank, I did a bit differently, since Spinys prefer low humidity, I added a layer of sand and some fake succulents/dried grass:



I am working on the third tank and still got another three to go, once they are all done they will go on their own display shelf, currently they share a shelf with my dart frogs:

They look cool. Nice mantis homes

 

[Mystymantis]

Those are really cool and creative mantis setups. I love the natural look they have. What are the lights you are using at the tops of them?