Show Off Your Set Ups...

... Just like it says... let's see 'em... post pix of your vivariums, faunariums, traditional tanks or original enclosures... we want to see them... give new owners some ideas on how to do their set ups... just make sure in your post that you mention a few things:

1. What type of Herp the set up is for.
2. The particulars about your husbandry. How do you heat, substrait (if un-obvious), hot side/cold side, etc.
3. Please refrain from posting pix of "tub & Rack" type set ups. A seperate thread can be started for those. I would like this to be strictly formal enclosures.
4. Try to keep conversation about a picture/set up to a minimum. Compliments are fine but if you have a question about how something is done please start a seperate thread addressed to that person.

So.... to start... Here is my current set up



and it's resident Leopard Gecko, Eros... a bold mack snow 1 yr old male leo:D




My set up is a 20 long aquarium. It measures 30"x12"x12". The right side is my hot side, the left is his cool side. The right is heated with a 6x11 7 watt Cobra heat mat. His substrait is high end self adhesive vinyl simulated slate tiles. His furnishings are all natural slate, stone, bark and sphagnum moss (except for his water dish obviously. that's a ceramic soap dish I got at wal mart ). I also included black foam insulation on the outside 3 walls of his tank (that's the black stuff you see going 3/4ths of the way up the walls).

Eros has a hot "sauna" moist hide on top of his regular hot hide along with his "litterbox". Yes I know the whole sand is bad arguement but he only poos in it, is never fed in it and never hangs out there just for fun.




The inside of his hot hide directly over his UTH looks like this:




(note the properly placed temp probe on the floor of the hot side for proper temperature readings ).

Eros on the odd occasion in his cool side hide (this kinda gives you an idea of how big the hides are. That's a 1 yr old male leo in there):




Eros' tank has several hiding places... one hot hide on the right, one moist mid way hide on the bottom in the middle of the tank (this one is stuffed with sphagnum moss to aide in the tank's overall humidity and if he wanted to just chill), and an upper cool side hide a little to the left of the middle of the tank and then a big cool side hide on the far left of the tank. The reason for so many hides to to provide him with the maximum natural habitat and optimum thermoregulating spaces he can possibly have.

Personally I appreciate the natural look, and I'm sure my leo does too (yeah right )... when using natural materials such as rocks bark and branches make sure to sanatize them either by soaking in bleach overnight for rocks or baking branches and bark in a low temp (150-200*F) oven for an hour. Sphagnum moss hs natural antibacterial qualities so as a leave in humidity object that is constantly wet and warm, that is a good thing.

During the "setting up" phase:



Not a lot in there just yet but shaping up.


and a bit more done:



and the first finished version:



So that's my set up... feel free to ask any questions you might have

Peace...

Well here are a few photos of banana's vivarium set-up. It is not the most fancy of set-up.. but it includes all the basic equipment required for one leopard gecko. At the moment, I'm using kitchen roll as substrate.. but I normally have slate tiles in her viv. Banana will soon be moving into a 20 gallon tank so I have moved the slate tiles into there to be heated up nicely before I move her.

My vivarium includes: kitchen roll substrate, a large exoterra hide, a small exoterra hide, a piece of cork bark, a piece of drift wood, a medium exoterra water dish, a plastic tub lid filled with sand which is her litter tray, an exoterra plant hanging from the walls of the viv , a bottle cap filled with exoterra pure calcium, a half log hide and a plastic tub filled with moist sphagnum moss.

This is a photo of her whole viv (the small hide is under the cork bark)


Here is a photo of the hot side of the viv: ( the heat mat is by a brand called prorep or something similar) it is located directly underneath the cork bark and small hide. Underneath the paper towels is a thin sheet of glass to make the surface level.. for when i had my tiles in there.



This is a photo of the cool side of the tank. This side is kept at room temperature.. which is about 24-27C.



This is a photo of the vivarium.. to show you the size of it.. because I can't remember the measurements. You can see the digital thermometer on the outside of the tank.. it shows the temperature of the hot side of the tank... if you press one of the button underneath the screen, it will tell you the temp of the cool side.



This is the probe for the thermostat. It is positioned directly above the heat mat so it can get the best reading of the temperature.



This is a photo of one of the digital thermometer probes. I have moved the hides out of the way to show you.. but it is usually positioned inside the hot side's hide under the cork bark. There is one positioned in the cool side's hide.



This is the moist hide..



This is a photo of the thermostat, which is secured to the side of my viv



This is a photo of banana going to hide in the hot hide

Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing you've got some nice equipment there. Banana is a lucky leo. Bet te tank looks slammin when you have the slate in there.

no problem.. I wanted to get involved with this thread lol

i love your set-up. I'm jealous.. I want banana's new tank to look like that.. maybe one day it will.. i need to go to the woods or beach one day and collect some stuff.

In the future, I'm planning on making banana's new tank desert themed.. with fake cacti and sandy coloured rocks and stuff like that. and then for the new gecko im buying off jordan hopefully.. its going to live in banana's viv ..and im planning on setting that up with a cave theme... using plants attached to the walls and an rock walkways up the walls.. and using dark coloured slates and rocks.

Here's the current set up for Toothless and Nix, I'm planning to later on replace the mosaic slate with 4" x 4" slate tile and then grouting it in and sealing it. That won't be till September though. I also want to do some work with styrofoam and grout to make elevated walking areas.

wow it looks lovely so far.. can't wait to see it when it's all been grouted and sealed .. I also plan on making some grout hides, caves and walk ways in my gecko's viv when I have the time and money

Wow only 3 submissions so far guys??? Really??? No one else wants to show of their set ups? C'mon... post 'em up guys... we want to see ALL types of enclosures here so don't be shy

i'll show mine off when its all set up

Ya better

Here is my set up!

the hot side is on the right. the humid hide is that rock on the 2nd level above the hot side of the tank. the cold hide is on the left along with a water dish. i believe i've got everything i need besides all the supplements which i'll start a new thread about because i've got a few questions about them. anyways here are the pictures. tell me what you guys think.

Very cool! I love your set up!

Wow Looks lovely.. I want it

thanks guys

Looks great! i love the second level thing and whole rocky theme.

one thing i would suggest is adding another hide to your hot side which isn't on the second level.
Leo's rarely look high up for things, so it might not use the humid hide as often as it actually needs heat, so another hide on the hot site ground floor will ensure its getting all the heat it needs.

Well Banana's living arrangements have changed since I posted on here last.. she now lives in a 22 UK gallon glass aquarium, with a sliding glass lid it is heated by a komodo heat mat and controlled by a mat stat. I use an exoterra digital thermostat and her hot side temps vary from 30-34C depending on the temperature of my bedroom As you can see in the photos, i have: 1 small exoterra hide covered by a piece of cork bark, another piece of cork bark, a piece of drift wood, an exoterra water bowl, a moist hide, a fake exoterra plant, a litter tray, a calcium bowl, a fake exoterra cactus, and a cool side exoterra hide. oh and some sea shells I got from the beach

Looks good!

I bet banana loves it Sarah.. only thing that worried me is the long cord for the probe. Is ther a way you can put a couple pieces of tape along that so if she gets tripped up on it it won't all get wrapped around her.

I used to hide cables under my tiles previous to grouting them, might be more aesthetically appealing solution than tape.

Tape's a bad idea too, you don't wanna see what happens if the gecko finds the sticky side of the tape.

One of my leo's a while back had tape in the enclosure and dug it up, got it stuck to his foot, laid down on it on the hot side, which got it stuck to his tail as well as his foot. He could hardly move the foot, and eventually dropped the tail, and i found him running around with a loose tail taped to him... wasn't a nice sight.

Yeah I thought that tape was a bad idea.. sooo I removed it.. I used to have the cables cellotaped to the side of the glass.. i'm just going move the thermometer to the other side of the tank when i have the time because when my brother fitted it, he put it on the wrong side

thanks anyway she does love it ^ ^ she's more active now

That's a lot of pics Sarah!!!

At the moment this is my set up :

And I am working on creating a naturalistic enclosure (theres a step by step thread) and hopefully will look something like this:-

That's a good drawing Becca. And i like the layout all together. Hope you can get it pretty similar to the sketches.

Its nothing grand but here is one of my setups. It is a 20gallon enclosure with paper towel substrate. The resident is a 9mth old female leo (you can just see the end of her tail sticking out her hot hide). The hot side is on the left and the humid hide has a pink lid with moss inside. The brown/beige thing on the far right is a double tunnel cave with a magnetic piece on the front of the glass so you can remove it and see the leo inside.



Sorry, I could not get a decent photo from the front as the reflection on the glass spoilt the image.



https://i.servimg.com/u/f48/16/48/56/52/764_8012.jpg

wow your tank looks lovely I have the same size tank as you.. and mine looks crap and messy compared to yours.. I love yours