Ecuadorian Cylindrical Vivarium

I thought I would share a few new photos of one of my vivariums. I have posted a few older photos of it in another thread here, but I thought these updated photos would be better off in their own thread.

This is an Ecuadorian-themed tank; not exactly a "biotope" as it is somewhat idealized, but from my research all, or most, of the plants can be found in central to east-central Ecuador, or thereabouts.

The current plant list includes:

Pearcea hypocyrtiflora
Peperomia emarginella 'Ecuador'
Peperomia sp. 'Baños, Ecuador'
Philodendron (sect. Pteromischium) sp. 'Ecuador'
Plagiochila sp.
Pleurothallis niveoglobula
Stelis sp. 'Ecuador'
Trichosalpinx sp. 'Ecuador'
Various mosses

 

Thanks, Marni and Kelly!

 

Thank you all for the comments! I am quite happy, myself, with how this project has turned out.


Here are the details of this cylinder:

The overall dimensions of the cylinder are approximately 14”x20” (~35cm x ~51cm). It is constructed out of 1/32” polycarbonate (Makrolon) sheet that has been bolted together at the back (so, there is a seam). The base is 1/4"x16”x16” polycarbonate that I later framed with 3/4" x 2" mahogany hardwood. The top is 3/16” glass with three 3/4” holes drilled for ventilation and one 40mm fan providing circulation - this runs on the same timer as the lights (12 hours on/12 hours off). The lighting was originally supplied via three 6W CREE LED spotlights, but I recently made a new fixture using a 3/16" thick aluminum plate ring as a heatsink, and three neutral-white and three cool-white CREE XM-L2 LEDs, with 60° optics, running on a home-made driver. The subject piece is made from one large and one small Hygrolon liana accented with a few small pieces of cork bark. The temperatures range from intermediate to warm conditions. It gets watered about once, sometimes twice, per week.

 

Nothing special; I have seen others use a piece of aluminum bar stock (~1/8" x 1/2") running the length of the back to ensure a tight seam. I think the main concern is getting everything square and having a tight-fitting top - if you get your top round, and everything else is square, your bottom should be round too.

 

Thanks, naoki.

The driver has the capability of running them at the full 3A, but I'm running them at about 40-45% of full power. At this current they are only slightly warm to the touch.

I don't know anything about the drivers available on the market, so I can't really comment on the advantages/disadvantages of DIY versus store-bought. The main advantage I can see would be cost - the cost for this driver in parts was less than $5; I didn't see anything in that price range when I did a brief search online.