Tank Interior Designs! (WIP)

[Dreamsong]

So lastnight, my niece and I were looking around at some custom rock walls and other such things people have made for their geckos and other reptiles. I plan on making both a desert/canyon landscape and an Icy cavern landscape for two of my 20gal long tanks, and should have the supplies by this time next week. Icy cavern will of course be used for a Blizzard or a Super Snow, depending on which I get first.

I also saw some nifty castles people had made, and came up with an idea for a tank or two. Sure, people have made small castles for their reptiles to climb on/hide in, but I haven't seen anyone turn their entire tank into a castle yet. Since I'm an avid gamer, and since I tend to lean more towards medieval/fantasy themed games and stories...^-^ I decided to make a set of castle tanks. One will be for a female, so the colors will be pinks, light purples, white and possible light blue for accents. The second castle colors will be red, black and gold, as it will be for a male leo. Hides will be made to look like beds, with little pillows tossed on them...I plan on doing quite a few really detailed things for the castles, including adding little thrones and painting 'windows' and curtains. Since I use a lot of wire and glass beads for my jewelry making, I figure I can even make little chandeliers to hang from the screen lids.

After cleaning the back room out, my nephew found me some foam scraps to use until I can get my poly sheets, so I've started work on some of the more detailed pieces for the castles. Will have pictures of one of the 'Bed' hides once I've gotten it looking a bit nicer. First throne is done, aside from needing to be grouted and painted/detailed/sealed. It's almost exactly 3" tall atm.

 

[Dreamsong]

Though the castles will be the much more detailed tank designs, they'll likely be made after the Ice Cavern is finished. Tried carving a few castle decorations out of some of my scraps, but ended up hanging my mind on them for the time being. Instead, I made one of the hides for the Ice Cavern, and a mock-up of what the ramp/stairs will look like. The cavern will be a large second level platform, with randomly placed shelves lining the walls above it. The lead up will be a snowy staircase/ramp, with 'icicles' hanging off the edges of the shelves, stairs and platform itself. These aren't the final stairs, but the design is pretty close. The hide here will sit just behind the stairs, with the warm and humid hides in the corners.




This hide has three entrances, two of which will be hidden by the stairs.

Would love to get some feedback on these, and will be showing more as I finish different parts.

 

[GexPex]

So far so good...can't wait to see it all finished!

 

[Lavodnas]

Nice progress so far. I also like using those pieces of foam that things come packed in. They already have interesting shapes and you can just use your imagination to add on to them.

 

[Dreamsong]

Once we get the big foam sheets, my niece will be helping me with more designs for the castles. xD She's come up with the idea of making a 'canopy bed' for the princess cage, using some painted dowels and silky fabric. She's also helping with the chandelier, the skeleton of it is finish, now it just needs the decorations/final touches. (Both my niece and my mom are getting a kick out of this, they believe I should make things for dollhouses.)

Edit - Pictures of current progress below! Bottom tier will be pink, next tier will be white, and there will be beads spiraled around the wires, not sure on their color yet.

 

[Dreamsong]

Bottom tier is complete, working on the second tier now. Total beads for the bottom tier = 2541 exactly. (121 strands of 21 beads each) White level strands have 15 beads each, and the centerpiece is being reworked/made a slight bit longer to show more detail.





We have...I want to say a few hundred thousand beads in a set of drawers in my room. Few hundred bundles of thread, too, which may be woven together for more accent pieces. I may actually try making a few more of these chandeliers to sell for use in Doll Houses, or in tanks for other crazy reptile lovers to use for their spoiled pets. :main_evilgrin:

 

[Dreamsong]

The chandelier is almost complete! Only 1.5 more rings on the white tier to finish, and then I get to do a little spiral/flowering detail to cover the wonky-looking top wires...Thinking blue and light purple for the flowers. The spiral/flowering will all be done with -one- very long strand of wire, and the very top ring will be wired directly to the screen top of the cage. New bottom detail, making this chandelier a full ~6" from top to bottom.



A shot of my 'current' supplies for just this decoration...


And a look at ~75% of the rest of the supplies I have to work with - Two drawer systems full of beads, wire, thread, hemp...I do not have the other 25% in drawers, as I don't like working with the larger E and Pony beads. These drawers are -all- Seed beads and thread. The Pony and E beads have their own boxes...Large TV boxes under my bed.


On a side note, I'm debating on making the second castle into a Steampunk themed castle...We'll see how that goes.

 

[Dreamsong]

Little update - The chandelier is finished, grout and foam sheets will be gotten later this week (later payday than expected)....And I'll now be focusing on the princess tank as well as...A new design, as my niece had decided she'll be getting a gecko as well! With any luck, she'll be getting a Dreamsicle (she's hoping/praying), and I'll be getting a gorgeous enigma morph of some sort. We'll be starting out with two females, and for my niece's tank...A mermaid/pastel theme. Our local craft store has some nice large shells and dried starfish (that will be sealed with mod-podge to make them safe), so they'll be used as shelves and as part of a giant rock/reef ramp that will lead to a second level. Also using the larger shells as individual shelves and possible food dishes.

 

[indyana]

Sounds awesome! I can't wait to see pictures. Also, the steampunk castle idea deserves to be done at some point. That would be really interesting.

 

[Dreamsong]

Ugh, having to change around some of my plans. Apparently two of our tanks are missing, and since my niece has dibs on one of the tanks we do have, I currently only have 2 20gal long tanks to decorate. Niece's mermaid themed one, and my castle one....But, I do know that I'll be getting a nice A-L-T 40gal breeder tank in the future, so that gives me some options. Debating on changing the colors for the current castle tank, as I'd likely be housing a male in it and a pair of females in the 40gal. I figure the 40gal for the girls would make the better 'princess' themed tank, while the castle for the male could be done in black/red/gold.

(BTW - Morphs I'm hoping to get are: Tang/Red stripe/Red Spotted OR Dreamsicle OR Snow/SS Enigma Male, Raptor Female, SS OR SS Tremper Albino Female. Hopefully some eclipse hets. Going with Final Fantasy series names for them.)

 

[Lavodnas]

Going with playable character names or various "summons" from the series like Ifrit, Shiva, etc?

 

[Dreamsong]

Thinking some of my favorite character names, summons will be reserved for any babies I breed/keep in the future I do know my females will be named Rosa and Celes, though. -Really- hoping to get the combo I'm after for the girls...Depending on what enigma morph male I get, he'll either be Locke or Reno. (Although if I end up with a very pale snow/SS enigma, Sephiroth may end up being the name..*fangirl sigh*)

 

[Dreamsong]

Well, still no grout/foam, but it -will- be bought sometime this next week. Have a lot of family medical issues going on atm, so I won't really be able to get to Home Depot until this next week. The good news though, the tanks are all clean, and I've got a few old hides to convert for my niece's coral/mermaid themed tank. She'll be getting whatever paint colors she wants to use, as well as small and large shells/starfish/a bottle of acrylic sealant for the shells, and possibly some long fish-plant items to hand from the platform like kelp curtains. I may actually give her the paints I bought for my tank, as I'd want to do different colors for the male's tank if I'm getting him first. More news - Next Saturday, I may be going to a local flea market to sell some of my hand-crafted jewelry. If not then, I'll be going on the 2nd Saturday in October. Hopefully I'll be able to make enough to start up my Dubia colony and buy the enigma-morph boy I want, with some leftover for the few other supplies I'll need and -possibly the 40gal breeder tank for the future females. So much planning @_@

 

[Dreamsong]

Haven't updated in a while, and sadly there's a reason for it. My family has been going through a lot of medical issues in the last few weeks, found out that my mother's cancer is back, and found out that my sister has large B-cell Lymphoma. We may be out of the house every day, but only because they both need regular chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments...The money that I was going to be using on my tanks/future geckos is currently being used to help take care of my family, so my gecko plans are all on hold for a while.

On a lighter note though, they're both doing alright for the time being. Sometime between now and December, we'll be taking out a large loan to take care of some expenses, and to update somethings around the house...I may be able to get a bit of money set aside then for my stuff, but we'll have to wait and see what happens between now and then.

 

[willow]

Dreamsong's niece here,she's been working on my tank! Here's a WIP of the foam insert,before grouting. Nami is modeling some shots.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

 

[Dreamsong]

Ended up re-making this insert, first layer of grout is drying, and pictures will be uploaded once my camera recharges~ Willow picked a 'Mermaid' theme after all, so there's small shells for decoration later on, and she's got a paint scheme thought up for it.

 

[Dreamsong]

*grumpy face* Well, the mermaid theme is a bust! Mainly because Sora is now in my room along with Nami and Ace...Poor Willow can't handle her, but that's fine ^-^ Sora is going to be a handful, but she's calming down. I'll one day do a cloud/sky theme for her tank, as 'Sora' means Sky in japanese <3

Meanwhile...I did remake what was going to be the mermaid background...Pics from a few days ago, pic heavy.




Also, a pic of Ace and Nami, who actually get along really well when they're out together. Probably the best shot I have of them together atm.

 

[Dreamsong]

More pictures, mainly of the finished insert! Painting/Sealing is done, just waiting a few more days before throwing it in Nami's tank. There will be a video as well, because Nami and Noel are too perfect when they're on camera.




As to why it's going in Nami's tank as opposed to Ace or Sora's...I plan on doing clouds/sky setting for Sora, and a desert for Ace, the jungle theme for Nami popped into my head just before I started painting...We have a bunch of plants (mainly ones from Sora's tank and older ones from both Nami and Ace's tanks) that will be added in to the design, making natural caves/hiding places to work with.

[video=youtube;GSSPR8kaIqw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSSPR8kaIqw[/video]