Go down about three post from this and youll find "CP terrarium and animals?" That guy/girl might be able to give you a couple of ideas =) Good luck! =)

Ah a 75 gal terr ... how I envy you! I have a buddy I secretly wish would give up on saltwater fish and gift me his 100 gal tank LOL!

The shoplights should provide sufficent light. Definitely more than what mine usually received. For # of years, mine made do with light from an east facing window. Wintertime in MI -- that doesn't amount to much. Even in the summer it only got bright light in that window for an hour or 2. Plants actually did quite well.

Were you planning on having all tropical cp's or temperate? [Keep in mind temperates will usually require a winter dormancy]

In my cp terr, its just a layer of peat over gravel. Set it up about 6 years ago. Have had some ups and downs plant-wise. Most recently this past fall in which I lost a number of plants. I was in the process of starting a new job & trying to move at the same time. Terr completely dried out during that period. Was not a happy situation for the plants therein.

As for the hood or lack there of ... you could possibly do w/o provided the cps you have don't require ungodly high levels of humidity. Depends on how dry your room conditions are. I can't remember for certain if it was a 75gal or not, but a friend of mine had a large terr and his shoplights just sat across the top, the ends resting on the walls of the tank. otherwise you could make one out of plywood & bolt shoplight fixtures to that. I did something similar for one of my 30 gal terrs.

Water feature ... haven't done one of these yet -- need a bigger tank than my 30 gal to make it worthwhile, IMO. Were you planning on the feature being self-contained or would the water be cycling through the soil?

Well I've been growing CP's for over 10 years so I am somewhat familiar with their care. I was more wondering exactly how people go about setting up a big tank like this so it could be used for plants other than CP as well.
I have a friend who offered me a few Geckoes so I was also wondering how to make the tank hospitable to them.
Right now I just have to figure out what to put down as the bottom layer of the substrate...

A layer of gravel for drainage would be a good start, so the water has somewhere to go. If you are putting in geckos, make sure you have a good hood. They can escape almost anything. I would take a look at the gallery for this forum, and get ideas from the pictures in there.

-DH

Are there any light weight options for drainage? Gravel is expensive and heavy.. I was just wonder what other alternatives there might be.. Black Jungle Terrarium Supply lists a stuff called Terra Light. It sounds great but I wouldn't be able to afford the shipping :-P

Hi
Perlite and vermiculite work well but are sort of ugly.
I like crushed black lava rock or silica crystals or fracted slag glass but difficult to find. Do you intend to plant directly in the media or use pots?? Another alternative is long fibered sphagnum . living would be fantastic if you can find it and be able to culture it
gary

I have tons of live sphagnum, I sell it on Ebay alot. I still wanted to lay down something for drainage though.. fracted slag glass would be great but I can't find a source. Maybe some of the hydroponic places would have something like this stuff that would work...
"Hydroton, a.k.a. hydrocorn, are kiln-fired clay pebbles imported from Holland. Their neutral pH and excellent capillary action qualities make them a great hydroponic medium. Preferred by horticulturalists for hydroculture, this product offers many advantages when compared to soil. The medium is clean, odor-free, reusable, and provides excellent aeration. Hydrocorn prevents rotting, excess acidity, and soil pests."

I put aquarium gravel in the bottom of mine. I am still in the process of setting my terrarium up and do not have all my plants yet, but I will post a picture once I get it ready. I also plan on putting a poison dart frog in it. I just ahd an order of three different types of nepenthes arrive and was highly disappointed in them. The seller never told me how small they are. He actually sent me his tiny in vitro plants and I don't think they are going to make it. He is ignoring my email asking for a guarantee on these if they don't make it.

Here's a pic of the tank in question -
{{gwi:1272065}}

What species of gecko are you thinking of adding? This will change the way you have to set up the enclosure becuase the animals needs should always come first, build the rest around their requirmaent.

With that sized tank you should be able to create a nice set up. You could always have a portion of the tank dedicated to a bog set up for the carniverous plants and perhaps leave a small area of open water. You could even have a good sized Nepenthes in there to take up some space.

Have you read anything on the false bottom set up. It uses eggcrate (The 2 ft. X 4 ft. white plastic light diffusers used for celling tiles) Cut this to fit the inside bottom of the tank, and use PVC pipe to elevate it off the floor to the desired height (about a couple inches) You can cut out a section ( in a corner ) and ramp it down to create a pool. Then you can lay fiberglass screen over the top of the eggcrate to keep anything from falling through. Cheep, Lightweight, Functional. Do a search on eggcrate false bottoms for more ideas.