New Viv

[BumbleinGrey]

JohnEDove- The picture was taken just after we finished. The airplants and all that won't grow much larger, but the others can be trimmed back. Though I do want it to fill in a bit more than it is

bareass- We're hoping to get two crested geckos to go in. We were thinking gargoyle.. but we didn't want fights. So cresties it shall be Just wiating for the Mississauga Reptile Expo!

[froggsong]

I'm so jealous!!! I don't suppose you have pics of the building process for that BG, do you? I am planning on doing a mix of something like that and the standard GS/peat moss stuff when I get to that in my CWD enclosure... That BG looks soooo great.... You did such a god job that I think you should make them so that they can be dropped into standard tank sizes and sell them... You could make a pretty penny!

[BumbleinGrey]

Nope... No pictures. I was thinking I should have, but didn't :P. I can give you some pointers tho .

We got some earth/fiber planters and stuck them to the pre-existing exo terra background. We stuck them on with Aquarium grade silicon. The only place in our area that sells aquarium silicon is Home Hardware. Just ask a sales person.. they will find it faster than you . This step is comletely optional. We also contected a tube to the hole on the bottom of the center planter that feeds down to the waterbed layer in the terrarium.

The terrarium is 3ftx 2ft x1 1/2 ft. We used 4 spray bottles of Great Stuff Spray foam Big Gap Filler. We ended up carving 1/2 of it off. So I would only buy 3 again. If you're doing smaller. Use 2 cans. Let this layer cure 24 hours. After cured, use a box cutter and/or hacksaw blade to trim away and create crevices. If you find holes.. just carve with them. It all adds to a more random , natural look. Oh.. and use some gloves when doing this.. and old clothes. This stuff is SO tacky and sticky. It doesn't come off of anything. We found this out the hard way... namely my husband ruining some good clothes *shakes fist*

Depending on the look you want, you can cover this with a paintable hole filler/grout stuff. Make sure it is paintable or you'll be in trouble. This adds more of a rock look. Let this cure 24 hours

Find your base colors. In my case it was brown and grey.. we even got paint with some texture in it too. Spray this all over and let dry. Get your regular acryllic paint and go in and highlight high areas and put shadows in the dark areas. Good highlights for grey is a light grey with hints of blue in it, shadows would be dark greyish black with hints of purple. For brown, light tans for highlights and almost blackish brown for shadow. Let this dry 24 hours just for good measure.

Varish is a hard one. You really want a nontoxic waterproof kind to seal in the paint. I found some in little bottles at the craft store with the crafters paints. It should be a craft indoor/outdoor waterproof, non toxic varnish. I tried multiple ways. .. The easiest is to get a spray bottle from the dollar store, empty all the varnish into this.. and mist it on. It gets in all the crevises this way. Spray on a layer, wait an hour , go back and do it again. Repeat until your varnish is done.

It would be at this point that you add some peatmoss on top, etc.. if you wanted

Hope that helps.