[andry]

I am looking forward to having some Veradero's in a couple of weeks and my husband and I built this viv for them.

Put in Egg Crate in back so that I don't have to silicone the whole background and it's easier to take down if I ever need to. And Laid out some pieces with great stuff on bottom to block some water from substrate.

Of course the foam is so thick, we cut and tore some of it off to leave more room for the substrate

Ok sorry for this horrible picture, but we laid out some background pieces before we added GS

Added Vines to the fake tree and taped them down before adding GS, oh and I added a small pipe line through the back of the tree to syphon out water in the future out of the substrate.

Had to do a lot of taping to move vines out of the way for GS

Added GS

We tried to go very light, but it still is GS and expanded more than we wanted...

So we trimmed a lot of it off and shaped out the tree and shaped some vines on the tree to make it more realistic

This is the background painted with Acrylic Burnt Brown paint in case we miss some spots with gluing substrate so that the white GS doesn't show, I've been doing this with my last couple of tanks that I made and I really like the way they turn out.

I glued Peat moss on most of the background except for the tree, I added Coco Fiber to that to make it a little different from the rest and I glued this on with Titebond III

Added hydroton Clay pellets and then used sponge foam to separate from substrate. Used Orchid Potting Mix, and gravel to the sides... I will eventually add Coco Fiber on top of the potting mix and hopefully some moss and then maybe some leaves on top of that.

I planted all Exotic Angel plants because that's what's available to me. Still trying to get some Broms, but local stores just don't seem to have them now And I'm too cheap to pay for shipping.

Added a bit of gravel but I will be adding more and adjust the vines a little more and then add a bit of water to make some shallow spots

So, I'm almost done, but not entirely. I still need to buy to vine type plants for the top pot and the tree top. I need to buy a glass top and light fixture. Oh and add my Veraderos.

Comments, questions, critique welcome!

 

[Numenore]

Half of the space for the frogs is taken away by your construction.
If you add water, which they dont like, you take away even more PRECIOUS space from the frogs.
On behalf of the frogs, reconsider this.
This viv might by great for YOUR eyes, its not for the poor animals living in it.

 

[GRIMM]

^^^Seriously??...Nice first post on the forums lol

Looks good man. Definitely keep an eye out for some neos. Maybe check with some local froggers to find more viv friendly plants that wont outgrow the tank to quickly. Only other thing i suggest is a wicked moss carpet in the water feature.

 

[Wallace Grover]

Half of the space for the frogs is taken away by your construction.
If you add water, which they dont like, you take away even more PRECIOUS space from the frogs.
On behalf of the frogs, reconsider this.
This viv might by great for YOUR eyes, its not for the poor animals living in it.

Errr, I doubt his frogs can float through the air. The increased surface are provided by the multi-dimensional background alone helps even this out...

 

[ryan10517]

those 2 dracaenas and the ivy will not do well in a viv environment jsyk

 

[andry]

First off, I'm a She everyone. Andry is short for Andrea. But I know yall wouldn't have known that.

Whew! First of all that first post caught me off guard. And Grimm thanks or your reply as well as you others. If it's plants that need changing that is not a problem. I can do that. I suck at plants and am slowly learning. I will get rid of the two someone suggested and and ad a couple of broms since I finally found some yesterday.

And I have been eyeballing that moss plant that grows over water and do plan to get that but joshs frogs and black jungle seem to be missing some of the other plants I want so I haven't ordered. Do u think I can find it locally?

One more question... I never thought it was a problem that there wasn't enough ground space for my veradero because I have terapoto and they have a whole lot of ground space and don't seem to use it. They either use the glass or the plants or the background. I have added the water and it is super shallow I'm sure they can just walk through it if they have too or I can make it even lower and just have some shallow spots. It's more for tank humidity so I don't have to mist as often. So will this be okay or should I use it as a grow out tank for some leucs instead? I know my leucs just love their water feature and stand around moping the day I turn it off. Lol. Let me know what u think.

In the meantime, here is the tank with more plants and possibly I chose more that I shouldn't have...

I also added some succulents I read on a thread that I can use. They look absolutely precious in my log I hope they will thrive.

 

[andry]

Grimm, what are Neos? And which plants will grow too big too fast so I can change them. Thanks!

 

[BBJ]

Very cool!
I like the look of the centerpiece with the roots coming out over the slate, looks very good.

Good work.

 

[andry]

Thank you BBJ! It's one of my best creations! That and my 75 gallon are my favorites.

 

[andry]

Ok, I would appreciate if someone helped me out...

Here's the plan: I plan to take out the two marked with X's and replace with a brom or two or a brom and another succulent.

What about the one with a question mark? Should I go ahead and change that one too?

The ivy I'm going to leave and just wait for it to die if it does and then change it.

Thanks!

 

[Frank H]

Its looking good.. I like the idea of eliminating the 2 with x's and replacing them with Neo's ( Bromeliads - Neoregelia... many to choose from). Id probably make a plant order from Joshsfrogs.com. He has lots of great viv friendly plants and a description about their growing habits on the site.

The Veradero's should be very happy in there.

The vines look awesome!

 

[jkooiman]

Hey Andry, don't listen to that douche (that 1st post), that tank looks great. You will need different plants though, (those plants are totally inappropriate, especially the tricolor sedum!. I can send you some cuttings of easy viv plants, no broms though, if you pay shipping. PM me if you're interested, I can give you some plant advice too. JVK

 

[ryan10517]

tank looks incredible andrea! nice work. Here are my guesses on the 2 "x" plants. The one on the right is either dracaena "janet craig" or "lemon lime" hard to tell. The second I'm almost positive is dracaena "tricolor". They're both cool plants, but they like their soil to dry out a tad bit before the next watering, and a fair amount of airflow. As for the "?" plant, i can't really see it to well in the picture. It kinda looks like a snake plant (sanseveiria sp.) If it is, it should do alright in there. Leave the ivy in there til its dead. Surprisingly, ive had one type of ivy do alright for a while in a viv, although most don't do good. you never know!

 

[andry]

Here is an updated picture of my viv using the shop lights. I'm wondering, since I had had some previous comments that I had too large of a water area, do you still think I need to add more land to this tank or will adding that floating plant be sufficient? The thing is, there really is not enough water for the plant to float. There is only enough water to keep the tank humid. The frogs I would think will happily jump through the rocky area without even having to touch the water. It's that shallow. Maybe I can add some java moss in the water area to make it a little softer for them?

What do you all think?