[muskrat24]

Hello all my name is Luke. I've been on the forum for a little while trying to soak up some information on building terrariums/vivariums, but havn't introduced myself. Well i've had an itch to try making a terrarium after seeing some of the awesome terrariums/vivariums/and paludariums some of the members have built. Well I have a plethera of 10 gallon aquariums and I thought why not have a trial run at making a vivarium. I'll see how well it comes out and if I do a decent enough job I'll turn my empty 39 gallon aquarium into a vivarium and get a gargoyle gecko or two. So I scrounged together some scrap stuff lying around the house and in the long run the only thing I had to buy was glass, plants, and aquarium silicone.

I started off with a vacant 10 gallon aquairum.

Next I put in a glass panel to retain the substrate, a vent area (salvaged from an old screen), and a door.

Next I put some rocks for a drainage area, then the substrate consisted of spaghnam peat moss and plain jane potting soil.

Walmart had a bunch of plants for $2.00 a piece so I ended up with 7 of 'em and can only fit 2-3 three in the terrarium. Oh well i'll have to build another haha. The plants destened for this terrarium is Pilea mollis, Philodendron scandens, and as soon as I get a corner planter made out of Great Stuff Ficus pumila. I also added some oak leaves and some isopods and red wiggler worms to the substrate.

But in the mean time a fake vine plant will take its place.

I didn't plan on putting anything in here but got a call from my dad that he found a couple Hyla versicolor in his pool and considering that he was going to just dispose of them I said I would give 'em a home.

While I think it came out somewhat decently there are some things I plan on changing when I try and tackle the 39 gallon.

 

[muskrat24]

Also I had an extra can of great stuff and was in the process of replacing the back piece of glass on a 20 long so I decided to have an little experiment. Most of the Great Stuff backgrounds I seen were sprayed directly on the aquarium glass and I didn't want to do that. I wanted something that would be realatively removable if it needed some serious cleaning. So the on the broken piece of glass I sprayed some cooking oil. And on top of that I sprayed a layer of Great Stuff nto the rough dimensions of the bottom of a 10 gallon aquarium. This is how it turned out and it came right off of the glass.

Gonna get a coat of drylok on it today and if it dries in time may try starting to put the second coat of drylock with pigment added. Hopefully it turns out the way I picture it in my head.

 

[muskrat24]

It shrunk a little bit, but nothing that wasn't to manageable so far. I don't know how long it takes before it stops shrinking though and to be honest the potential of shrinking slipped my mind when I started. As far as the potting soil yes I double checked after had to go back to walmart because I grabbed a bag that had fertilizer in it.

 

[muskrat24]

There is actually an inch and a half of gravel the substrate seemed to fill in the front. This was just a test with the vertical glass setup and kinda spur of the moment so used what I had around the house and don't know how long it will be up and running with the frogs in it. I'm gonna use egg crate and hydroton with which ever (vert or hortizontal) way I do my 39 gallon. And yes they are Gray tree frogs, I don't know why but my dad seems to hate them. Says they wake him up but the pool and the frogs are around 50 yards from the house and the last time I was home i wasn't able to hear them from inside the house so I think he is just going crazy lol.