I know there have been a lot of 18x18x24 builds posted lately, but I did some things a little different and I would like some opinions or warnings and maybe a suggestion or two on planting. This viv is for a pair or trio of bastis depending on how the sex ratio turns out with the 3 juvies I just bought.
I went old school with a cork bark and GS background. I overlapped some of the cork pieces to get more ledges and a 3D effect.
Here is the cork with the trimmed down GS. I use the flexible GS so I can just trim it by digging at it with my fingers/fingernails.
Here's the GS covered with brown silicone and coco fibers.
I forgot to take pics of the false bottom, but I just used egg crate and 3/4" PVC pieces laid on their sides attached with cable ties. Not so many dead spots with the PVC on its side and I don't have to cut accurately.
Here is the weed cloth cover. Not all weed cloth lets water pass through it quickly. I got some that did. I folded the edge of the cloth down, over the edge of the egg crate so you can't see the white. I made a clay mixture out of 1 part laterite, 1 part sodium bentonite and 1/10 part Calcium Carbonate and made patties out of the clay to replicate the clay in the forest, but left gaps for the water to go through. I used some remaining clay like plumbers putty to seal the weed cloth around the edges so soil wouldn't get under the cloth.
I forgot to put in an access tube to the false bottom until after I put in the ABG mix, so I had to go back and cut the cloth and crate to fit in the access tube and sealed it with clay as well.
It just struck me that this is sort of a self indulgent thing to do, but I am almost done, so I am going to finish anyway.
The wood is a mixture of Malaysian driftwood and grapewood. I have a couple pieces of manzanita that I may add later. The access tube is covered by a small rock. The substrate is homemade ABG mix with a half portion of "Flourite" gravel in the mix.
Here it is planted. I have numbered the plants so I could ID them better. The second pic shows the plants on the floor better. The bottom will be covered with a mixture of oak and magnolia leaves before the frogs get introduced.
1. Bulb. elassoglossium
2. Neo. 'Janet Sue'
3. Neo. Inca x Fireball
4. Pep. sp. 'Panama"
5. Nephrolepis exaltata 'Elzevir'
6. Codonanthe sp.
7. Neo. 'Shamrock'
8. Begonia U074 (moved to the floor)
9. Bulb. lasiochilum
10. Bulb. ovalifolium
11 Haraella odorata
12. Bulb. alagense (small form)
13. Monstera sp.
14. Beg. elaeagnifolia
15. Diodonopsis erinacea (Masdevallia)
16. Unknown Large Leaf sort of vine from Eric M
17. Pep. 'Glasshouse' (might be a IDed species, but I couldn't find it)
18. Philo. sp. 'Ecuador'
19. Pep. sp. 'Fosteri'
20 Beg. lusonensis
21 Beg. prismatocarpa
I am thinking that I might want to put a small brom like Neo. punctatissima rubra in the lower right hand corner, but I don't want to shade out the little orchid or the NOID. Do you think I should just wait for the NOID and orchid to fill in the area or go with a small brom?
Thanks for making it through the whole post.
