[Leoito]

The Nauvoo (Est. June 23rd, 2021)
Side Note: Open images in a new tab for greater detail.
Hardware

• Exo Terra Tree Frog Terrarium - Advanced Amphibian Habitat (18" X 18" X 24") - Enclosure
• Fluval Evo 13.5 Stock Lighting (Fixed to White Setting - Defect?) - Lighting
• VELIMAX Static Cling Black Window Cover - Aesthetic
• LECA (Expanded Clay) - False Bottom
• Weed Fabric Barrier - Substrate Barrier

Hardscape

• 2 Varieties of Medium/Small Rocks (previously used for aquaria)
• 3 Varieties of Wood/Branches (two collected, one store-bought)
• Substrate/Soil
  • Coco Coir (or coconut fiber)
  • River Sand
  • Dried Sphagnum Moss (torn up)
  • Broken-up Leaf Litter
  • Fir Bark
  • Hardwood Charcoal (only a little)
• Local Deciduous Leaf Litter (previously collected, microwaved, washed, and dried)
• GREAT STUFF™ Gaps & Cracks Expanding Spray Foam ('Natural Color')
• American Sealants, Inc. Aquarium Safe Silicone (Black)
• Gorilla Super Glue Gel
• Stainless Steel Wire
• Burlap Ribbon (cut into strips of various thicknesses and lengths)

Flora

Short-Column Foot Restrepia	Restrepia brachypus
Dichaea ancoraelabia	Dichaea ancoraelabia
Horseshoe Masdevallia	Masdevallia herradurae
Merino's Scaphosepalum	Scaphosepalum merinoi
Small Lance-Head Rodriguezia	Rodriguezia lanceolata
'Ball Moss' Tillandsia	Tillandsia recurvata
Juncea Tillandsia	Tillandsia juncea
Guatemalan Fuchsii Tillandsia	Tillandsia fuchsii v. gracilis
Groby's Pleurothallis	Specklinia grobyi
Sandeman's Pleurothallis	Pleurothallis sandemanii
Unknown Bromeliad
Unknown Bromeliad	Neoregelia sp.
Neoregelia 'Red Waif'	Neoregelia 'Zebrina' x Neo. 'Fireball'
Nerve Plant (White)	Fittonia albivenis 'Mini White'
Black Rabbit's Foot Fern	Davallia trichomanoides
Duffi (Lemon Button) Fern	Nephrolepis cordifolia
Baby Tears	Pilea depressa 'Baby Tears'
Solanum 'Ecuador'	Solanum sp. 'Ecuador'
Velvet/Micans Philodendron	Philodendron micans
Anubias Nana Petite	Anubias barteri 'Petite Nana'
Süßwassertang	Lomariopsis sp.
Native Moss Species	???
Dusk Moss Mix	TBD

Fauna

(2) (4) Phantasmal Dart Frog Morph 'Rio' WIKIRI	Epipedobates tricolor 'Rio'
Temperate Springtails	Folsomia candida
Dwarf White Isopods	Trichorhina tomentosa

Inspiration (to be revised as I recall sources)

• @Tijl and their builds; in particular, his 70x50x65cm Vivarium Build. and its use of cork board in the designing the background, as well as the Oophaga tank (fixer upper) for its beautiful moss and foliage growth.
• Serpa Design and his 180 gallon vivarium video series showcasing plant selection, mounting, and terrascaping(?)/hardscaping.
• The feedback I received in Questions Regarding a Tall Epipedobates tricolor... , from which I took away a desire to create a varied, but useable (e.g. no significant water feature), hardscape for the flora and fauna I intended to add to a new vivarium.

Maintenance

• Daily: Hand spray-misting, checkup on plants and frogs.
• Every Three to Four Days: Add fruit flies (Dusted with Repti-Cal w/ D3 every time and Repashy Vitamin A Plus every other week)
• Weekly: Wipe down glass with aquarium safe cleaning spray, plant trimming.

The Journey Thus Far

Some of the materials I took advantage of for this build, including the enclosure itself, dark cork board (overall cheap to purchase, but it required some thorough rinsing and drying cycles before I was confident whatever burning/pressing process was used wouldn't harm flora and fauna), and the coating mix of coco coir and sphagnum moss I used on silicone covered surfaces in subsequent steps.

Applying dark cork board; black silicone was used to adhere the boards to the glass. I later applied black window film on the outside to hide this feature.

Taking advantage of GREAT STUFF™ foam to add wood pieces (higher piece was from my woods and the lower was from a local aquaria shop) to the hardscape; the fourth image shows off some of the final carving I did before applying black silicone and the previously shown off coco/sphag mix. Unfortunately, I was unable to capture the complex setup of packing tape and divine diligence that supported the wooden pieces while the foam was curing due to an application of foam onto my hands. I'm still amazed by how quickly curing foam can go from a froth to an adhesive nightmare.

Here's the 3D cork board phase I copied from @Tijl in action. Once I was satisfied with the pseudo-roots emanating from the top branch, I moved on to adding textures that would differentiate the walls and offer unique opportunities/environments.

 

[Leoito]

After finishing the cork board background, I made use of fake vines I created using burlap ribbon (and some jute twine), the coco/sphag mix, and lots of black silicone. Gel super glue was critical at this stage to preserve the arrangement of the vines.

Adding the drainage layer of LECA, as well as the substrate barrier (not pictured) and substrate mix. This was also the stage I added some rocks to the hardscape, although I unfortunately did not capture the tan aquaria rocks I later added behind the greenish rock pictured.

This is another step I should have captured more, but it effectively was transferring over a number of plants from my first vivarium to this one, as well as applying the dusk moss mix (soaked overnight) to surfaces in the vivarium. Additional hardscape elements, namely branches, a monkey pod, and a load of local leaf litter was also added; springtails and dwarf white isopods were also added from cultures at this stage.

 

[Leoito]

A couple weeks later, the frogs were transferred from their old vivarium to the Nauvoo.

Between the pictures taken when the vivarium was first established and when the frogs were added, a few Tillandsia species and a small portion of subwassertang moss were added. For context, here is also an image what the 'old' vivarium looked like (frogs included) before plants were transferred over; the frogs were temporarily removed during this processed and reintroduced to their old viv, only the Syngonium and a tad more leaf litter remaining.

The Nauvoo today.

​

 

[creg]

Looks awesome. How fruit fly proof are these new terrariums?

 

[Leoito]

Looks awesome. How fruit fly proof are these new terrariums?

Hi @creg, sorry for not seeing your post sooner. I'd say they're relatively fruit-fly-proof, with the edge cracks between the single glass door and side glass panels (if that made sense) being too small for much of anything. However, I have had a few stragglers appear outside of the vivarium after feedings; I haven't yet been able to pin-point where they get out. My current hypotheses include the front vent (despite the small holes), two spots between the bottom front glass and the single glass door (see picture for general areas), or even some small openings in the upper back of the enclosure intended for mist lines. For now, I've started added flies in smaller, but more frequent feedings to both avoid so many finding whatever opening is available and to hasten their removal from the viv via frog consumption.

tl;dr kind of fruit fly proof, but the routes out are yet to be discovered

 

[Leoito]

A few updates of note.

Two frogs from purportedly another generation (unsure if they were from the same parents or not) were added to the Nauvoo. This raises the stocking of the viv up to four E. tricolor 'Rio'.

A few Tillandsia sp. from my small air plant collection were added; I'm hoping to eventually identify these.
They appear to be doing well near the top of the vivarium.

Four new orchids from Ecuagenera were added; the exact species (Dichaea ancoraelabia, Masdevallia herradurae, Scaphosepalum merinoi, and Rodriguezia lanceolata) were added to the stocking list and consist of warm-loving, high humidity orchids. The Masd. and Scaph. look fairly similar, but the Scaph. came with an inflorescence forming and was placed above the Masdevallia. The Dichaea was placed in the upper left corner and will hopefully spread across the branch and walls from that point; I broke the Rod. into three plants, placing two in the back near the 'viney' portion of the Nauvoo and one outside of the viv entirely. I'm hoping the Rodriguezia doesn't grow much 'bigger,' but instead fills out the back with lush, green foliage.

Overall, impressed again by Ecuagenera's sheer variety and quality of plants. However, this will likely be the last order of any sizeable orchids from them for awhile; I've more or less reached a soft limit on how many orchids I want to stock given future growth and other factors. Moving forward, any plant(s) I add will have to be on the 'micro' end of the size spectrum.

Two vining plants, Solanum sp. 'Ecuador' and P. micans, were also added to the viv.
The micans is isolated to one wall, while the solanum was broken up and spread to a few spots in the vivarium.

State of the vivarium today.​

 

[Leoito]

Some Minor Updates
Added a black eggcrate filter underneath the light; I was noticing some of the Tillandsia and orchid species near the top of the Nauvoo were beginning to suffer from overexposure to light, so this will hopefully alleviate this stress on the plants. It still keeps the majority of the vivarium under similar light conditions, but it unexpectedly (to myself at least) casts the viv in a more crisp, refined(?), or perhaps uniform light.

A few species of orchids, Rodriguezia lanceolata and Restrepia brachypus, are beginning to bloom. The R. lanceolata is putting out an incredible number of inflorescences both in the vivarium and on one of the plants being kept in effectively a glass box, something I'm quite happy about given that I only paid $8 for all of them through Ecuagenera; I look forward to seeing if its growth and/or blooming is sustained.

Obligatory frog and vivarium shots.

Here's a sneak peek for next time.