This weekend, I've been hard at work again trying to get this viv finished.

Yesterday was Fake St. Patty's Day here in Manhattan, so I didnt get much done then, but got quite a bit done today.

Hopefully I can have this sucker up and running before this next weekend.
On to the pictures.

First thing I did was to make a false bottom for drainage below the soil. I made it out of white light diffusing egg crate and wrapped it in screen mesh to keep the soil from falling through.




Next, I filled in around the egg crate with pea gravel to build a facade so that the egg crate was not visible and had a more appealing look from the front. I really dont like how false bottoms look when you can see the white shining through.




After that, I fit the driftwood center piece back into the viv (which is a pain in the *** because it just barely fits with the center brace in the middle). Using great stuff expanding foam, I great stuffed the driftwood to the back glass to seal off the cavity behind the driftwood. I dont want any curious frogs slipping back there and never coming back out!


Once the Great stuff had cured, I slathered on the brown silicone and pressed peat into the silicone to give a textured natural look instead of the yellowish/white look of the great stuff. The key here is to use your materials in EXCESS. It all seems to produce a better product when you dont skimp on the silicone and peat moss.






Next step is to add substrate, plants, a glass top, lights and FROGS!

It's coming together super fast!

-Matt