Quote Originally Posted by jarteta97 View Post
Here's some questions I've had:
1. Where do I find the egg cartons used in false bottom making?
2. How is it you and others manage to make such natural water areas that go right up into the main landmass with such a smooth transition and without any litter getting in the water (or at least not dirtying it up)?
3. What are some methods you use to mount plants on backgrounds and woods?
4. What are your favorite plants?
5. How much time do you spend per day/week cleaning and caring for your vivs and frogs?
6. How are you such an awesome viv builder and how do you know SO MUCH?!

I'll probably have more questions later
some of these i will be including in the article, the other's i will answer now.
1. egg crate can be found in the lighting section of home depot and lowes. it is sold as a light diffuser.
2. transitions are done, for me, during the planning phase. i use inspiration from nature and a lot of math and cleverness to pull off a smooth transition.
3. i'll go more in depth in the thread, but you can mount plants with silicone, paper clips, stainless steel or aluminum floral wire, plastic wire ties, cotton thread, fishing line and good old fashioned super glue
4. my favorite plants, hands down are ferns, with aroids and gesneriads (violets, sinningia, primulina, ect) coming in a close second. my favorite aquatics though, are the cryptocoryne species, or crypts. they are boring, slow growing plants, but i just love em!!
5. roughly 10 minutes/day
6. awesome? hardly....lol i did/do a LOT of research. i built about 10 practice vivs before i ever built one i would actually put an animal in. there was a LOT of trial and error. i mean a LOT of error....lol i tried pretty much every technique for building a background, practice makes perfect. i also kept planted aquatic tanks for almost a decade before i moved onto paludariums and vivariums. but i have had a love of plants since i was a little kid. truth is, my mom was a florist all my life, so her love of plants rubbed off on me because i spent much of my youth in flower shops.