Hi guys! So, this is my first build. So I welcome any advice and am positive I'll be making some beginner mistakes. However, I've been planning this for over six months, and I just needed to get started and get something DONE so I'd be more motivated.

Unless anyone has any advice on why/why not, I'll be doing leca/barrier/ABG/moss/leaf litter for the bottom, and silicon/great stuff/titebond/coco fibre for the background. I have some wood pieces and net pots to build into the foam, and a 2" fan for circulation, which I'll be building a duct for into the background. My planned inhabitants for this viv are a pair of hyloxalus azureiventris, so I have a couple of hides for them on the ground, and I'll be building some hollows and ledges into the background. I'll also have a water bowl filled mostly with large gravel, to prevent untimely frog deaths.

I love the shape of the hex tank, and wanted to incorporate the different sides into the background design. Because I have so many different sides to work on, and when I get to attaching wood and great stuff, it will mean a LOT of drying time in stages for each side, I wanted to do a back layer of silicon (for the black color on the outside, mostly) to figure out how high I want the background to go on each side. I planned on the back middle and back left being full height, and the back right and front left sides sloping down and being only about half background. Like this?

I learned that, while my design is cool in theory, the half side in the front doesn't work that well in practice, and will have to be a lot shorter or it will ruin the view. So, before adding great stuff and wood, I'll be trimming back the silicon on the front side a lot (and trimming where I need to place ductwork and wood - unless titebond can be used to attach wood/pots/ducts directly to silicone? No? That's okay. I'll trim and restick.

I also made some roots and vines out of pipe cleaners, and will be siliconing and cocofibering them... but... I ran out of silicon. -_- Another day. Another day.

Anyway. Finally started! Yay! (I can hear my cats playing with the plastic drop cloth... excuse me while I go deal with that....)