Exo Terra Living Vivarium Build (Practice for the 6ft build).

[Christophe Valette]

I have just about finished my living vivarium "practice build" in my small exo terra. This is a practice for my big 6ft viv build that I am going to do over the Christmas holidays.

I started off by creating a custom foam background with expandable foam, I attached ground coco peat to this to create a better looking background. I also ran the protector tube for my waterfall/stream through this before it dried.



Once this had fully hardened I trimmed the protector tube and started to tidy up the background. I applied some more coco peat and cleaned around the top where it had over lapped. I then placed the pump in and ran the tube through the protector tube and siliconed the end down and siliconed some small rocks around the output to hid the tube. I then place my drainage layer in and my divider followed by my substrate (coco peat, dirt, orchid bark and leaves) I also placed a small bark round in which will become the stream.


After this I touched up a few more places on the background and then started to add my moss to the background. I then carpeted the ground with moss, ferns and other plants found near the natural water ways. (Water still a bit murky and the waterfall/stream is off)


I still need to change the output on the pump as to much pressure is building so currently the waterfall/stream is off. Then its good to go.


The plants still need to grow in so it is currently looking a bit scraggly.


This was basically a practice build for the 6ft build I am planning on doing over the Christmas holidays, gave me good ideas on things I want to do/change for the 6ft build. This post is just a quick overview of what I basically did. Still unsure as to what will be going in the exo terra. I am very excited for the 6ft build and I will definitely be making a post about that as I go. Once the stream is working and the water has cleared I will post another pick of it all up and running.

[TKexotics]

Looks great, we like the ferns.