A 12x12x18 vivarium for Sara.

So Justin and I have spent the last week or so building out two new vivariums for dart frogs. Here is a post of my 12x12x18 build.

So we started out with sprinkler pipe fittings as risers for the bottom. Justin helped me and drilled holes in the tops and bottoms of the risers so that the water had room to move around the base of them freely.

Then we took some egg crate and we measured the tank footprint and snapped it up with scissors to fit inside. We left a corner rough for a pond area.

We then zip tied the entire thing together and covered it over with weed block fabric and zip tied that to it as well.

Then came the black silicone for the back and half the sides of the tank. This makes it possible to spray the back with foam which you can later carve into whatever suits your fancy. The white material is plastic which will slope the pond, and let any daredevil frogs back up onto land.

The next photo shows the foam after being sprayed and shelves being built. I also took this time to adhere the tree to the base and carve it out.

The next step was to silicone over the foam and then cover that wet silicone with cocoa fiber.

After which the base layers of debris can be added. Justin glued in my rocks and the pond pebbles for me.

A closer view of the pond area.

Then tonight we painted the sides and made it much more clean looking.

After removing the painter's tape, voila. One terrarium ready for plants and water.