# First Viv Build: 29 Gal



## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

So after lurking and learning a lot from this forum I started building my first dart viv a few weeks ago. I had an old 29 Gallon that had been in the garage for years so I decided to start there. I was pretty sure I'd be getting either Cobalts or Azureus so the horizontal format would work out fine.

First, of course, I made sure that the tank didn't leak and then cleaned it up with a little bleach and a thorough rinsing.

I wanted to have a water feature, though I had mixed feelings. I knew from a tree frog build a long time ago that water features have the potential to be a lot more trouble than they're worth. But, whatever, I decided to go with it anyway. I thought I would go with a sump of sorts so that I could keep the pump out of the viv to save space and make for easier maintenance. That meant drilling for a bulkhead...


IMG_3402 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I just went with a carbide bit from Home Depot. I read that you should use diamond bits but this seemed to work fine - cut through in just a few minutes. I recommend ear as well as eye protection. The deeper it cut the louder it got and my ears were ringing for a while.


IMG_3401 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I used a water hose to trickle water over the cutting area to keep things from getting too warm.


IMG_3403 by jcyates1, on Flickr
This is the first time I've ever drilled glass and I let the drill wander just a bit early on in the cut. The hole isn't perfect but it still seals fine.


IMG_3405 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I picked up a fairly nice pump at the local fish shop for 8 bucks. Can't beat that. I wanted to test it out along with the bulkhead drain.


IMG_3414 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I was aiming for two inches of water but didn't account for the narrower drain hose that inserts into the bulkhead. It ended up being 2 3/8 - 2 1/4 deep. No big deal.


IMG_3415 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3418 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Putting on the silicone to black out the great stuff that will come next. I did this outside and it was getting close the the lowest recommended application temperature. It was kind of hard to spread and I ended up with some thin spots.


IMG_3437 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I threw in some rags and a little hydroton to approximate the depth of my substrate layers and then worked on the layout of my mopani wood pieces.


IMG_3438 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3440 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3441 by jcyates1, on Flickr
The hydroton is very "rolly" so I got some random books and boxes that were more stable to stack up to hold the wood in place while I great stuffed it to the sides and back of the tank. I was a little apprehensive about applying GS with the tank upright but I just went slowly and it went fine.


IMG_3443 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3451 by jcyates1, on Flickr
After curing. I was worried that this setup would be somewhat fragile - only being attached at either end of fairly good size pieces of wood. No need to worry. I'm pretty sure I could have picked the tank up and carried it around using either mopani as a handle.

That's it for tonight. I'll try to get the rest of the build up tomorrow. I've got everything done but the planting. I'm still trying to wait for the last of the Titebond fumes to go away...


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

IMG_3453 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Next I started working on the plumbing.


IMG_3454 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3455 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3456 by jcyates1, on Flickr
This PVC piece is mainly just a rigid frame for the tubing running from the pump.


IMG_3457 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Drilling holes for the drip wall.


IMG_3462 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Positioning the plumbing inside the tank.


IMG_3470 by jcyates1, on Flickr
And Great Stuffing it into place. I used pencils to keep from filling in the drip holes.


IMG_3471 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I wanted to use this piece of mopani as a drip feature so I positioned a piece of tubing in just the right spot and super glued it into place.


IMG_3474 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3475 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I wanted to test out the Titbond slurry technique so I mixed up a tiny batch to build a dam around my outlet tube to keep the water flowing in the right direction.


IMG_3477 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I cut up a cork round into several pieces so that I could use them as planting cups on the background. 


IMG_3479 by jcyates1, on Flickr
And GSing them into place.


IMG_3486 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3497 by jcyates1, on Flickr
And GSing the rest of the background.


IMG_3498 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I cut on the foam with an exacto knife and the used pliers to pull out the chunks.


IMG_3504 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3510 by jcyates1, on Flickr
The background after a lot of trimming.

I wanted to use rock for the background in the areas where the water would be dripping. I went out and collected the thinnest rocks I could find to keep the bulk and weight down. 


IMG_3511 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Then I started carving out GS to fit each individual rock and super gluing them into place.


IMG_3531 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3533 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3535 by jcyates1, on Flickr
This took a really long time. The biggest thing was trying to keep the rock staggered in such a way that the water would keep flowing in the right direction and not seep off to the right or left.


IMG_3537 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Here's the tank after the first layer of Titebond 3/coco slurry.


IMG_3556 by jcyates1, on Flickr
And another coat to fill in the thin spots. 


IMG_3568 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Filling in the areas between the rocks was really time consuming. I ended up putting a generous coating of super glue in and round the crevices to keep water from seeping into the crevices and running around and behind the rock instead of over it.


IMG_3558 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I overshot the silicone by a little bit. It's not perfect but hopefully it won't stand out too bad.


IMG_3560 by jcyates1, on Flickr
The blue is a 1 1/2 inch piece of cut-to-fit air return filter that I'm installing as a ventilation strip. I'm not a big fan of the color so I will probably try to replace it with black if I can find some.


IMG_3561 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3562 by jcyates1, on Flickr
The sides after cleaning up any extra silicone.


IMG_3572 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3573 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Just some closer up shots of the mostly finished background. There are still a few thin spots to patch.


IMG_3569 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3575 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Testing out some of the drip areas.

Alright. This post is probably too long now. I'll hopefully post the rest of the build tomorrow. 

A note on the water feature. I don't know how well it's going to work out but I do know that it has made this build a lot more complicated than it had to be. For instance the pvc across the top had to be perfectly level so that the water would come out all three outlets relatively equally. The biggest thing I'm worried about is keeping the water draining down the walls as it should and not getting into and saturating the substrate. I'll have to keep an eye on any plant growth that could draw the water off it's intended course.


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

When I made the lid I first went to Lowes and had them cut two pieces of glass to size. Well, it was cut about an 1/16" too long and wouldn't fit inside the lip of the tank lid. Also, it was very thin. When I placed it on top of the tank there was an obvious bow from it's own weight. I decided to just go to a local glass shop and get some 1/8" thick pieces cut instead.


IMG_3543 by jcyates1, on Flickr
The difference between the Lowes glass and the 1/8" glass.


IMG_3550 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Hinges siliconed on


IMG_3549 by jcyates1, on Flickr
And the finished lid with a space for the ventilation strip. I also added an acrylic handle.


IMG_3626 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I collected some more rocks to use in the water features and to line the front of the tank for hiding the hydroton.


IMG_3627 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3629 by jcyates1, on Flickr
The strip of tape is at 3 inches - the minimum level for my hydroton. It helped me to fill to the correct depth.


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

I got really carried away with the plants. There are just so many options. I picked up a few from Lowes and ordered more from a couple of places. It would have been better, I think, to go with a theme and stick with just a few species but I went overboard. I actually got about 8 more plants than I list below but made myself narrow it down somewhat. It's a start for the next build.

Here's the plant list:


Asplenium ebenoides
Nephrolepis Cordifolia
Selaginella erythropus 
Selaginella uncinata
Neoregelia Ampullacea 
Neoregelia ?
Neoregelia ?
Pilea spruceana
Pellionia argentea
Peperomia caperata
Peperomia argyreia
Hoya curtisii
Ficus pumila 'Quercifolia'
Tillandsia Myosura
Tillandsia Tenuifolia 'Blue Flower'
Tillandsia Albertiana
Peperomia caperata
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green'
Syngonium Podophyllum

I know the Syngonium Podophyllum will get big but I was wanting something tall and stemmy coming out of the pool. I may end up taking it out later.


IMG_3540 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Presoaking plants


IMG_3539 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Bleach dip


IMG_3541 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Very thorough rinsing


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## Trickishleaf (Jun 29, 2012)

Looking good! I love this tank size.


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## jrudd013 (Jul 8, 2013)

I love the step by step you've given. Tank looks amazing. Can't wait to see the finished product.


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

Thanks guys. The viv is now pretty much finished. All it's really lacking is leaf litter which I should get around to adding today.

I'll hopefully post the rest of the build photos tonight.

I know this build is nothing new or different but hopefully this thread will be helpful to someone. Thanks for looking.


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

IMG_3635 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I cut this piece of PVC to put in the bottom of the pool so that I can easily get a siphoning tube to the bottom of the tank if I want to do a complete water change.


IMG_3636 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3640 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Cutting out weed block fabric to fit


IMG_3641 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3646 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Setting up a bit of a buffer between the drip wall areas and the rest of the substrate

Circulation:


IMG_3660 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I tore this fan out of a laptop. 


IMG_3661 by jcyates1, on Flickr
screened over the output area


IMG_3662 by jcyates1, on Flickr
a housing for the fan made out of a piece of 3 in. PVC


IMG_3663 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I covered this in screen as well.


IMG_3665 by jcyates1, on Flickr
with the fan secured inside


IMG_3796 by jcyates1, on Flickr
and then it got siliconed onto the bottom of the lid


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

Finally, here are some photos of the finished vivarium - well terrarium for the time being.


IMG_3799 by jcyates1, on Flickr
The fan in place.


IMG_3798 by jcyates1, on Flickr
view of the fan from the top.


IMG_3794-wb by jcyates1, on Flickr
The planted tank


IMG_3800-wb by jcyates1, on Flickr
with leaf litter added


IMG_3805-wb by jcyates1, on Flickr
Watermelon Peperomia


IMG_3807-wb by jcyates1, on Flickr
Peperomia caperata


IMG_3808-wb by jcyates1, on Flickr
Two Neoregalias - not sure of the species


IMG_3811-wb by jcyates1, on Flickr
Pilea Spruceana in the background


IMG_3813-wb by jcyates1, on Flickr
It's kind of hard to see here, but a view back into one of the frog caves that sort of unintentionally came about from the way the mopani pieces were mounted.


IMG_3816-wb by jcyates1, on Flickr
Neoregalia 'Tiger Cub'


IMG_3819-wb by jcyates1, on Flickr
Saleginella erythropus poking out from the leaves

So far I'm really pleased with the way this build turned out. I'm looking forward to seeing the plants grow in some - though I do think I may have overplanted a bit. The water features turned out surprisingly well. I was certain that something would go really wrong with them but so far they're doing great. The water flow is really just a trickle so it's hard to show in photos. I may post a video later so you guys can see how it work.

Thanks for looking/reading.


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## carola1155 (Sep 10, 2007)

All these links you've been posting have been making the board keep picking up your posts as spam... So I've needed to approve pretty much all of them haha. I have to admit though, it has forced me to follow along and I am very impressed. Definitely a great first build. I really like what you did with the rocks in the pond area.

The only thing I would nitpick/warn you about is that I have always had terrible luck getting silicone to stick to any sort of plastics... so those hinges might give you trouble down the road. A stronger glue might be necessary. 

Also, I would have created a way to possibly shut off the drip wall side of that PVC. If you were to find that it is making the back area too wet (which I have a feeling it might) it looks like you'd have to shut down the whole water feature or find a way to plug the hole with something that can cure while the viv is planted and humid.

With that said... All in all this is a good example of doing a lot of research and careful planning and should serve as something to strive towards for all newer members. Keep it up!


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

Thanks for the reply. Sorry for all the links. I should have broken it up into more posts so it wouldn't trigger the spam filter.

I thought about making some way of closing off the drip wall... right after I had great stuffed the plumbing into place. Oops. I did go to a lot of trouble to make sure that the water stays on a very limited route and it really is just a trickle so hopefully it will be alright. Worst case, if I do have to leave the pump off most of the time, I don't think it will really look like anything is wrong since there's no big obvious waterfall or anything that will just be sitting there dry.

Yeah, I hope the acrylic hinges stick alright. I will keep a really close eye on them. What adhesives would work better than silicone for attaching acrylic to glass? 

Thanks again for the constructive comments.


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

Oh, and here are the future occupants:


IMG_3643 by jcyates1, on Flickr


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## Bunsincunsin (Feb 11, 2008)

athiker04 said:


> Yeah, I hope the acrylic hinges stick alright. I will keep a really close eye on them. What adhesives would work better than silicone for attaching acrylic to glass?


I have the same, or similar, acrylic hinges on my 29 gallon (though I went with two 12" hinges); they have held up just fine for over one year now with no separation from the glass. The lid is made from 3/16" glass and the hinges have had no problem supporting the weight when I leave the lid open.


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## carola1155 (Sep 10, 2007)

athiker04 said:


> Thanks for the reply. Sorry for all the links. I should have broken it up into more posts so it wouldn't trigger the spam filter.


Don't worry about it, not your fault. Like I said, it worked out for the best since I got forced to follow along  It's honestly a better and more streamlined thread with less individual posts anyway. 



athiker04 said:


> I thought about making some way of closing off the drip wall... right after I had great stuffed the plumbing into place. Oops. I did go to a lot of trouble to make sure that the water stays on a very limited route and it really is just a trickle so hopefully it will be alright. Worst case, if I do have to leave the pump off most of the time, I don't think it will really look like anything is wrong since there's no big obvious waterfall or anything that will just be sitting there dry.


haha yea I have to say I pointed that one out from experience... I had a waterfall with two outlets in a tank several years ago and the one side worked beautifully but I didn't do as good of a job directing the flow of the other one and it saturated half my tank, so I ended up having to just shut the whole thing off. Was a bummer.



athiker04 said:


> Yeah, I hope the acrylic hinges stick alright. I will keep a really close eye on them. What adhesives would work better than silicone for attaching acrylic to glass?


I think your best bet is to use some epoxy.

P.S. Frogs look great!


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## carola1155 (Sep 10, 2007)

Also, I found this thread which has some stories of people having success and some people having failures with silicone and their hinges...

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/pa...ll-acrylic-hinges-work-side-opening-door.html

I honestly think it probably has a lot to do with the conditions the hinges are subjected to. Are they directly under a light/exposed to heat, what is the humidity like, etc etc. We all know that acrylic has the tendency to warp and I think if your conditions are right for that, it is going to pull them off of the silicone.


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

Thanks for the input guys. And thanks for that link. 

Good to know that I should be keeping an eye on it. At least in this setup the hinges don't have to support any weight 99.9% of the time - just when I'm raising and lowering the lid. I don't have to worry about the glass just collapsing in randomly. 

When I see any signs of weakening I'll grab some epoxy and redo it.


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

*Viv Update: New photos + video*

So it's been about a month since I got the tank planted and a couple of weeks since the frogs went in. I probably hurried that process a bit but the they seem to be doing great. Most of the plants look worse now than they did when I planted them, which I was kind of expecting. The ferns seem to have suffered the most with my rabbit's foot fern, in particular, loosing all foliage. They seemed to have rounded the bend this past week though and everything is starting to put out fresh leaves and fronds.

My Asplenium ebenoides lost most of it's greenery but if you look close you can just make out a few new fronds budding out. I poked around and found about a dozen of these on their way up. Hopefully in another month it will look a lot better.


IMG_3824 by jcyates1, on Flickr

The lemon button fern has had it rough too but it's also putting out new growth:

IMG_3828 by jcyates1, on Flickr

I initially planted my rabbit's foot fern in too moist an area and covered up it's rhizomes. Oops. It lost every piece of foliage. I decided to mount it as a pure epiphyte on a piece of wood and now it's got half a dozen new fronds coming out on it. 

IMG_3830 by jcyates1, on Flickr

I picked up this Moon Valley Pilea at Lowes for 3 bucks and planted it in the spot where my rabbit's foot had been:

IMG_3832 by jcyates1, on Flickr

The live moss that I got from Neherp went through a die-back stage but it's putting out some really nice new growth now, particularly the pieces that are higher in the viv and get a lot of light.

IMG_3826 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3834 by jcyates1, on Flickr

The Pepperomia caperata is looking great:

IMG_3831 by jcyates1, on Flickr

Actually both my Pepperomias, the other is watermelon, are doing really well. Neither ever dropped a single leaf and immediately started putting up new foliage. 

I didn't make a photo of it but my Pilea spruceana, that I planted in almost total shade in a really swampy spot at the base of the drip wall, has probably grown more than anything else. It's at least an inch taller and has sprouted out a new branch/runner.

Surprisingly, the only things that completely died were my three oak leaf creeping fig cuttings. I planted some standard creeping fig in it's place (something I kind of wanted to avoid) and it's doing fine.

Here's my (maybe) male Cobalt poking out of the coco hut. So far it's just a nice place to hide.

IMG_3837 by jcyates1, on Flickr

Another shot of him through foggy glass:

IMG_3843 by jcyates1, on Flickr


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

*Viv Update: New photos + video*

Oh, and here's a video I made of the frogs and viv. They are usually more all over the tank, climbing up on the background and wood pieces, but I was harassing them for the video right around normal lights out time. So, I think they were mainly interested in crawling into their respective crevices for the night. There's a few good shots of the main water/drip feature which is really hard to convey in still photos. A lot of it is me trying to keep the camera in focus, so I apologize for the quality.





Music: Tam by LJ Kruzer

I had music playing while I was shooting the video and it was really annoying chopped up when the video was edited. So, I grabbed a creative commons track to give it a little mood.


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

Just wanted to post an updated on my first (and still currently only) viv build. It's cool, for me at least, to see how things are growing in. 


IMG_3964 by jcyates1, on Flickr
All the original foliage on the Asplenium ebenoides has rotted away but the new growth is coming in quite well.


IMG_3966 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Similar situation with the lemon button fern.


IMG_3969 by jcyates1, on Flickr


IMG_3968 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Some shots of the neherp moss looking awesome. This stuff has really taken off. It is incredibly thick with long _fronds_? Almost like a mini fern.


IMG_3970 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Tillandsia with some more moss taking hold on the rock in the background.


IMG_3972 by jcyates1, on Flickr
A different species of moss that I got started by shoving into a crevice in the drip wall.


IMG_3973 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Close up on the background. I got a bag of dusk tropic moss mix a couple of weeks ago and spread it on the areas that stay saturated from the drip wall. There are some things starting to come to life.


IMG_3974 by jcyates1, on Flickr
It took the peacock saligenella a long time to acclimate but it's finally taking hold and looking really good.


IMG_3976 by jcyates1, on Flickr
The Pilea spruceana has really exploded. If you're looking for something that will do well in saturated substrate with low light, try this.


IMG_3977 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Hoya curtsii putting out new growth and rooting into the background. 


IMG_3978 by jcyates1, on Flickr
I removed my old rabbit's foot fern. It lost all it's original foliage and kept trying to put out new but I think the frogs were trampling it and keeping it down. It's now recovering in a different tank. This new piece of rabbit's foot is doing great. It's only been in for less than a month and all of the branching off the main rhizome is new growth. It's growing pretty much completely epiphytically. 


img_3993-img_3994 by jcyates1, on Flickr
Full tank shot.

The brom in the middle is putting out a nice sized pup. I meant to grab a close up but forgot. You can just make it out in the full tank shot. 

So far the only plants I've outright killed are my creeping figs. Totally killed two oak leaf figs so I put in two standard variety. One of those has died completely and it looks like the other is dying. It's the yellowing plant near the top, just to the right of the Hoya curtsii. I don't really mind, as I don't care much for the looks of it. I wouldn't mind seeing the Hoya and moss mix fill in and take it's place.


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## mollbern (Feb 10, 2013)

Whoa it's beautiful! Love that last full tank shot. 

Really cool mix of plant sizes, shapes and colors. And I appreciate the bold topography. 
I'm jealous of those chunks of wood you have on the right side... they're perfect. 

Great build! Please keep the updates coming.


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## froggorf (Nov 22, 2008)

Your tank is looking awesome and I love how the moss is coming in! There's hope for mine yet


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

Thanks for the comments.

Yeah, I was lucky to come by that gnarly piece of Mopani at a Petsmart. Being petsmart I paid pretty dearly for it to but it's worked out well. It's hard to tell from the photos but the wood pieces on either side make cave like areas between the sides and back of the tank. There are no plants in these areas, just lots of leaf litter, and the frogs love to hide out back in those areas when they aren't out stalking microfauna.

Yeah, I'm really happy with the moss. Knowing how big it gets now, I'm glad I only got a little bit and used it pretty sparingly. It would be too much if it were growing everywhere. It seems to do best where it's really really wet (like water constantly moving through it) and where it's closest to the light.


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

Just wanted to do an update on this tank. It really took off a few months after initially planting. I've done several major cuttings, the last of which was a few weeks ago. I snapped these pictures to show the growth.

Since first planting, the aspenium fern never made a comeback. I ended up completely tearing out the Pilea spruceana and "moon valley". They just took over and went crazy. This picture of the tank looks dense compared to the early pictures but, seriously, I cut out at least 50% of the biomass, most of which was pilea with a good chunk of lemon button fern and "watermelon" peperomia. 

The rabbit's foot fern is doing great and sending out some really cool runners.

The photo makes the tank look very flat but there are in fact a lot of places, frog caves, for the frogs to climb around in and hide behind the wood pieces. Actually, they started laying eggs back in there instead of their coco hut and now I have to wait for the male to transport the tads to the water feature before I can pull them. 

Anyway, I'm really happy overall with this build. 

Biggest lesson learned: don't stress about hardscape, especially when working with larger, faster growing plants. It just gets covered up. I cringe when I think of the time I spent gluing all the little rocks into my drip wall which is now just a big thick moss mat. 

Full tank:


Close up of rabbit's foot:


frogs:


some neoregelia growth. The big colorful one is actually a pup of the smaller green one to the right. You would never know the were the same variety.


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## SPorte7590 (Jan 18, 2016)

Your tank looks fantastic! I just planted a rabbits foot in the substrate of my current build, but after reading this I'm thinking I should grow it as an epiphyte. How often do you mist?


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## rebelm (Mar 26, 2016)

Wow the full tank update shows SO much growth from the first full shot! The growth of your lemon button fern gives me hope since mine's had some trouble keeping its leaves too.


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## athiker04 (Nov 15, 2013)

Yeah, I basically think of lemon button fern as a weed now. Sadly this tank is now empty as I recently sold the occupants. Trying to decide what to do with it now...


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