# 120g first build journal



## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Well, I have finally (after a year of being a registered member on this forum and many years of stalking around) started to build my vivarium! It's going to be 1m x 0.6m x 0.75m (l x d x h) and is going to be built into a wooden unit (to house the other stuff pump/feeders/water etc).

It's taken me ages to get going with the build as I wanted to use polycarbonate sheeting so that it was much lighter than glass and needed to check that this was safe and would hold together. After a few trials (and months) i was happy that this would work and so preceded to get things started!

Sadly, I don't have any pictures of me building the unit itself nor the vivarium, but I pretty much followed this guide with the exception that I used polycarbonate sheets: http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/pa...tructing-euopean-type-vivarium-step-step.html

At the weekend I started to build the rock background/waterfall part and did a little bit of work on making a fake tree to go in the opposing corner.


























I was toying with the idea of adding these to the tree, but would like everyone's opinion:










After doing this bit of ground work, I started to turn the rock formation into rock! 

I applied quite a thick coat of tile grout to the 'upward' faces of the rock formation letting it spill over as necessary










I left that to dry for a day, put it on it's side, and applied a similar coat to the edges/bottom (you can see where it has dried slightly on the left - which, I don't think will last much longer if I don't get it held in place in the viv as its starting to get heavy!)










As a rough idea of the texture, it looks like this


















Once it dries it lightens quite a lot, but it has some great colouration/texture so it should be pretty easier to paint up later.

I'm going to add quite a watery coat tonight to fill the 'white gaps' that can be seen in places and will start to build up some more texture with a thicker coat it some places to make sure the water 'roughly' follows the course I have intended for it.

Once I've finished all of these costs (I think I will have done 10 by the end!) I will add a 'waterproofing' layer (can't think of the name of the product right now, but it's one of the silka products) and then paint it!

As for the tree, this will be covered in brown silicone and the then have bark chippings laid onto that to create a fake bark covering. I've tested the idea out and it looks pretty good, so that should get underway this weekend!

In general, the plan is to have a small pond/river idea on the right (nothing major, just something), with the land mass being to the left side, with the tree sitting in the left corner on top of this land mass. The background will be the usual foam/silicone and coir type affair with various plants built in. The tree will house a small fan for internal air circulation. There will be a number of fake branches (in a similar style to the tree) and a number of vines kicking around here and there as well.

Any suggestions/constructive criticism is welcomed!

The frogs themselves will not be in to late February/early March depending on when the plants etc have had chance to settle down, so I have quite a large time frame in mind! I've already played the waiting game for a year, so whats a few more months!


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## coryh83 (Jul 28, 2012)

I really love the rock formation and I think the tree will look nice as well. Are you going to wrap it n cork bark? Can't wait to see the finished product!!!


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

coryh83 said:


> I really love the rock formation and I think the tree will look nice as well. Are you going to wrap it n cork bark? Can't wait to see the finished product!!!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Cool thanks!

Which 'version' of the tree do you prefer?

No, I'm going to cover it with small bark chippings (similar to the stuff you get in playgrounds) that will be held on by brown silicone. The chippings have to be dried in the oven first, but that's pretty easy to do!


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## coryh83 (Jul 28, 2012)

I personally like the first version better. But this is your build and you get to choose in the end how you want it to look.( what I am loving about this hobby) 




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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

coryh83 said:


> I personally like the first version better. But this is your build and you get to choose in the end how you want it to look.( what I am loving about this hobby)
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I think I preferred the first myself, so was just looking for reassurance!


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## frankpayne32 (Mar 17, 2007)

Glad to see you got started. The rock ledge looks great. Good luck.


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

frankpayne32 said:


> Glad to see you got started. The rock ledge looks great. Good luck.


Ha ha! Yeah! Finally got it started about 3 weeks after my original plan!


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## Meow Kitty (Dec 1, 2012)

personally i like the stump (tree) without the top branches


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Well, it's time to resurrect this thread from the archives!

I literally can't believe how long it's been since I last posted about this build!

So, without further ado, here is my progress!

Firstly, the polycarbonate and silicone base are holding up well and have not leaked since day one where i stupidly didn't seal the drain hole properly! fortunately that was easy to rectify at this point!










_Excuse the splash marks in the back corner but I had been running the pump to test that it all drained out properly._

So, once I had it water tight, i thought it would be great to try out my rock waterfall! Sadly, once I put it in I realised that I had made it slightly too large and water would sometimes drop over the divide! That really annoyed me as it was looking pretty good and worked very well.

Here are the picture:














































I am quite annoyed that it failed on such a minor thing, but I am also relieved as I actually now want to change it!

I saw this pic online and thought it was more the sort of thing that I wanted, so I've started again on a new design!










Whilst, it obviously isn't going to look exactly like this, I have used more expanding foam to give it softer edges in places which should give it a better look. I will try and get some pictures up tomorrow but that will depend on the progress!

As you can probably tell, I am MASSIVELY behind schedule, but I'm in no real rush which is always useful!

Any comments/thoughts are always welcome!


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## Trickishleaf (Jun 29, 2012)

Your rock work is very good! If you're making a new one, it can only get better. Keep in mind that if you layer sphagnum and then put moss or riccia over that, you will get more of a rounded look. Something to consider before scrapping all your other work. 

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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Trickishleaf said:


> Your rock work is very good! If you're making a new one, it can only get better. Keep in mind that if you layer sphagnum and then put moss or riccia over that, you will get more of a rounded look. Something to consider before scrapping all your other work.
> 
> Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2


Thanks! I agree! That's the only positive I can really take from my mistakes!


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Well here is a quick update picture of the waterfall before the first layer of grout.










The picture doesn't really do it justice at the moment, but hopefully after the grout it will show some more prospects.


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Right, next update! As usual, it's taken me a lot longer to get round to doing much on this build as work is dominating my 'spare' time at the moment but I keep chipping away at it!

The rock waterfall is coming along quite nicely. I have just finished the second 'colour' layer to put the midtones into the rock and have tested that the water course runs as I want it to.



















With regards to the viv itself, it has passed all watertightness tests and I've now added the vents and door runners.



















Finally, this vivarium will sit in the following unit (I didn't realise the picture was this blurry, apologies!)









The top section is for the viv and the second section is for the the various feeders I need (for the frogs and the chameleons I have).

The lighting so far comprises one UV tube, 1 warm white LED spotlight and 2 cool white LED spotlights.










Well, I think that is enough of an update for today! Hopefully I will get the waterfall in tomorrow and then I can start on the background.


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## TheCoop (Oct 24, 2012)

Looks very good! Is that a Sambava Panther in your pic?


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

TheCoop said:


> Looks very good! Is that a Sambava Panther in your pic?


Thanks!

He's actually a Diego Suarez! They have very similar colourings but Diego's do better green and reds in my opinion.


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Well, I have added the expanding foam since my last update! Again, sorry for pictures being a bit blurry!




























I didn't really realise how terrible the stuff is to work with! Terrible stuff! The biggest issue I had was that because I put the rock waterfall in place first (not my smartest of moves) it really wasn't going to be OK to stand it on a side so I had to do everything with it lying on it's back. That was a real pain but I got there slowly but surely!


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## my_shed (Feb 8, 2013)

SLiK JiM said:


> I didn't really realise how terrible the stuff is to work with! Terrible stuff!


Know the feeling, it's so easy to watch the guys from the states with Great Stuff and think how easy it is, and then using the expanding foam we have over here, that truly lives up to it's name, and really struggle!

Looking good thoug

Dave


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

my_shed said:


> Know the feeling, it's so easy to watch the guys from the states with Great Stuff and think how easy it is, and then using the expanding foam we have over here, that truly lives up to it's name, and really struggle!
> 
> Looking good thoug
> 
> Dave


I was surprised at just how much the expanding foam could lift as it managed to move the rock waterfall up and out quite a lot! I am very glad I made sure the outsides had considerable weight pushing them in otherwise the flex in the polycarbonate would have made it bow outwards then it wouldn't have fit in the unit!

I'm hoping to get the expanding foam covered this weekend!


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## my_shed (Feb 8, 2013)

SLiK JiM said:


> I was surprised at just how much the expanding foam could lift as it managed to move the rock waterfall up and out quite a lot! I am very glad I made sure the outsides had considerable weight pushing them in otherwise the flex in the polycarbonate would have made it bow outwards then it wouldn't have fit in the unit!
> 
> I'm hoping to get the expanding foam covered this weekend!


Well, that's you weekend spent the same way as mine will be then  You may have said already, but how are you covering yours? I'm going with gorilla glue, same as all my others, but curious to know what you'll be doing.

Oh, and before you say "wheres your build thread?" I have good reasons not to post it. 1) It's for a Taiwanese beauty snake, not frogs, 2) I built the viv today out of an old wardrobe, wasn't planning to do the background but got carried away and chucked 3 cans of foam and a load of old branches in, and 3) because of 2) I didn't take any pics so far 

Dave


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## daemonfly (Dec 6, 2006)

Is that standard fiberglass window screen? Might want to go with something finer, as that won't keep all the bugs in.


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Well, progress is slow and steady but reaching the final stages now thankfully!

I've finished the first and second 'coats' of the back ground, but will need to finish it off by adding moss and what not!









I then added the false bottom and covered it with sand (very blurry picture! Sorry!):



I also put a lot of sand into the waterfall as I don't want the water to be too deep and also want to use it to plant some aquatic plants:



After this I covered the floor with my mix of substrate and initial moss and set up the mister to keep it moist this week (while I'm away). I need to get back and see how it is doing and get the rest of the moss in place.

Next on the list are the plants, but I have no idea where to start to be honest! I am probably going to get two huge broms and then order a selection (or 2 given this is a huge enclosure) from this website:Vivarium Plant Pricelist. Any suggestions?

Hopefully once I get some plants/wood and vines in there it will start to fill out as currently there is so much empty space!

Although I cant wait for the frogs, the thing I'm most looking forward to is it growing in over the next few weeks/months as i'm not looking to rush it to completion (when I started in November that is hardly a shock!

Any comments/suggestions are always welcome!

With regards to the mesh on the vent, it is epoxy coated aluminium and may not be thick enough to keep out all the insects, but I have plenty floating around in my chameleon room anyway that a few extra won't hurt (and will keep the spiders fed! )


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Next update arrives in relatively good time (for me at least!)

I finished adding the substrate mixture which comprises coco fibre, orchid bark and sphagnum moss (blended up and still intact). I had some spare sphagnum at the end and just put it on top which I will eventually cover with leaves and everything else.







I also put the enclosure inside the unit I built and am very happy to say that it fits perfectly!



You'll also see that I've added some moss for now and am letting that settle before I fire up the water feature this weekend. Once that get's done, I need to add the doors (after trimming the glass as it is too big) and then add all the plants/wood/vines etc!

I am really struggling on what plants to add and how many to order! Any recommendations/suggestions?

Thanks for looking


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Well a few things have changed since my last post!

Firstly, I filled up with water and turned on the pump to get the waterfall going! However, i noticed the water level was a lot higher than I expected and found to my horror that the 'permeable' membrane I had bought was impermeable!  So, that had to get changed out as the substrate was a boggy mess! Thankfully the reworking didn't take too long.

After that minor mishap I got the waterfall working again and it's now been going for 2 weeks with no issues and the water is starting to be properly filtered (now the filter media have had chance to mature the levels are looking good)

Here is a picture of how it looks now (I have just chucked in one plant at the moment and will get the rest shortly).



Here are some videos of the waterfall in action (I say waterfall, but it is more of a drip wall! Apologies for the poor quality but they are from my phone!)











I added some woodlice last week as well and they seem to be settling in quite nicely too.

Now just really need to get the wood/plants etc in and give it a few good months to grow! 

If you have any comments let me know!


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## rioth (Apr 18, 2013)

BOOM! Now here is a great build! I've subscribed and looking forward for future updates. Love the waterfall section. Inspiring!

- rioth


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## James (May 14, 2013)

The videos are private. 


I really like that second version of the waterfall. I almost looks like you went out and just grabbed a waterfall to put in your tank 


What kind of spray foam did you use? I have heard that the tan colored stuff like what you used is difficult to manipulate properly or that the black stuff pulls away easily from the glass.


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## zachxbass (Apr 21, 2008)

Couldn't see videos either, but saw enough to subscribe. Looks great so far

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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

rioth said:


> BOOM! Now here is a great build! I've subscribed and looking forward for future updates. Love the waterfall section. Inspiring!
> 
> - rioth


Thanks! The progress is slow and steady but it's been good fun!



James said:


> The videos are private.
> 
> I really like that second version of the waterfall. I almost looks like you went out and just grabbed a waterfall to put in your tank
> 
> What kind of spray foam did you use? I have heard that the tan colored stuff like what you used is difficult to manipulate properly or that the black stuff pulls away easily from the glass.





zachxbass said:


> Couldn't see videos either, but saw enough to subscribe. Looks great so far
> 
> Sent from my kindle fire using tapatalk


Sorry about the videos! I have made them public now! Don't know why my default settings are direct to private. Anyway, let me know if they're still not working.

I just used a standard UK PU foam. The brand was 'no-nonsense'. The stuff I had certainly was hard to work with as it expanded considerably, but once it dried it had adhered very well. Might be because I am using polycarbonate instead of glass but I think it would hold well regardless as the bits that dripped onto other surfaces held very well too!


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

So, I've made a bit more progress since my last post.

Firstly, I got some of the plants in:



There are still a few gaps where I need the broms to go in, but it's almost all of them.

Then I tried adding some wood. I decided I really didn't like this version as it look too cramped so took out the big piece at the back:



So, it now looks like this:





I think it needs something else it in, but I'm not really sure what!? Any suggestions?

This is where I think it needs something:



I think something like the little piece of wood front left would work well like roots coming out of the wall. I tried having pieces of wood going over the waterfall, but I really didn't like the look of them as they detracted from the waterfall itself.

As always, I welcome any comments/suggestions!


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## my_shed (Feb 8, 2013)

I agree the piece at the front left might look better in the top left, it would help make use of the vertical areas a little better, alternatively maybe a small "tree shaped" piece of wood placed semi-vertically to give a focal point in the foreground.

Looking great by the way 

Dave


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

my_shed said:


> I agree the piece at the front left might look better in the top left, it would help make use of the vertical areas a little better, alternatively maybe a small "tree shaped" piece of wood placed semi-vertically to give a focal point in the foreground.
> 
> Looking great by the way
> 
> Dave


Cool thanks! I will dig around and see what I can find in the way of wood! I'll see what I get and will post back later.


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Well, I spent a bit of time working on the enclosure this weekend and think I have got it fairly finished. What do you all think?











I also managed to get a visitor in the vivarium:







What do you all think?


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## epiphytes etc. (Nov 22, 2010)

To be honest, I liked it better without all those little wood pieces. The something you thought it needed was really just time. Time to let that Tilly fill in. Also, you should really reconsider that Guzmania. I think you can do better for broms. Other than that, it looks absolutely amazing, and I would love to have that thing in my living room.


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## trevorthetoad (Nov 5, 2012)

I agree. The wood pieces make it look a little too crowded. I'd use less wood, maybe taking out the straight pieces and leaving the ones with a more interesting shape. Some leaf litter in the places next to the rock structure where there aren't any plants might help it look more natural, and will provide cover and foraging space for the future inhabitants. Overall, though, the tank looks amazing! Can't wait to see it after the plants have grown in a bit!


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

epiphytes etc. said:


> To be honest, I liked it better without all those little wood pieces. The something you thought it needed was really just time. Time to let that Tilly fill in. Also, you should really reconsider that Guzmania. I think you can do better for broms. Other than that, it looks absolutely amazing, and I would love to have that thing in my living room.


I think it certainly looks better in the pictures without all of the wood but there is something to be said for seeing it in real life. Although, your post and the one below are making me consider cutting back on some pieces a little.

Yeah, the Guzmania was an impulse buy this weekend. I will give it time for everything else to settle and see how I feel about it. It probably won't make the cut when push comes to shove.



trevorthetoad said:


> I agree. The wood pieces make it look a little too crowded. I'd use less wood, maybe taking out the straight pieces and leaving the ones with a more interesting shape. Some leaf litter in the places next to the rock structure where there aren't any plants might help it look more natural, and will provide cover and foraging space for the future inhabitants. Overall, though, the tank looks amazing! Can't wait to see it after the plants have grown in a bit!


Which bits of wood do you have in mind?



The red one can go no problems but the green is semi structural in that it helps hold up the broken root nodule piece. I have plenty of leaf litter saved up ready to go, was just waiting to make sure I liked how things were looking as I thought it would be a pain to have to keep moving it all around to get to stuff.

Thanks for your comments, it is very useful to get other opinions.


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

So, had a small play this morning and moved some stuff around and out and this is the result:




_This one is to give you an idea of the depth as there is a lot of hiding space behind the log on the ground_

What do you think now? I think this enclosure is going to have cristobals in it so I'm hoping this will give enough climbing/hiding space?

Some other pictures for my own record really:

Fern near the top:


This plant:


started off like this just over a week ago (this is not the same one! ) but I am impressed with how quick it has grown. Let's hope this one does the same:


Some of my moss coming back to life:


I thought it was dead as it was pretty brown, but it has come back to me!

Any other thoughts/suggestions always welcome!

In other news, I have ordered some kyoto moss spores to spread around this week which I hope will cover all the bare wood and make it look a lot more lush and green.


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## PappaFrog (Feb 27, 2012)

Beautiful terrarium. Can you post more detailed images of the waterfall?


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

PappaFrog said:


> Beautiful terrarium. Can you post more detailed images of the waterfall?


Of course, anything in particular that you want to see?


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## Sal90 (May 19, 2013)

It looks incredible! What do you plan on putting in it?


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Sal90 said:


> It looks incredible! What do you plan on putting in it?


Honestly, I'm not entirely sure! I think Cristobals but I keep umming and arrring! Any suggestions?!


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## PappaFrog (Feb 27, 2012)

SLiK JiM said:


> Of course, anything in particular that you want to see?


Nothing specific, I just wanted to see how you constructed the waterfall area.


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Well, the waterfall itself was made by combining polystyrene and expanding foam to build the base structure.










I then covered it in numerous layers of cement and cement waterproofer with various colours of acrylic paint mixed in.










If you start off quite dark and runny at first to make sure you cover all of the light bits it makes it much easier at the end when you start to put on the lighter, more 'sticky' bits for texture and structure. Similar to how the first waterfall started at the top.

One I had the final shape with all of the cement/waterproofer on I added some acrylic paint to bit and pieces to darken some areas and lighten others. These would always be mixed with a watery cement mix to keep the texture.










Once I had done this, it was just a case of letting it dry out and putting it into the enclosure using expanding foam.










As it stands now, it looks like this:

Main view




Lower pool



Mid pool



Top pool and waterfall (hard to get my camera up to the top!)



All of the pools are heavily filled in with sand so that the aquatic plants in them can root and grow. It also means there is less water for the frogs to drown in.

The drip wall



The main 'waterfall'



That's about it for the actual waterfall. I just built it up in such a way that when water fill the top pool it cascades down to the bottom filling up the other pools en route.

As for the plumbing itself, it's rather simple. Firstly, you set the outflow tube at the height you want the water level to be (it is probably better to do it vertically rather than the horizontal way I did, but I forgot that I wanted it the other way when I was putting them in and cut the hole before I could think! )



This goes into a sump where any big bit are filtered out and the water is heated.



The sump is currently a bucket, but I will make it a bit nicer when the whole unit is finished (out of glass) and will probably use it to grow aquascape of some sort and spare aquatic plants.

Then it is drawn into an external aquarium filter I had and pumped back into the top of the enclosure.





I think that is about everything.

At first, I had wanted the water to flow quite quickly, but given it was pumping up around 2, the filter was struggling. However, I now really prefer that it is quite slow moving as it is really tranquil and the drip wall works fantastically.

Feel free to ask any other questions.


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## PappaFrog (Feb 27, 2012)

Thank for all the detailed info. I like the way you seamlessly blended the waterfall into the background.


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

PappaFrog said:


> Thank for all the detailed info. I like the way you seamlessly blended the waterfall into the background.


Not a problem!

Thanks! It was just a case of get the waterfall done outside then slot in it and build everything else around it. Once the expanding foam holding it in place had set, I just used the foam around the waterfall and used the silicone and coir mix to build the background. Add some moss and loose bits of substrate/sand and it looks like it's been there for a while!


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Well, I guess it is about time I gave some sort of update!

Here are a couple of quick shots:









The main plants have now settled and are growing pretty well. I'm a little disappointed with the moss growth to date, but there are some areas of good growth around the waterfall. Thankfully, I'm still in no rush, so I'm prepared to let it grow in for a while longer.


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Just a quick side by side for comparison:



Apologies for the viewpoint change and quality, but I got a new camera so it goes a bit wider than my old one.


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## HDreptiles (Jun 20, 2011)

Wow man. That is beautiful. You, sir, have done an amazing job.


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