# Planted White's Terrarium Build



## matt_mcmahon77 (Dec 3, 2009)

I've decided to do a step by step guide of how I made my first planted terrarium for my three whites tree frogs, so I can try and help anyone else out there who wants to do the same.

I have used a 60cmx45cmx60cm exo terra terrarium, and for the backgrounds I used coco panels. I cut these to size so it would cover the entire back of the terrarium, the entire left side, and half of the right side, as my frogs like to look out at us and so we could still see inside from on the sofa. I left a gap under the coco panels of around 10cm for the hydroleca, weed membrane and eco earth.
I attached the coco panels to the sides using normal silicone from Wickes that had no mould inhibitors in it. This is important as these are dangerous for the frogs.










I made the planters by using some of the spare coco panels and cutting them into triangles big enough to fit the plants in. I attached these by using aquarium silicone down the edges. I then pressed dry eco earth into the silicon to disguise it.










I left this to air outside for a couple of weeks as the fumes were very strong (I would advise doing all silicone work outside as well, I found out the hard way and could smell silicone for about 2 days.)

Next, I needed a drainage so i used a hydroleca bottom so that any excess water would drain through and not clog up the soil, causing the roots of the plants to rot.










In order to separate the substrate and drainage layer I needed something that would let the water through but not the substrate. For this I used weed membrane. This allows water through but nothing else.










I then added a layer of eco earth deep enough to plant in and added my broms into the planters.










I added a climber which I attached onto the coco panel with half a paper clip. This will eventually grow and attach itself.










In order to add a bit of deco and also to aid the springtails culture I put a layer of oak leaves on the floor.

The next step was to add some bog wood and in and some Java moss to again add to the decor.



















The final peice was to add the main bit of wood and now it all needs to grow in and hopefully the climber will cover the background.










I hope you like and any comments or suggestions would be great.

Thank you to all those that helped me start this project, especially Morgan and Flanny who probably got very annoyed with all my questions:notworthy::2thumb:


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## ilovetoads2 (Oct 31, 2008)

Well done, great pics too!


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## rhys s (Mar 8, 2010)

that is a very nice setup you done there and morgan and flanny should be pleased with the outcome .


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## Skunk (Apr 11, 2010)

Wow, looks great, gives me some future ideas. Never knew that you could use plants that amazing and colourful, look poisonous to me :blush: Love it!


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## Bug_Juice (Apr 2, 2010)

Great. Very clear pics with simple explanations of what's going on - good for those of us looking for ideas, thanks!


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## jme2049 (Jan 11, 2008)

Very nice matt. Im sure the whites will love their new home.

What is the climber plant you got in the pics? also where did you get it.lol


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## manda88 (Nov 27, 2009)

jme2049 said:


> Very nice matt. Im sure the whites will love their new home.
> 
> What is the climber plant you got in the pics? also where did you get it.lol


It's a silver pothos from dartfrog, which is also where we got the moss and the prayer plant, all the broms came from Richie when we visited him last month!


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## manda88 (Nov 27, 2009)

In fact I MUST mention one more thing that we missed out, when we attached the coco panels with the silicone from Wickes, we left it outside to air for 2 weeks before we did anything more, otherwise both we and the frogs would be reeeeeeally high/passed out from the fumes!!! I don't know whether you have to do this with every kind of silicone, I think with aquarium safe silicone it can be left for 24hours or something, but I strongly suggest you find out how long is safe to leave it for before putting any living creatures inside the terrarium, including plants.


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## jme2049 (Jan 11, 2008)

silver pothos ey? i shall be getting some off that.

Yeah the fumes are bad even with aquarium silicon. stings the eyes.


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## matt_mcmahon77 (Dec 3, 2009)

manda88 said:


> In fact I MUST mention one more thing that we missed out, when we attached the coco panels with the silicone from Wickes, we left it outside to air for 2 weeks before we did anything more, otherwise both we and the frogs would be reeeeeeally high/passed out from the fumes!!! I don't know whether you have to do this with every kind of silicone, I think with aquarium safe silicone it can be left for 24hours or something, but I strongly suggest you find out how long is safe to leave it for before putting any living creatures inside the terrarium, including plants.


If you read it through again you will notice i have already said this in the thread.


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## manda88 (Nov 27, 2009)

matt_mcmahon77 said:


> If you read it through again you will notice i have already said this in the thread.


Oh yeah, well I didn't see that until now and it's better to mention it again just in case anyone else missed it too cos it's important!


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## matt_mcmahon77 (Dec 3, 2009)

Glad you all like it. I will have some updated pictures once it has all grown in nicely.


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## Jazzy B Bunny (Jun 21, 2007)

Thats pretty, I might get a couple live plants for mine... I thought whites would get too big and heavy to be sitting on them though! :lol2: Which plants are easy to use?


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## manda88 (Nov 27, 2009)

Jazzy B Bunny said:


> Thats pretty, I might get a couple live plants for mine... I thought whites would get too big and heavy to be sitting on them though! :lol2: Which plants are easy to use?


 They are quite heavy for most plants to be honest, I'm amazed they haven't crushed all of these ones yet!! They can sit in the middle of the broms quite happily, but then they don't realise that the leaves aren't stable enough to hold their weight so they end up falling face first into the floor!! I think that once a prayer plant gets big enough then they can probably hold their weight, but don't quote me on that, I'm rubbish with plants, best bet is to make a thread on it.


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## Jazzy B Bunny (Jun 21, 2007)

:lol2: Mine are clumsy already and they are only just over an inch :lol2: I shall make a thread.


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## RhianB87 (Oct 25, 2009)

Looking good 

You are very creative!


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## Morgan Freeman (Jan 14, 2009)

How did you make it SO neat and tidy? I always have bits hanging everywhere and substrate mixing etc etc


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## Bearnandos (Nov 24, 2009)

looks great....just keep an eye out on their skins as some broms are not really suitable for the prickly broms.....they can injure themselves on the spikes when jumping. Those broms are normally more suited for smaller species...
They can also get stressed if when trying to catch an insect that happened to be on a brom spike....painful tongues for days.
Not saying it will happen...but may...just keep an eye out. Had that problem with my frogs...so had to remove all my prickly broms.


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