# How To Build A Live Planted Vivarium Step 4:



## MantellaMan (Feb 3, 2012)

Hey everyone,


Right, the sealant/soil mixture should of set now so you can turn it up on its side and let the excess soil fall off. You might get a few gaps where you have miss the foam, dont worry just go over it again and apply more and let it dry again but leave it a day or two, not a week (you will get tiny gaps that your never going to get so don’t worry).


After your happy with the out come of step 3, then its time for where your artistic side comes out which I think is the best thing about the whole build! Seeing it all come together and making it look natural.


Step Four “The Decor & Planting”: 


Right, its time to start preparing your decorations to be placed into the vivarium. There’s not a lot i can really write about this step really, as I can’t see into the future and know what your going to use! But i will tell you what I used for my set up and maybe you might even want to copy. Here is a list of basically every item I used in the tank:


5 pieces of Cork Bark (3 of them were used to cover the piece of wood and to make it look like it carries on the branch, one piece even connects my branch to the flower pot).
3 Quite heavy and large Rocks (I got them from the garden but you might have to buy them from your local Exotic Pet Shop or Normal Pet Shop).
Sphagnum Moss (Temporary use un-till I buy some live moss for it to start growing).
Clay Beads (this goes on the bottom layer of the tank, then your actual substrate then goes on top of that, i will explain why later on)
 You can use more, but in all honestly it might make the tank to cramped, plus what you must remember is that this is just an example of what “I” used for a Golden Mantella set up.


Anyway back to the task in hand, with the Cork Bark and Rocks, I boiled them 2 or 3 times (mainly for the rocks) to get rid of any bacteria or parasites that might be on them just to be cautious.


Now, everything should be sterile by now so you can start putting the rocks in (as the soil will be set around it leaving a small amount of the rock poking out the top like an ice burg really). Also if you want to put the live plants in the soil then position it when positioning the rocks. Once your happy with where they are, the layers of substrate can be put in the viv. Firstly put a layer of clay beads in the bottom of the tank, it apparently helps with holding moisture in the beads and stops it for a short while from saturating the substrate, after you have done that you can start packing, very tightly, the plantation soil. This time you dont need to dry out the soil in the oven to prepare it, just pour the water on the brick and then use the soil when its all loose. I sort of made the substrate hilly, to make it look more natural and certainly more exciting for the Frogs.


If your happy with that, then we can talk a little bit about what plants to use and which do well in set ups. I mainly use Bromeliads, for many reasons; 1. they are easy to look after and easy to maintain, 2. many of the different species look really nice mixed in together and finally 3. they are very cheap, you can purchase them for £3 in your local Tesco’s supermarket (for people in the UK) and even most gardening centers will have a large selection of species for you to choose.
However, Bromeliads arent the only plants you can use, there are hundreds! Here are a few you can use (I have written only the Latin name because its easy to find the correct plants using the Latin):


Foliage Plants: 


Anthurium Bakerii.
Begonia Foliosa.
Fittonia Species.
 Creeping Plants:


Anthurium Scandens
Callisia Repens
Fiscus Panama
Ficus Pumila
Fiscus Sagittata
 Ferns & Mosses:


Athyrium Spicatum
Dryopteriss Erthrosa
Hemionitis Ariflolia
Phlebodium Areolatum
 Those are apparently completely save species of plant to use, I have checked this with a number of people that have been doing this for many years so it should be fine. If you have put a plant pot(s) in the background, then those are perfect places to place either Bromeliads or creeping plants, however i would place creeping/climbing plants at the bottom of the tank against the background so it can grow all over it, make it look more interesting that just a plain mud wall! When using ferns, do remember that they are quite hard to keep alive, and dont go out in the woods up rooting ferns and planting them in the tank, as you have no idea whats been on or around the soil its originally from.


Anyway, you should of planted those exactly where you wanted them in your viv, and now its times for the final stage, the moss. This is completely up to you in what you wish to use, Sphagnum moss is the easy option to go with, I used it because its all i had at the time and plus i like to drape strands on it over bits of wood etc and make it look like swamp moss (considering that’s where Golden Mantella Frogs are from).


You should be completely finished now! What a relief eh?! Right, now before you put anything in the viv, leave it to mature for a week maybe more if you have the time, just so you can make sure nothing goes wrong with the set up and that the plants remain healthy.


Thank you for reading my little step by step guide , dont be afraid to comment on my posts if you would like to know about anything more in-depth, Here are pictures of my completed set up and one of my female Mantella’s i have in it.


Take care


MantellaMan


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