Dorifto
He who moists xD
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2017
- Messages
- 2,682
Hi guys, seeing that some people are asking about how I made my setup, I´m going to make a litlle tuto about it. It may look difficult, but It was more easy than I thought.
The tools:
- A propper enclosure, I choosed the European style glass enclosures, since they are cheap, they have a great ventilation and are awesome looking enclosures.
- A cutter or a knife.
- Non expansive foam, they are different grades of expansive foams, take the less expansive one, the explansive ones can break your enclosure because of the pressure they can produce while expanding.
- Water based acrlilyc paint.
- Ultra fine grade joint mortar. I tried the regular one and doesn´t work in my case. I bought the ones used to seal bathroom tiles.
- Some rocks, I used volcanic ones, since they don´t weight so much. but you can skip this part.
- Some driftwood. I sourced mine in the shore after a big storm. You can find some awesome looking woods, and the most important, a lot of them are cured by de sun and the sea, but of course you need to clean and disinfect as much as possible.
- Some plants: you need to choose the right ones for your enclosure, looking to the needs of your T, humidity, substrate etc. In my case were: Chamaedorea elegans, some bromeliads, Nephrolepis, and my last addition was the java moss ( Vesicularia Dubyana).
- An organic substrate, whithout any types of fertilizers, pesticides etc, in my case I choosed, top soil, clay and sand. I also used some xaxim for the background.
- Bioactive agents, like springtails, dwarf isopods (trichorhina tormentosa), medium sized isopods (porcellios) and earth worms to maintain oxigenated the substrate.
- And the most important one, PATIENCE
Lets start
The first thing I did, it was to imagine how I wanted to be the enclosure, possitioning the driftwoods, plants... etc in different possitions, angles... etc. After having an aproximate idea, I painted with the acrilyc paint the shape of the foam background, this way you only see a black surface through the glass, the other way you will se the foam, and won´t look pretty.
A little trick that will help you after, mask with some tape the parts that you don´t want to be painted or foamed. It´s going to be much easier to remove... Don´t ask me how I learned this trick... hahahahahaha
If you need to pass some cables like I had to do, this is the time to drill and pass cables, sensors... etc
Next step is to apply the non expansive foam. It will expand, don´t freak out xD, but not as much as other ussually do. Mask the cables or the sensors with some tape. I tried to find a dark one, but they only had a terracota color... If you find a darker color it will give you better results.
Next estep is to carve the foam, with the help of the cutter, you need to cut the most part of foam and them I suggest you tu remove some chunks of foam with the fingers, this way the foam looks better and not so square shaped. Do not left any shiny or rounded part, it will help you in the next step. If you want to add some rocks, you can drill some holes and insert some sticks to give more stability until you glue them with more foam.
Next step, forget my socks hahahahaha
Now whe are going to start "painting" the foam. I use fine grade joint mortar, the blend was more thick than liquid, It gave me better results and texture. You can see that I made like a thick paste.
Now with the cutter or a kitchen scrapper remove all the mortar and the paint until you reach the foam rock, and you will end with something like this. As you can see I used the foam to "glue" the driftwood, this way the transition is more fluid.
Now mask again the glass, because in this point the things becames a little sticky. Use some pet safe silicone and add to the parts that you want to add some dirt (substrate), in my case xaxim for the moss background. I don´t have any photo of this step, but there is no difficulty on this point. You need to be patient, and apply the silicone and with some gloves spreat it, and after add some dirt, xaxim etc. You will need to repeat this proccess several times until you get some thickness of dirt or xaxim. Finally you will end with something like this:
The tools:
- A propper enclosure, I choosed the European style glass enclosures, since they are cheap, they have a great ventilation and are awesome looking enclosures.
- A cutter or a knife.
- Non expansive foam, they are different grades of expansive foams, take the less expansive one, the explansive ones can break your enclosure because of the pressure they can produce while expanding.
- Water based acrlilyc paint.
- Ultra fine grade joint mortar. I tried the regular one and doesn´t work in my case. I bought the ones used to seal bathroom tiles.
- Some rocks, I used volcanic ones, since they don´t weight so much. but you can skip this part.
- Some driftwood. I sourced mine in the shore after a big storm. You can find some awesome looking woods, and the most important, a lot of them are cured by de sun and the sea, but of course you need to clean and disinfect as much as possible.
- Some plants: you need to choose the right ones for your enclosure, looking to the needs of your T, humidity, substrate etc. In my case were: Chamaedorea elegans, some bromeliads, Nephrolepis, and my last addition was the java moss ( Vesicularia Dubyana).
- An organic substrate, whithout any types of fertilizers, pesticides etc, in my case I choosed, top soil, clay and sand. I also used some xaxim for the background.
- Bioactive agents, like springtails, dwarf isopods (trichorhina tormentosa), medium sized isopods (porcellios) and earth worms to maintain oxigenated the substrate.
- And the most important one, PATIENCE
Lets start
The first thing I did, it was to imagine how I wanted to be the enclosure, possitioning the driftwoods, plants... etc in different possitions, angles... etc. After having an aproximate idea, I painted with the acrilyc paint the shape of the foam background, this way you only see a black surface through the glass, the other way you will se the foam, and won´t look pretty.
A little trick that will help you after, mask with some tape the parts that you don´t want to be painted or foamed. It´s going to be much easier to remove... Don´t ask me how I learned this trick... hahahahahaha
If you need to pass some cables like I had to do, this is the time to drill and pass cables, sensors... etc
Next step is to apply the non expansive foam. It will expand, don´t freak out xD, but not as much as other ussually do. Mask the cables or the sensors with some tape. I tried to find a dark one, but they only had a terracota color... If you find a darker color it will give you better results.
Next estep is to carve the foam, with the help of the cutter, you need to cut the most part of foam and them I suggest you tu remove some chunks of foam with the fingers, this way the foam looks better and not so square shaped. Do not left any shiny or rounded part, it will help you in the next step. If you want to add some rocks, you can drill some holes and insert some sticks to give more stability until you glue them with more foam.
Next step, forget my socks hahahahaha
Now whe are going to start "painting" the foam. I use fine grade joint mortar, the blend was more thick than liquid, It gave me better results and texture. You can see that I made like a thick paste.
Now with the cutter or a kitchen scrapper remove all the mortar and the paint until you reach the foam rock, and you will end with something like this. As you can see I used the foam to "glue" the driftwood, this way the transition is more fluid.
Now mask again the glass, because in this point the things becames a little sticky. Use some pet safe silicone and add to the parts that you want to add some dirt (substrate), in my case xaxim for the moss background. I don´t have any photo of this step, but there is no difficulty on this point. You need to be patient, and apply the silicone and with some gloves spreat it, and after add some dirt, xaxim etc. You will need to repeat this proccess several times until you get some thickness of dirt or xaxim. Finally you will end with something like this: