what's up guys mr. by varium here and on today's episode I'm going to show you how to create a bioactive IVA varium so the first thing you're gonna want to do is actually research the habitats in which your captive is native to in this case it's a poison dart frog species that he's made us throughout most of Central America and it didn't have its everywhere from the forest floor up into the canopy so we're gonna want to wipe off all the glass surfaces that you have that you're gonna be adding silicone to because this will make it easier to stick so we are using GE silicone one this has no mold inhibitors so it's going to be safe for your reptiles and amphibians and the method we'll be using for this side of the tank is what's known as a cork tile background now zoo Med produces these they are really easy and effective so when you go to choose your driftwood you're gonna want to make it so it's in an optimum space so that as much of the surface area of the tank can be utilized by its inhabitant the next method is known as a great stuff method because you use great stuff here we're using great soft pond and stone this is meant for pond building but it works great in this instance as it is safe for animals and a nice dark color and quite easy to apply now that the foam is still wet it's a good time to add pots such as peat pots and pieces of cork and your driftwood to the background now here I'm going to be adding in some pieces of bark now it doesn't have to be cork bark but it is important that it is clean and if you want to see how to do that click on the tag in the corner of the video but basically any natural pieces of bark are good as well as sticks and other things but they all decay at a different rate and here we're applying peat pots of to the regular plastic ones simply because I think they're more aesthetically pleasing and you won't see them in a few weeks after the plants start growing in it's also important to remember that you don't have to go all the way to the bottom of your tank because you're gonna have your substrate and your drainage layer down there and you don't really need your background to extend that far next is probably the most tedious part of the build and this is carbon so you're going to want to curve off all the smooth surfaces of your spray foam because this is gonna make it a whole lot easier for the silicone to attach to it as well it will look way more natural because you can carve in indentations and stuff opposed to just a bunch of lumpy looking foam that is not really aesthetically pleasing now once you get your carving all finished you're gonna be applying more of your silicone to the background and now this is to add your background mix which can be anything from coconut fiber to Spagna moss or your own personal mix of a variety of different products and here you're gonna want to use any portions because your silicone will dry most likely before you can get the whole background covered in it so generally you're gonna want to wear gloves and have one hand to silicone and the other hand to apply your background mix now you're gonna want to let this sit for at least 24 hours or until the vinegar smell from the silicone is completely gone then we can move on to our next step of actually vacuuming out all the leftover pieces of background now don't forget to poke holes into your pots so that water doesn't get trapped there in your points of proper drainage now that the background is dry you can go ahead and do some touch-up spots if you'd like by either using more coconut fiber or you can add in long pieces of sphagnum Moss like you see here now I have to give jungle Jewell exotics a big shout out for this amazing idea so basically here we have a cut open pop bottle that I have siliconed and we're sticking this to the bottom of the tank and this is simply to allow for removal of access water and all we're doing here with the pop bottle lid is actually covering it in silicone and coconut husk and look at that it's gonna blend right into the substrate now here we're actually adding in a drainage layer now there's many different methods here we are using a black lava rock now you can pick this up really cheap landscape suppliers and I think it looks really good it also serves as a area for beneficial bacteria to congregate if you're going to do something with a water feature or similar to a pallid areum next we are going to be using a substrate divider and this is a landscape fabric used in gardening now what we've done here is pre cutted to the dimensions of the vivarium and we've also slit a spot for our access to the drainage layer next we're gonna be adding in some charcoal now this is to weigh it down before we add in more substrate so that substrate doesn't fall underneath all that's not too big of a deal but it also adds as an extra source of purification of water again if you're going to be using some sort of water feature here we're adding in the substrate mix I showed you how to do click on the little tag in the corner to check out that video now what you're gonna want to do with this substrate is even it out we're gonna kind of push more of it into the back to give it more of a depth of field and then give it a nice spritz of water so that the plants aren't going into something that is super dry and will suck the water right out of them so this is our last bit of hard scape this is a piece of driftwood that I collected I showed you guys how to properly clean this in a video and basically what this is going to be used for is to add some more aesthetics as well as add a bit more surface area to the tank and now comes the fun bit planting so essentially we're going to be using several different plant species to achieve a jungle rainforest type aesthetic now it's important to note that you're gonna want to use plants that are similar to the biotope or the natural habitat not necessarily ones that are native but ones that will thrive in the environment in this case we're doing a rain forest habitat so we're gonna be using plants that are found in neotropical rain forest regions around the planet here is where the pots in the background come in handy because you can add in plants that aren't necessarily epiphytic or add in epiphytic plants that are hard to mount another handy technique to mounting your epiphytes is use paper clips that have been bent into little pins now this allows for your plants to root into the background and get more established you can also use toothpicks for this now probably the easiest epiphyte to mount are stallin ifirst bromeliads all you have to do is cut the stallin at a 45 degree angle and then press it right into the foam background so time to make it bioactive look at these two later so here we have mycorrhizae and trichoderma these are both beneficial fungi that form symbiotic relationships with plants you're going to want to mix these into dechlorinated water and spray everywhere and these will dramatically increase your plant's growth once sprayed in the vivarium so if you use the substrate mix it's going to already contain the beneficial composting bacteria and these will actually help break down the wastes produced by your animals in the vivarium so next we're going to be adding our largest component of the bioactivity and this is our cleanup crew we are going to be using four species on the screen you can see the dwarf white isopod in the peach spring tail but we also have in here the temperate white spring tail as well as the silver dwarf spring tail now these guys are going to work together to break down unwanted fun guys and animal waste into a more usable size for the beneficial bacteria to break down that will then get absorbed by the beneficial fungus and then go directly back into the plants and here's our last step which is adding a layer of leaf litter this is going to be beneficial for not only your inhabitants but it's also going to act as a fertilizer and a food source for your clean-up crews voila here we have a fully bioactive tropical rainforest by varium I hope you guys enjoyed this video and I can't wait to see how the progress goes within the next month's and once the inhabitants get here be sure you'll be seeing a video on that and be sure to hit that Bell icon and subscribe button to keep up with all the fun projects we have on the channel until next time guys god bless