how do make a natural vivarium in this video I will be teaching you how to build a beautiful natural vivarium from scratch already let's get started first thing you're going to need is some white vinegar mixed in water in a spray bottle a paper towel roll a straight edged exacto knife blade several bottles of silicone depending on the size of aquarium or Emir converting and the type we'll be using is s1 silicone which is devoid of all mold inhibitors the spray foam we'll be using is pond in stone gray stuff it's animal safe and black in color which is best for these project now for a supernatural istic look you'll want to incorporate some wood and we're bark into your design for this project I'm going to be using cork bark because it looks great it doesn't break down easily and even mold resistant if your tank is used like the one I'm using is start by wiping down the tank with the vinegar water and scraping off calcium build up with your exacto knife if necessary if your tank is front swinging doors be sure that they are well supported whenever you're opening it on its backside as unsupported doors can snap off real easily I learnt this the hard way a few years ago no God please no no next step is envisioning your work part you need to decide where you want to have your pieces of bark in the background put some thought into this now comes the fun part spray foam although I'm not leading by example in this particular scene I would strongly suggest wearing gloves and safety glasses while using spray foam as it's extremely sticky and does not come off easily at all [Applause] [Applause] after 24 to 48 hours your phone will have cured and you can move on to either carving the foam or turning the enclosure on its side to lay bark and foam on other surfaces of the enclosure - for this project we'll be designing three sides of the enclosure as an aesthetically pleasing and humidity increasing feature I decided to incorporate a humid ready father into my design this meant I had to create a hollow space in one side of the background - installed the fogger hose line in the same way that children use balloons to hold a paper mache project shape I stuck a toilet paper roll into the space where I wanted my fogger hose to fit so that when I phoned over that area it wouldn't jump down and block the space I piled some cork in one side and left few small spaces for the fog to pass through into the enclosure after 24 hours of drying at Cosi enclosure over and completed the opposite side and gave that side time to dry too now we're ready for our next step as we approach the task of silicone in the entire background we've just created you have to make sure that the foam is not only carved to the desired shape but also devoid of smooth surfaces that won't allow the silicone to adhere too well only problem with that is spray foam always dry smooth so we've got a lot of work to do now that all the carving is completed it's time to bring out the silicon first prepare the substrate you intend to use of the background by ensuring it is dry as that material will not adhere to the silicon properly I'm using dry peat moss for this build however products such as Coco Haas works just fine as well after putting on your Robert glove and moving to a well-ventilated worst place became supply the silicon to the dried and carb foam and generous globs here's where things get really messy using one gloved hand you can it's near the globs of silicon into the foam be sure to cover every speck of foam on the background as a silicon must be applied to every section you intend to thick peat moss to generously apply peat moss to the area you silicone over and give it a good pat down afterwards after 24 hours or so I use a shop vacuum to suck up all the excess peat moss so that any unfinished spots are made visible apply silicone of such spots and cover them up with ppand once you've completed one side you can move on to the next surface or side of the background having finished the background I reoriented the enclosure to a standing position make sure I got all the touch-up spots after this I decided to test out the fogger corner I had designed I don't know about you but I think I turned out great next I installed for my terrarium jungle vines you can learn how to make exactly ones by watching my tutorial links here once that completed the background I can only spray down the whole thing let it dry and do this maybe two or three times before introducing any animals or plants although the silicone is animal safe it does leave some odor so doing this procedure I feel helps clean the background properly not too shabby if I do say so myself because I intend to create tropical librarians that will experience several cycles of misting a day it's important that I added drainage layer that ensures my vibranium substrate will remain waterlogged I'm using hydroton which are essentially expanded clay pebbles by having the drainage layer water is able to pass through the soil and descend below it making sure the soil remains in a healthy and natural state once the hydrogen has been poured in and spread evenly I use simple landscaping style fabric to create a barrier between the soil and the drainage as without this obviously soil is free to pass through and mix with hydrazone I've taken the liberty of adding the most affordable Amazon links to hydrogen and all the other necessary components of this project in my video description so feel free to take a look at those if you can't find certain items locally make sure that your fabric allows water to pass through because if you don't you'll obviously have drainage problems moving on I prepared my soil make the tutorial in which is linked here for anyone that wants to make the same mix I use awesome before we add humidity to this tank there's one more thing I still need to customize and that's my little fog fart corner for this I'm simply going to use hot glue mosquito mesh from the hardware store and exude Terra forest Moss to conceal it because I intend to house dick sanic least killed echoes in this enclosure I need to make sure that they can't climb into the space the fog passes through and get stuck behind the background all I really had to do here was glue suitably sized mesh over the small gap trim away the excess mesh and then glue on the mod pretty easy god I say I'm quite happy with how this turned out make sure you buy very implanter both wash thoroughly and also transplanted if it's oil media that doesn't contain chemicals and or fertilizers you can actually just use the soil that you prepared for the enclosure for this build I decided to keep most of my plants in their pots however you can certainly remove them and allow them to grow unconstraint remember that lighting is also a very important component to your vivarium in combination with any lighting your animals required I recommend adding some three five plant grow lights such as Sun blasters or even high output aquarium lights this is called terrarium putty a nifty soil clay based terrarium resource I crafted to learn how to make some follow the link here when you're ready what I'm doing here is using it to build a small retaining wall that will permit me to plant this on this ledge by doing this I can add more soil for the plant to be nestled in as well I've shown in the terrarium putty tutorial I'm taking a bit of soil here to conceal it afterwards get creative and have fun with this try to envision how nice it'll look when the terrarium grows in for a few months I took advantage of having a few climbing plants grow on my terrarium vines and background I also use the terrarium putty to secure a few branches to the back wall until their roots would anchor on their themselves I've added some dry oak leaves for natural ground cover and for isopods and sprinkles to consume and live under spraying down the leaves with some reverse osmosis water will help soften them and make them more fly so there you have it I really hope this video helps you learn how to make your very own natural vivarium easy like the finished result or false a video helped you in any way please drop a like for me down below I really appreciate the support if you have any questions feel free to ask down below in the comment section and I'll do my best to respond as soon as possible for all my viewers and all my new viewers thanks so much for watching don't forget to subscribe the future content coming up every single week and to lastly I'd like to give my friend Mike ty Tula also known as graphic Phoenix a big shout out dr. Cerf been expecting our video today Mike has an incredibly informative and entertaining YouTube channel for those of you who are interested in reptiles and amphibians there Karen husbandry very implant-- growth and propagation and so many how-to videos I don't even know where to begin he keeps poison dart frogs with giannis geckos read a key a Herman's tortoise a Blue Tongue skink and plenty of healthy animals he shares weekly with his followers do me a favor and show some support for Mike by following the link in my video description to his channel to check out his work and subscribe to him it would mean a lot to me if you guys could show him some support by and I'm confident you guys will enjoy his content