This sort of art should be offered in high schools and universities.

I am SO glad I watched this before ever creating a vivarium - foam as the main substrate and drainage is a brilliant idea even if you wanted some loose substrate on top for whatever reason. This kind of design seems ideal for "sterility", ease of access, and frog safety while still keeping everything beautiful about vivariums. Amazing video, thank you

This was literally one of the coolest backgrounds I have seen so far. The drylock looked awesome on top of foam. I can’t wait to see part 2!

Thank you for sharing your techniques. I learned a lot of helpful info and tips. The silicone seal from foam to glass is a great idea that I've never heard before. I will give that a shot for a future project. And the clear but detailed drylok / quikrete portion of the tutorial was exactly what I needed for a project I'm working on. I've been putting off trying the drylok technique for a while now because I thought it would be complicated or a big hassle, but you made it seem simple, and now I know exactly what to do. The background and scape in this video look awesome. Great work!

Wow, that carving method is so much easier than carving with knife + you’d have mess whichever way you do it.... nice job 👍🏽

TROY!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! I am a brand new subscriber here!!!! My jaw was open the whole video, not even joking lol! I too have an artistic background. If I had not lost half of my vision I would have continued down that road. My pets are snakes, hopefully down the road I can get some geckos and frogs!!! This video and vivarium background were by far the best here on YT...I especailly LOVED watching you paint and place in your background:) I am grinning from ear to ear hahaha! I have been searching on here trying to place ideas in my head for the "perfect" background in my first ever bioactive terrarium I am putting together for one of my ball pythons...(going to do it for all but money does not grow on trees lol) One word I want to leave for you STUNNING!!! this is the work of someone who takes their time and who knows what they are doing! Thank you so much for sharing this with all of us!! Emily

Incredible hardscape. Can't wait to see what this looks like with plants!

I like how he goes into so much detail, down to what gloves he uses!!!

The music overlay while you were painting the drylok reminded me of the soundtrack for a Tarzan game that I played on the Nintendo 64.

Awesome video Troy! I’ve been wanting to give dry lock a try for my next build!

I keep coming back and watching this and a few other videos everytime I do a build 😅 always keeps me watching everytime

Awesome build. Thanks for putting together a video. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to help the rest of us in the poison frog community.

I forgot to mention the foam filter bottom portion. I loved the idea of stacking and carving layers to create a 3D scape. Epic idea. And yea, foam, rocks, etc are way better for a bottom layer than substrate.

Nice work. I like the pace and composition of your videos. Great tip on siliconing the junction of foam and glass. Definitely going to adopt that technique!

Could you maybe link the materials used in your bio from amazon or something like that?

Necessity is the mother of invention. I love the wire wheel hack! I am in the process of doing my first naturalistic/bio-active build on a 22wX17dX36H enclosure. I've seen the hand carved approaches, and the references to hours of carving. I'm probably not that patient. I think what I might do is add a little more foam up front, so that I can get some more depth to the cutaways and then maybe hand carve areas I want to bring a specific shape to. I think what I'll do then is to carve out branch/hardscape notches as needed, fit the branches in and then spot foam them in place.

Wow! This is amazing... I'll be excited to see the final on this and all the foliage. Awesome video!

Nicely done. Can’t wait to see them both planted!

Just watched several of your videos! Awesome terrarium builds! Your channel is going to be huge soon! Subscribed! PS - I've always wanted to get into dart frogs but I hear they don't do too well in my hot climate. I'm on a frog flex atm. I have microhylid frogs and a Surinam horned frog. Does the urine from frogs cause the moss to develop algae?

I'm gonna shake off the remaining turds that are gonna flop outa here. Boy, Troy sure has a way with words 😂

Mechanics gloves work very well (even for folks with long/sharp nails)

29:00 nice track!! nice video s much patience! i am bulding my first one.. such a mess!! i am wating for the silicone to dry up RN.. wish me luck!

Oh man, your work is amazing, I own a lot of reptiles and soon I’ll be making them more natural looking terrariums, you just gave me the best ideas, best video ever. Keep it up

Would you be able to scrape the foam off the glass if you wanted to change it later

Uugghh. I guess I am starting another tank this Friday. Thanks Troy!!!!!!

TROY great work man

Great job Troy, very detailed instructions and an awesome build !

Subbed because @animals at home recommended you...and because in your public playlist, you have one of the best Eric Andre skits.

Beautiful vivarium! Thank you for healing

Great video learned some great stuff thank you

Honestly, I'm impressed. Nice work.

Just found your video looking to make my own...To avoid clogging your vac,rubber band about 3-4 sheets of paper towels around the vac filter...shake out or discard and reapply when it clogs...(vac filters are SO expensive) Great looking backgrounds...Thanx.!!!

oh wow, you placed that drift wood in spectacular manner. love the tank build video

Very nice 👍👊😆🙋

Another great video man. Ty for your contributions to the hobby.

Auto body shop tip: use 1200 wet sand paper to take anything off your hands 🙌🏽. Body filler is very hard to take off. Sand paper always worked for me 👍🏽👍🏽

Great job man. Thanks for the tips

damn. pretty awesome. you've educated and inspired me to take my vivs to the next level!

Thank you for sharing your knowledge great enclosure thank you

Really nice job 👍.... very well explained came out amazing

I am envious of that man cave.

Fabulous video, thank you. Answered a lot of my questions!

Genius idea

I work on a lot of cars and bikes, practically live in the garage covered in all sorts of adhesives and chemicals and nasty stuff, but I've got to say "Great Stuff" spray foam is hands down the worst thing I've gotten on my hands lol! I just let it dry and use an emery board on it while I watch TV later on which is pretty relaxing, haha. This is a good video, man, thanks. You're easy to follow with a good pace and a way of explaining things that laymen can understand. The brush on the drill is a good tip. It's tedious using a knife and that brush gives a pretty cool, "natural" texture. I did want to ask if you've tried any false-bottom vivariums in that garage during the dry winter months? They're easy and cheap, I think it might be worth running one as a test to see if it helps keeps the humidity up. Of course you'd probably be pouring in water to refill the bottoms occasionally, but it might be a decent and mostly-passive way to keep the moisture up in the tanks, especially any that have overhead lights. I've been doing them in any vivs that need over 60% humidity or so, they really help any live plants flourish, as well as temperate or tropical "clean up crew" bugs like springtails.

Dude that wire brush drill is so much easier than using a knife

I lay silicone lines down on my glass and put popsicle sticks on them and let it dry and cure and then put little droplets of silicone everywhere. Once dried Ivan lay down pond and stone foam. Once it's done cured i cut it. I shape it and then I lay a construction silicone around the edges and smeared in real good. Both on the foam and glass holds it really well. Note to everybody paintable silicone or construction adhesive is easier to work with.

Thanks Troy for this vid! 👍🤗

I learned so much and will be using all your methods! You made it look so easy!

wish we had drylok over here in the uk -_- good job troy cant wait to see how the sponge does hope it does well :)

You are European! This build defenitly proofs it! Great job man, tank looks awesome. I have a very similar setup for my O.Histrionica and they realy like the long branches to walk on.

Where do you get the fabric? I think you said hydroline but I can't find it on the web...

Can we see how you plant it also Keep up the work Morten from denmark

DJI osmo mobile 3 is only $109 right now would really improve the quality of your videos - looks great and appreciate the tutorial !! Going to try this method on my next tank

That looks really good!

This is a great video also, very informative. I also wanted to add that all of your videos are the best I've seen by far, keep up the great job you are doing. I just wanted to ask a question: How long do you wait before planting the vivarium?

nice dude , better audio, better lighting , funny i will be starting mine vivarium soon, i order the same filter foam, using as a back wall , damn didnt think i can use it as a base as well , now i must order more , btw what size you using , looks like large

Another great video! These are the vids I like to watch. Can you post the the glass dimensions to build this tank? What brand lights and fixtures do you use? Thanks and keep showing vids like this. Best there is!

I'm a cabinet and furniture maker by trade; I use my carving tools (knives/gouges), chisels, and scrapers to carve my foam. I also use the green craft/floral foam adhered to the glass for most of my background - use the expanding foam as filler or as terrain variation. Also use different Homax wall/ceiling texture spray for different terrain textures.

Amazing video but 1 small notice... the matts we use here in Europe are called Matala matts. They are harder and dont compress unlike the foam filter you used. Matala mats are also used in koi pond filters and big pond filters where the flow of water and hydroscopic presure is so high it would compress the normal foam pads. Matala mats are slightly bendable and can be cut with a sharp knife or cut by a saw. I think over there in the US and UK you can also buy the mountain tree filter mats. Its almost the same material

How many times did you clog that shop vac LOL, great video as always! I'm gonna have to try this next time I build a big display tank.

Nono not bioactive enough man hahaha. Jk, looks amazing man😄

Can you give me the glass measurements for your new dimensions of the vents? How big is this tank?

If u dab the deep parts with black and then grey around the medium and crack spots then bush the brown over u get better texture and shadows

love the look of it simply amazing. may I ask why y added the screen stuff and not just went full great stuff foam.? keep up the great content :)

Bro if you love vivariums and building ecosystems you'd love have a reef tank. Ive been reefing for years now and just recently I built my first bioactive dartfrog vivarium. I love it. And I love the frogs I chose. I bought thumbnails for my first vivarium. Ive had some of the bigger dartfrogs in the past so I always wanted to try a more arboreal dart frog. I have the Imotator Bajas. I can't wait to get more. My vivarium compliments my reef tanks very well. Love the channel btw. Ive learned a lot from your channel. Oh and do you have any info on where I can find more imitator species? I know joshs frogs but they very seldom have any for sale.

Wow, this is great! Any chance you could show us the planting process or the next step?

Will using spray paint instead be a bit harmful for the plants and water?

Hi, I'm a fan of your collection and especially the assembly of your terrariums! You inspire me a lot, keep it up! Can you tell me what is the name of the black fabric that you use as the background of your terrariums? Thank you so much ..

Did he just glue it with maple syrup?! Great video, i'd wish I watch this vid earlier :')

Why did you use those specific waterproofings and where's the video to finish it????

Great build! Really well done. You don't use a resin to cover spray foam? Is it waterproof? Thanks

Well done

Amazing, glad I saw this before starting my first build. Am I correct in noticing you coated ALL exposed surfaces with the DryLok? The foam substrate is a brilliant and very controllable/malleable product. Can't wait to see more!

Have you ever had a mealy bug issue and what do you do to solve it? The Viv is currently occupied.

this is so cool and stable! how would you clean a tank like this?

So why do you use drylock instead of silicone abd substrate?

Hey i wonder if the "filter mat moss method" worked out :)? Super informative video! Will definetly build a wall like this !

👌 very nice 👍

brother can the powder foam be used to make anything useful by adding anything to make sure there is no wastage.. like if you mix it up with clear silicone mabe u can make like a rock or another shape required for the terrarium

If you're having an issue with all the tanks being too dry, couldn't you run a humidifier in the room so the ambient humidity is higher?

Troy. Seeing that im unable to acquire a 36x18x36 locally is there anyway possible to get the glass demotions on these?

Хорошая работа!

Steel wool does a good job of removing dry great stuff and gorilla glue run ur hands under water while you do it so u don't scratch urself

Hey Troy, Now that the tank is established, do you think the 1” vents and 4” substrate dam is a better design?

Dude you look like you could be Jim from the office brother...John Krasinski and you make the same facial expressions

Awesome video, very informative. Looking to get into the hobby after years of saltwater corals. You had mentioned you trek to Pittsburgh. Are there any shops that have good frog selections locally?

❤❤❤

Why not just paint the foam on the back and sides, what does covering it do?

Will like to buy some frogs 🐸

Just found your videos, the vivs are absolutely amazing. I had some questions that may not be in your wheelhouse, but figured I'd ask just in case. I'm planning out a bioactive build for a ball python and was curious if this same process could apply? Would substrate be able to go over the drainage layer or would I have to opt for just substrate? Could the driftwood that is being held up by the foam hold up an adult ball python (4 - 5lbs) or would it collapse? Thanks in advance!

Hes back!

Great video, thanks! Can you please clarify the names of the products you used for the background, sounds like Hydrolawn & Drylock. Where can they be purchased and what are the pros & cons. Many thanks!

Would it not be better to use silicone rather than glue ?

This looks amazing, hoping to do something similar, on a larger scale. I have a retic that will be living amongst it. I've done a ton of research and nothing tells me what to support the weight of my boy with.. all the tutorials are bearded dragons and jeopard geckos and such.. ever done this to hold a large amount of weight? Please let me know if any of you have any tips for me.

I used black silicone and blacked out the glass before I used GS. Is that still an approved method?

Thanks Troy for sharing all this stuff! Really great build. Does anyone know a drylok replacement that i can buy in germany?

Nice. How much plant growth do you end up getting on the Dryloc portions of the background? Thanks.

So why did you put the sheeting over the carved background foam? instead of just drylocking over it as well. Sweet tank, thanks

Hi, what is the purpose of hydra lawn,is this the correct spelling.

Hi Troy thanks for your awesome vid's I love to watch them. I've read that using this type of foam could push out the sides of the viv? I'm planning to do the same method as you apply here but I'm affraid later the glass is pushed out. Whats your thought about this. Thanks a lot and keep up the good work.