r/Vivarium

TLDR at the bottom. I am literally at my wits end with this silicone.

I used ASI aquarium silicone to adhere a cork bark background to my 18x18x36” tank. It requires at least 50% humidity to cure. Since my house had been at 20% humidity, I filled a large foil tin with water and put it inside the tank and covered the tank’s mesh top to keep the humidity in. It stayed at 50% humidity this way (I checked with a hygrometer). The silicone skinned over and was hard in less than a day. I kept the tank covered for a week (it’s supposed to take 24 hours to cure a 1/8-inch bead, but my silicone blobs were bigger than that), then took the tin out and aired out the tank in my room. Windows open, fan on. After multiple weeks of airing out, I could still smell a vinegar smell when I put my nose up to the bark. It’s not the strongest smell, as I have to get close to detect it, but the inside of the silicone blobs were clearly still off-gassing.

I put the water tin back in, and let it sit for months, routinely refilling the water in the tin because weird blobs of silicone were forming inside the tin that kept eating holes in the foil, which leaked the water into the tank! I was periodically checking and of course, still a vinegar smell. I then aired out the tank for several weeks. Same thing.

I bought the silicone new on amazon and used it 1-2 weeks afterwards. It wasn’t hard in the tube, it was the perfect texture. There isn’t an expiration date on the bottle unfortunately, just a lot #.

I think the only conclusion is that it’s expired, because this didn’t happen when siliconing cork bark to my other two tanks years ago. I used the same kind and brand for those.

TLDR: silicone for cork bark background hasn’t cured for months, must have been expired when I bought it. If anyone has ever had to tear down and start over, any advice on how to get the silicone off? Can I salvage the cork bark? And how do I ensure I’m not buying expired silicone this time around….

Prefacing by saying I have whatever the opposite of a green thumb is. I’ve never had good luck with plants.

The substrate and plants were put in on Sunday, June 28th. The first two pictures are from when I got the plants. I did switch the two higher up plants after I took the first photo but did not take a photo after switching them.

Today, July 4th, I noticed some leaves are dying and turning brown/yellow. That’s what the rest of the photos are. I tried googling but it seems like both overwatering and underwatering can cause them to turn the same color so I just don’t really understand. I seriously mean it when I say im terrible with plants 😂 I just wanna try and figure this out before the plants are too far gone.

In order I believe it’s a sword fern, spiderwort, creeping fig, and an emerald ripple.

All plants except the fern are potted in sphagnum moss. That’s what my local reptile shop recommended. They have all their plants that are built into their backgrounds potted in sphagnum moss.

The fern is planted in the substrate which is that same shops tropical blend substrate. It doesn’t list the exact ingredients used but from what I can tell it’s some sort of coco coir type substrate, sphagnum (?) moss, charcoal bits, and repti bark.

I’ve been spraying the tank at least once a day, either at night or in the morning it just depends on my schedule for the day. Some days it’s gotten sprayed twice, once in the morning and again at night. I really couldn’t tell you exactly how much I’ve been watering. The sphagnum moss in the pots is a little bit wet but it’s not soaked. If I tried i don’t think I could squeeze any excess water out. Same goes for the soil. It’s slightly damp to the touch.

The light is a 24 watt jungle dawn LED from Arcadia which is on for a little over 12 hours a day. I’ve been turning it on when I leave in the morning around 5-5:30 AM. Then it gets turned off before I go to bed which varies from 7-9 PM.

Tank will be for a gargoyle gecko but he is not in there yet.

Just finished setting up this 36x18x36 bioactive planned for a female pair of skinks. While I give it time to grow in, what are good places to look for captive bred skinks ideally sexed. Seems pretty limited out there and I worry about getting potentially two males, or a breeding pair and hear everywhere that keeping them in a group is better than a single one.

my first vivarium any suggestions welcome

Hey everyone! I have this built-in alcove in my living room (kind of like a niche) and I'd love to turn it into a focal point instead of leaving it empty. And I immediately thought of a vivarium... or maybe a terrarium.

I love plants and animals, and having a little ecosystem inside my home is something that fascinates me. I've seen tons of amazing vivarium photos and videos (I'm attaching an AI-generated image here just to give an idea of the kind of thing I have in mind).

With that said, I have a few questions and would love your honest opinions:

• Is it feasible to build a vivarium into a built-in wall alcove like this? Do you think the space would work well, or does it need special considerations since it's "inside" the wall?
• Is it expensive? I know it can vary a lot, but I'd like a realistic idea of costs (both buying everything ready-made and building it myself).
• I want to build this from scratch myself... is that something someone with no experience can pull off, or does it require a lot of specific technical knowledge?
• If it were up to you, what kind of plants/animals would you recommend for a first project?

Any advice, constructive criticism, or personal experience is very welcome! Thanks in advance!

This is my first try at making one of these, is there anything else I should add or change before putting plants and substrate in?

Got my girl Lucy Gray a few days ago and want to give her a better life and home as her previous owners didn’t really give her much.

I’m getting a new tank later but wanted to know how to set up one of those ecosystems once I get it. Currently, I have organic soil, aspen, pothos, wandering dude, and play sand to work with, but I’m not entirely sure what exactly I do with it all once I start setting it up.

Somebody on my last post said to mix the soil and sand, but apart from that I’m honestly kind of lost 😭 I’d also love recommendations for what else I can add!

Hi guys. I’ve just “finished” my first Mourning gecko vivarium and my first non invert one. Still got to add some more leaf litter , some vines and a feeding pot. I’m letting it grow out a bit before adding anything. Any recommendations/improvements I can make. It’s not yet baby proof but that is definitely on my list in the future.

Hi! I am planning to relocate my pair oophaga pumilio bastimentos in this 18x18x36" tank. But right now I feel like its looking empty and I feel like there is something missing. I dont want to change anything, any suggestions on what kind of plants and where to add them? Thank you (Ill be adding leaf litters soon)

Does anyone know how i can stack my exo terras, im moving somewhere smaller and so id need to stack them ideally like this, i am im the UK

There are 4 45x45x90s and 4 45x45x60s
They are bioactive and weigh roughly 50kg - 60kg per enclosure

This drawing was based on a heavy duty tufferman unit as loads of people in the aquarium world use them to stack their aquariums but i spoke with the company and they advised against these modifications :(

So i just need something that can support them, can be a shelving unit that has the 45x90s on the base and 60s on top

OR

can be a table like design thats tall enough for the 90s + 30cm for for the heat lamps and can support over 200kg (ideally wayyy more than 200kg so its super secure and safe as in nothing would ever happen)

I'm making a 24x18x36 vivarium and plan to get a crested gecko at a reptile expo at the end of the month.

Got the hardscape done last night and should be ready to plant it on Friday. I have a fitonia, a pilea, some moss, and an alocasia ready to go along with cuttings of pothos, peporomia, and snake plant to add soon.

I'm considering breaking the lowest branch of the main thing off to make sure the alocasia has room and because it is already slightly cracked.

Edit: also have a fern ready and some springtails

My friends don’t care, so I’m showing you all instead.

My terrarium is about 1-1,5 months old and bioactive (springtails and isopods)

Today was the first time I decided to look really closely on my plants in terrarium (which I obviously should've done earlier). That's what I found on the top leaf of black pepper vine. A lot of tiny dark spots and one clear moving. It's a size of sugar grain or smaller.

What should I do with that? they're clearly starting to eat my plants (the plants were a hard work to find and buy). I'M STARTING TO GO CRAZY, terrarium was my dream omg😱😫