u/One-plankton-

This whole chunk is like 2.5-3” tall

Going to give the plants a month to grow in and then Toes will be in his new home :)

I’ll link the video below for Serpa Design’s build and what influenced this more lightly planted design.

Going to let the plants grow in for a month and then Toes will go into his new home!

So things are moving fast now, which is great.

I got the background panels laid out (2)- missing the where I sharpied around the bark, carved (3,4,6), painted (5), foamed (7), cut again (8), touched up the paint and installed into the enclosure (9). I decided against using silicone this time as each panel has a decent amount of pressure from the hardscape- so they aren’t physically attached inside.

I have a mean blister from from carving and the tools I used are in pic 6- each panel probably took 1.5-2 hours are initial carving, maybe longer.

I then got my hardscape laid out and installed (pic 10) and let everything rest overnight.

Today I installed and tested the misting system, got the light fixtures where I want them and got most of the plants inside.

I released the CUC inside- springtails and quite a few of my Clown isopods.

I have moss in the freezer that I’m going to mess around with tomorrow.

So next steps are basically final touches and letting it grow in a bit before Toe’s goes in!

Unfortunately I don’t have an extra reptile fan, but when he goes in it will be added to control the humidity during the day- some people thought I didn’t have ventilation in my last post but the entire top is cut out and then the fan will move air around inside as well.

So things are moving fast now, which is great.

I got the background panels laid out (2)- missing the where I sharpied around the bark, carved (3,4,6), painted (5), foamed (7), cut again (8), touched up the paint and installed into the enclosure (9). I decided against using silicone this time as each panel has a decent amount of pressure from the hardscape- so they aren’t physically attached inside.

I have a mean blister from from carving and the tools I used are in pic 6- each panel probably took 1.5-2 hours are initial carving, maybe longer.

I then got my hardscape laid out and installed (pic 10) and let everything rest overnight.

Today I installed and tested the misting system, got the light fixtures where I want them and got most of the plants inside.

I released the CUC inside- springtails and quite a few of my Clown isopods.

I have moss in the freezer that I’m going to mess around with tomorrow.

So next steps are basically final touches and letting it grow in a bit before Toe’s goes in!

Unfortunately I don’t have an extra reptile fan, but when he goes in it will be added to control the humidity during the day- some people thought I didn’t have ventilation in my last post but the entire top is cut out and then the fan will move air around inside as well.

It’s been a lot of slow progress.

I caulked the interior with Alex paintable latex “silicone” waited 7 days and then painted the interior with 6-7x coats of drylok, you can see there was some leaking from pic 3 on the first coat.

I did one coat per day, cut an XPS piece and siliconed it in for the front substrate barrier.

Cut the interior XPS for the background, cut down some dead oak by hand, went back and cut some more (pic 2).

The past week I’ve done water tests, I had a leak, patched it, found another patched it, and today it passed!

Added hardwood lump charcoal for my drainage layer (pic 5,6) , cut the egg crate for the false bottom (7), lined it with screen x2 (8,9,10), cut a piece of tubing for a quick access drain in case the bottom floods- has a suction cup blocking it (11), got substrate mixed up, added it (12,13) and put the XPS background in and then started laying out the hardscape (1).

I watched a video that Serpa Design did- I’ll link it in the comments, that changed my plan considerably, because it included research on what section of the forest Crested Geckos live in.

So it’s going to be a jigsaw of wood on the inside, with less plants than I was planning. Due to this I may work on the background in place- not sure yet.

Ordered a clip lamp for the light which will be here tomorrow and I can fiddle with the hardscape more!

Repotted and in fellow company now

Any care tips you got I’m all ears for, or it’ll get treated like it’s brethren in the background

I thought these were reproductive parts of liverwort but was told they were actually more likely ferns.

These are from wild collected moss in NY

I got Arlo as a surrender, so I don’t know much about his background.

But what morph would you say he is?

Lots of new healthy growth!

Almost all of the older leaves have now been removed.

Very excited about the future of this little plant