Giant Moss Dripwall Terrarium with a Pond

yo it's gone on surp a squad Tanner here and I'm back with another terrarium build I started this one nearly two years ago and never completed it one thing led to another in it kept getting lower on my list of priorities however I'm tired of seeing a half completed project in my room let's get it done this terrarium won't be built in a huge container 28 inches tall and 11 inches wide to be specific I estimate that it would hold around 10 gallons or 44 liters if completely full with such a large container I wanted to do something special my initial thought was essentially just to make a large terrarium complete with a living wall after letting it sit for a few years though I decided to go in a different direction anyway back in 2018 I started the project by marking the outside to create a guide for silicone placement after that I cleaned the inside with rubbing alcohol as I've explained in past videos this will help create the optimal surface for silicone to adhere to once the alcohol gassed off I used a brush to paint silicone within the guides edger on the outside here's a closer look [Music] I'll let the silicone cure for a few hours and scraped off any excess to firm this one I use great stuff multi-purpose black expanding foam I applied this over all the areas where I put silicone normally I don't apply the silicone prior to the foam because I don't think it's necessary but it can't help the foam stick better since the container is curved I felt that it would be necessary for optimal results I let the foam cure overnight prior to the next step like you've seen me do countless times I went around with a razor scraper and carved the phone I did a portion of this back in 2018 and completed the rest of a few days back in doing so I mainly wanted to manipulate the shape of the foam to allow for proper stone placement I also wanted to expose off the spongy interior of the foam for water absorption purposes there's no need to add detail because the foam will be completely covered later on after carving everything this is what I ended up with [Music] to scape this setup I'm going to use exclusively OCO Dragonstone I think this will be the perfect stone for my new vision with this setup plus I had some on hand I'll also be using a zoo Med micro pump 104 to move the water what I did was put the pump in the container and cut a slit into the foam to conceal the cord this also helped keep the pump situated from there I could scape it with the stones I placed the two largest ones near the bottom of the container being mindful of the directional nature of the striations one of the stones was wedged firmly in the foam but the other was loose I secured the loose one with a few dabs of silica this process was repeated until all of the stones are secured with everything in place I let the silicone cure for 24 hours after that time the container could be turned to not break position before moving to the next step I have to trim the vinyl tube I left it long to begin with because I wasn't sure how tall I'd be able to make the waterfall with the stunts I had anyway I cut it down to a more appropriate length and tucked it into the back of the phone then I filled the bottom of the container with water to test the functionality of the pump I'll let it rip and I liked what I saw for this one I really just wanted a gentle trickle effect which is exactly what I got to conceal the foam and create a good growing surface for the moss I'm going to use geotextile fabric it will wick some with the water and help retain moisture on the background to start a stuffed a few segments in the waterfall while the pump was running I did this first to ensure that the fabric wasn't ruined the effect [Music] from there I drained the container in got some hot glue they use this to touch the fabric to the remainder of the background I simply put down some glue and press the fabric into it this will all be hidden later and doesn't need to look perfect again it's being attached simply just to serve a function once that was good to go I removed the markings from the outside of the container now on to the plants for this one I'm primarily going to use moss I have a few including batch moss hypno Moss hair cat moss and java moss a lot of these patches can be wedged within the crevices but for those that can't I'll utilize stainless steel wire that's been cut and bent in the clips I started by wedging the hair cat moss between the rocks near the top of the container [Music] next I pinned a sheet of hitting the moss to the background with the clips [Music] I repeated these steps throughout the entire setup until the background was covered like before summer wedged in place and others were pinned also in case you're wondering stainless steel wires are fine to leave in the setup long term I reserved all of the java moss for the water portion of the seta some of the others could have acclimated to these conditions but I wanted to skip that process and move straight to something I knew would work immediately once the setup was fully planted I gave the moss to spray down to prevent it from drying out now we can move on to the aquatic portion of this setup I'll use coarse filter media to conceal the pump and keep it from becoming clogged I stuck a few Z's in front of the pump without addressed let's move on to the substrate although I don't plant the water portion of the setup I use the combination of C cam Florrie and flu vault stratum in case I ever do I also include some pool filter sand to add the substrates I started by putting a cardboard divider in the bottom first I fold the outside portion was sand then the inside was planted tank substrate the divider was removed I used a brush to even things out and capped everything off with more sand after all of that the setup was filled with water the pump was turned on once more and thankfully the trickle still worked properly however the setup is missing a final detail I don't know about you but I always pictured this designed I have some floating plans as such I added frog bed and Sylvania minima to complete the setup [Music] [Music] here it is the giant moss trip wall terrarium I'm so glad to finally have this one completed after nearly two years I hate having unfinished work lay idle and I was really tired of seeing this one in the corner of the animal had I finished it when I initially started though I don't think it would have turned out this well in a large container like this you may think I should have added a lot of elements that's what I would have done originally but once I got to work the other day I knew this design would be more dramatic if I kept everything simple that's why I chose not to add any plants other than moss to the background and I didn't plant the water feature by using very few elements overall in such a big container I think the terrarium in landscape actually looked much larger than they really are having other plants or hard scape elements would have detracted from this in my opinion the main challenges I faced with this build came from the size of the container usually I'd say that bigger terrariums are easier to work with but that wasn't the case with this one although I can stick my arm through the hole adding materials was a challenge because of how tall it is try applying foam or silicone in a space like this not the easiest task in the world the other challenge is filming around distortions created by the glass the glass is almost a half inch thick and has inconsistencies in person and from far away the distortion is very minimal however when you go to film close-ups or specific tasks it's hard to convey things clearly through the lens of a camera regardless I think the terrarium turned out extremely well and I'm ecstatic to finally have it completed I'm curious what you think about it though let me know your thoughts on the completed project down in the comments as always I really hope you enjoyed this one and learn something new until next time surfers squad take care and peace [Music]

Channel: SerpaDesign

Views: 2,085,698

Rating: 4.9386654 out of 5

Keywords: terrarium, paludarium, aquaterrarium, waterfall, dripwall, moss, bottle garden, mossarium

Id: duDBtkj0ZcU

Length: 10min 42sec (642 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 04 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Travy-D]

You have to break into Tanner SerpaGod's house, sneak around his fire-bellied frog security system, and make it out without falling in his backyard pond.

[u/Upbeat-Mirror2825]

Antique stores, auction sites etc. Search for brewers jar, large mason jars etc. Probably going to be hard to find an exact of the one SerpaDesign used but you should be able to find something similar. Just remember the glass is usually awful and not even so it makes everything inside look distorted. You could instead get specimen jars or glass domes if you want more clarity.

[u/vulpesvulpesfugit]

Keep an eye out at thrift stores that tend to have a lot of glassware. I get all of my terrarium glass from thrift stores, you can't beat finding a unique piece for 2 bucks

[u/Copacetic_Detritus]

Isn't Tanner the best?? Love his stuff.

[u/LackAwkward]

Old Time Pottery or Michaels

[u/LackAwkward]

That is where I seen them and I always passed them up when I am hunt for items for different project.