Wall Plant mounting
I came across a particular problem while building my vivarium. I guess no building project is without a bump or two in the road. Originally I sufficed with merely poking my fake vegetation into the wall and letting them hang, but the more I thought about it the more I realised this might end up being a disaster. Anyone who owns a CWD, or any lizard for that matter, will know that reptiles have a hard time distinguishing between decoration and perches. It would only be a matter of time before my dragons decided to climb all over these plants and rip them out along with the grout work.
So this was my solution.
First I grabbed aluminum tubing like so. It's not actually a tube, it's more like a coil, and I will explain why.
I drilled a hole through the grout, insulation foam and wood, then cut a piece of aluminum tubing to fit inside the hole. The hole I made was the exact diameter of the aluminum, but since the tubing coils like a spring it keeps the piece snug in place. (If anyone familiar with this type of product feel free to name it)
Here I slid the stem of the fake plant through the aluminum and staple gunned it to the plywood. I also used an adhesive silicone to plug the hole so no potential bugs can get in or out of the opening.
And here is the end result. It's must more stable than before and the aluminum gives enough support for my lizards to climb on without stressing the grout.
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This is the ventilation system. There is another one on the opposite side and both can be adjusted open and closed. There will be two more on the lid to provide an adequate circulation of air.
Here I drilled small holes into the perches and slid fake plant stems into them. For the most part the holes were just big enough to fit the stems while keeping them snug in place.
When I began this project I was actually adverse to using fake plants, but I've come to realise that they are an excellent source of basic vegetation. You can craft them to the exact look you want with the freedom of growing live plants in and around them.