A set up that worked great for me

[Katt]

After many days (weeks!) of research, and days looking up pics and cross referencing articles in Reptiles Magazine, I decided to make a 60/40 land/water viv. So I used egg crate (the light diffuser stuff) and pvc pipes to create a reservoir of water about 2-3 , on top of this I put ground coconut and some potting soil. However, there were two layers of nylon mesh screening to prevent the substrate from going into the resevoir. Then I put the plants straight into the substrate. For over half a year I had a few ribbon snakes in there with house gex and anoles. Unfortunately, the house gex escaped and we found new homes for the snake and the anoles. And we basically neglected the viv for another half year at the very least. No water, no extra lighting, just some sun from the window. Not too long ago I decided to rip up the viv, but lo and behold, the plants were alive, and the soil was still wet (even though the "water" part was dry). Vanan and I were duly impressed! Of course we used hardy plants like philodendrens (sp?) and pothos, plus some unknown plant as well. I was quite amazed how well a well thought out viv can last. No wonder some viv's can last for years.