jjhill001
06-30-17, 02:19 PM
I've been hinting at working on something pretty big for my Baird's Rat Snakes. I'm not really one for the step by steps but here is the finished background slowly drying with silicone to the back of the terrarium. I used the karst rock formations as inspiration where the breeder's founding stock is from in Texas.
What I used:
Terrarium- Nat Geo Reptile Sanctuary 50 Gallon, 36inx18inx18in (I know people have been seeing these at petsmart and occasionally they are really cheap on sale so I'll post a review after this post.)
Product to cover foam- Foam coat from Hot Wire Foam Factory, I found this product was relatively easy to work with and to add color too so I could have my base. I just used a drop of acrylic paint to change the color of the foam coat. I also used their rubberizer product which supposedly increases durability which I'll have to see but it hasn't broken while being repeatedly shuffled around my table. The rubberizer doesn't allow for sanding, and in hindsight I would have liked to sand down some areas so maybe I wouldn't use it next time. I only got one jug of the foam coat and I really wish I would have gotten 2 so I could have done more layers.
Tools- I used the tools from the same company, they screwed up and sent the wrong adapter the first time which was kind of annoying but eh, I assume that was a one off and they sent a replacement pretty fast. I used the bendable wire tool, in hindsight and for future builds I'll just get the regular straight hot knife which will increase the accuracy of my cuts.
Structure- Unlike many backgrounds which essentially are just textured foam that's 1-2 inches thick flat on the back I wanted to increase the overall usable space of the terrarium, it always bugs me when people say I have say, a 4x2x2 terrarium but 80% of the space is air space and totally wasted by lack of decor or space that the animal can actually climb around on and use. If there is nothing for the animal to climb on this 36x18x18 might was well be 36x18x3inches.
With that in mind, main center piece extends approximately 5-6 inches off of the back which is about 1.5 inches thick and was made by gluing rectangles together with loc-tite glue. There is a cork bark piece that was cut down to height and foam piece above that making a 12x4ish hide. The piece to the right extends out from the back around 8-9 inches creating an 8x9 or so section that I'll be able to slide a hide box into that will be able to be filled with sphagnum moss for egg laying, and humidity in the winter time when is gets stupid dry.
Paint- I painted it with non-toxic waterproof acrylic craft paint, I didn't seal it with clear acrylic because I don't care for the shine it creates and the main reason people do that is for durability when it comes to high humidity situations and to protect the grout or foam coat from the claws of a lizard. I'm not too worried about that in terms of snakes that aren't really misted all too often so I didn't do that.
Heating/Lighting- I'm not a big hot spot proponent for snakes, I don't think they need it as long as the necessary range is present in the cage (around 76-83 for basically all snakes with a few exceptions, not gonna argue about it on this post). I do this typically with a heat pad. BUT, this cage isn't your standard 20 gallon long for a colubrid so I wasn't quite sure what kind of heat I was gonna go with. I wanted to use RHP but they are quite expensive and I ran into a rough patch money wise lately so I've elected to go with a CHE. Now these types of elements are typically used to increase the temps of hotspots.
However I found a fixture that is 10 inches around which is a lot wider than the ones you'll see at a local pet shop. My hope is that I'll be able to use this width to direct a wider band of gentler heat that will mimic the effect of a RHP. I'm going to be using a 150 watt zoo med CHE which seemed high but I figured that by controlling it with a thermostat its better to have too much and dial it back than to have not enough and have to buy another one come winter.
Based on where I place the CHE, which will be on the left, slightly to the front which will essentially make the hide that is behind the wood the warm hide and the one below, the cool hide.
Lighting will be accomplished with the Exo Terra hoods with 5.0 bulbs in it. These are a desert species but it's a snake and doesn't really need UVB and I like the light color that it produces. I've been using these for years and pick them up when they go on sale.
What I wish I would have been able to do: I wanted to take the time to make a bunch of little fake vines with twine, glue and cocofiber. However, my baird's are basically full grown at this point and I've delayed upgrading their enclosures because I was finishing this and quite frankly being cooped up in tiny 10 gallons is definitely not ideal so I made the decision to forgo this to get them into larger enclosures for their good as the vines really add no benefit to the snake, only the viewer.
What about Ricky!!!: As most of you who frequent the colubrid section know, Lucy is a real looker and the most bold, proudly laying out in the open right now wanting more food even though she was fed 3 days ago. Ricky has more intense oranges and overall is slightly more interesting to me in terms of looks. HOWEVER, he's a wimp. He rarely comes out to explore and I want the snake that goes into this display to...actually display. Ricky was going to get his own 36x18x18 enclosure but due to a design decision on my stand to make it look cool it won't fit on the bottom (I actually had a 2nd one ready to go, didn't even think about it grrrrr.) so unfortunately he's gonna be in a 20 gallon long on the bottom of the stand. It'll give him plenty of room to stretch out. My plans for him are to get him into a 24x18x18 with a similar background but because of the height of the bottom portion of the stand it will need to be heated via RHP. It'll come but he'll have to wait. So heatpad it is for him.
Pros of this setup: Looks cool, offers more usable space.
Cons: In the end I decided that securing the top hide with silicone was the only way to make it work and be secure. I'm not trying to let my snake have something fall on her. I also secured the background with silicone as its front heavy as heck. This terrarium needs to be assembled so that might cause issues if I ever want to move the background or make alterations. Siliconing the top hide may make my snake a little hard to access which makes me nervous. I'm not a big time handler so its not AS big of a deal but that could be a problem for some people. I'm still debating on whether to silicone the piece on the right (also separate, I regret this) to the background. However I think having that piece modular is going to benefit being able to clean the tank.
Future plans: I want this to be bioactive, I've decided that's the best way to keep it clean because of all the nooks and crannies that I can't get to, it probably won't be bioactive to start so that piece being modular is good for getting in and fishing out rogue feces and such.
Overall I'm very pleased, this was my first time making one and I learned from the mistakes I made and other such things, I'll post it when everything is all set up and snake is placed inside.
http://i.imgur.com/MNGYuNl.jpg
Inspiration:
http://www.vividreptiles.com/psj/jpgs/metallic/metallichab5117.jpg
What I used:
Terrarium- Nat Geo Reptile Sanctuary 50 Gallon, 36inx18inx18in (I know people have been seeing these at petsmart and occasionally they are really cheap on sale so I'll post a review after this post.)
Product to cover foam- Foam coat from Hot Wire Foam Factory, I found this product was relatively easy to work with and to add color too so I could have my base. I just used a drop of acrylic paint to change the color of the foam coat. I also used their rubberizer product which supposedly increases durability which I'll have to see but it hasn't broken while being repeatedly shuffled around my table. The rubberizer doesn't allow for sanding, and in hindsight I would have liked to sand down some areas so maybe I wouldn't use it next time. I only got one jug of the foam coat and I really wish I would have gotten 2 so I could have done more layers.
Tools- I used the tools from the same company, they screwed up and sent the wrong adapter the first time which was kind of annoying but eh, I assume that was a one off and they sent a replacement pretty fast. I used the bendable wire tool, in hindsight and for future builds I'll just get the regular straight hot knife which will increase the accuracy of my cuts.
Structure- Unlike many backgrounds which essentially are just textured foam that's 1-2 inches thick flat on the back I wanted to increase the overall usable space of the terrarium, it always bugs me when people say I have say, a 4x2x2 terrarium but 80% of the space is air space and totally wasted by lack of decor or space that the animal can actually climb around on and use. If there is nothing for the animal to climb on this 36x18x18 might was well be 36x18x3inches.
With that in mind, main center piece extends approximately 5-6 inches off of the back which is about 1.5 inches thick and was made by gluing rectangles together with loc-tite glue. There is a cork bark piece that was cut down to height and foam piece above that making a 12x4ish hide. The piece to the right extends out from the back around 8-9 inches creating an 8x9 or so section that I'll be able to slide a hide box into that will be able to be filled with sphagnum moss for egg laying, and humidity in the winter time when is gets stupid dry.
Paint- I painted it with non-toxic waterproof acrylic craft paint, I didn't seal it with clear acrylic because I don't care for the shine it creates and the main reason people do that is for durability when it comes to high humidity situations and to protect the grout or foam coat from the claws of a lizard. I'm not too worried about that in terms of snakes that aren't really misted all too often so I didn't do that.
Heating/Lighting- I'm not a big hot spot proponent for snakes, I don't think they need it as long as the necessary range is present in the cage (around 76-83 for basically all snakes with a few exceptions, not gonna argue about it on this post). I do this typically with a heat pad. BUT, this cage isn't your standard 20 gallon long for a colubrid so I wasn't quite sure what kind of heat I was gonna go with. I wanted to use RHP but they are quite expensive and I ran into a rough patch money wise lately so I've elected to go with a CHE. Now these types of elements are typically used to increase the temps of hotspots.
However I found a fixture that is 10 inches around which is a lot wider than the ones you'll see at a local pet shop. My hope is that I'll be able to use this width to direct a wider band of gentler heat that will mimic the effect of a RHP. I'm going to be using a 150 watt zoo med CHE which seemed high but I figured that by controlling it with a thermostat its better to have too much and dial it back than to have not enough and have to buy another one come winter.
Based on where I place the CHE, which will be on the left, slightly to the front which will essentially make the hide that is behind the wood the warm hide and the one below, the cool hide.
Lighting will be accomplished with the Exo Terra hoods with 5.0 bulbs in it. These are a desert species but it's a snake and doesn't really need UVB and I like the light color that it produces. I've been using these for years and pick them up when they go on sale.
What I wish I would have been able to do: I wanted to take the time to make a bunch of little fake vines with twine, glue and cocofiber. However, my baird's are basically full grown at this point and I've delayed upgrading their enclosures because I was finishing this and quite frankly being cooped up in tiny 10 gallons is definitely not ideal so I made the decision to forgo this to get them into larger enclosures for their good as the vines really add no benefit to the snake, only the viewer.
What about Ricky!!!: As most of you who frequent the colubrid section know, Lucy is a real looker and the most bold, proudly laying out in the open right now wanting more food even though she was fed 3 days ago. Ricky has more intense oranges and overall is slightly more interesting to me in terms of looks. HOWEVER, he's a wimp. He rarely comes out to explore and I want the snake that goes into this display to...actually display. Ricky was going to get his own 36x18x18 enclosure but due to a design decision on my stand to make it look cool it won't fit on the bottom (I actually had a 2nd one ready to go, didn't even think about it grrrrr.) so unfortunately he's gonna be in a 20 gallon long on the bottom of the stand. It'll give him plenty of room to stretch out. My plans for him are to get him into a 24x18x18 with a similar background but because of the height of the bottom portion of the stand it will need to be heated via RHP. It'll come but he'll have to wait. So heatpad it is for him.
Pros of this setup: Looks cool, offers more usable space.
Cons: In the end I decided that securing the top hide with silicone was the only way to make it work and be secure. I'm not trying to let my snake have something fall on her. I also secured the background with silicone as its front heavy as heck. This terrarium needs to be assembled so that might cause issues if I ever want to move the background or make alterations. Siliconing the top hide may make my snake a little hard to access which makes me nervous. I'm not a big time handler so its not AS big of a deal but that could be a problem for some people. I'm still debating on whether to silicone the piece on the right (also separate, I regret this) to the background. However I think having that piece modular is going to benefit being able to clean the tank.
Future plans: I want this to be bioactive, I've decided that's the best way to keep it clean because of all the nooks and crannies that I can't get to, it probably won't be bioactive to start so that piece being modular is good for getting in and fishing out rogue feces and such.
Overall I'm very pleased, this was my first time making one and I learned from the mistakes I made and other such things, I'll post it when everything is all set up and snake is placed inside.
http://i.imgur.com/MNGYuNl.jpg
Inspiration:
http://www.vividreptiles.com/psj/jpgs/metallic/metallichab5117.jpg