Finished up the enclosure. Will house a pair of Green Keel Bellied lizards. Just waiting on clean up crew and the animals to arrive.

I’m building my first bioactive enclosure for my ball python and want to go over my game plan before I start my assembly.

I have a 4x2x4 PVC enclosure and a spacer hood that I plan to cover with aluminum foil and eventually another enclosure (to trap humidity).

1. Seal the edges with silicone

2.Spread silicone on the back in the enclosure with gloves and let cure for 24 hours

3. Use the red can of great stuff to attach 2-3 pots in the background and secure magnetic ledges (I think my Bp is too heavy for the magnets alone) and cover with dried substrate/ sphagnum moss let cure for 24 hours

4. Drill holes in pots/foam to allow proper drainage

5. Lay down LECA as a drainage layer and landscape fabric

6. Mix zilla substrate with a little regular potting soil?

7. Put in two 4 ft tall mango? branches in a sort of X shape along with hides, water dish, and plants.

8. Throw in leaf litter and sphagnum moss along with cleanup crew of isopods and springtails

9. Set up 2 heating lamps on top of the enclosure (which has a mesh top) 1 250w bulb on the warm side and another 150w bulb on the cool side attached to thermostats.

My biggest questions are:

1. Is the background strategy ok?

2.Should I mix soil in with the zilla substrate? 3. Since the enclosure is 4 ft tall will I end up with a top to bottom gradient instead of a side to side and will that be ok?

For plants I’m thinking of creeping fig on the background of the enclosure and a snake plant on the bottom to start. I’m also considering having a hanging basket as a sky hide but I’m not sure if I should put a plant in or not. I also have some vine, a fake tree I might silicone to the background, and fake a fake string of leaves in his current enclosure which is sadly a 40 gal.

I need to add some color to couple snake enclosures. But, still want them to look “ natural “. Ideas, pics, any help would be appreciated.

Was thinking maybe plants. Or maybe a brighter green vine.

Photo is me figuring out setup before adding substrate, light, etc. I always figure out how I want it so I don’t get substrate all over things I am not using. I have lots of other hides, wood, cork, rocks. But, missing something.

i just put some pothos in my soon-to-be bp tank as i’m trying to get everything set up before i get a lil guy. it’s been only a day or two but they look a little limp 🥺

what can i do to help my little plants thrive?

A little context, we will be getting an 8x2x4 enclosure later this year, in that will be going a B. Rainbow boa, I wanted to reach out and ask you guys what adhesives,spray foam and platform material you guys would use for elevated platforms, these should be able to handle a bit of weight, any recommendations?

This is going to be my FIRST, PROPER, reptile hide and Background build!! I DID build a (properly not the safest) sunbathing rock for a bearded dragon we had.. I had used Styrofoam and sanded grout.. I DO have experience with enclosure building.. I own 10+ Tarantulas and have built all of their enclosures on my own.

I do know SOME stuff.. but I also need a fair amount of help 🖤 I also live in Alberta, Canada!! Just in case that information is needed for anything that I would need to purchase.

Foam? Expanding foam? Sealant/spray sealant? CAN I use sanded grout?? Painting or coloring it?!? *I KNOW to "glue" the foam sheets together I use silicone 🖤 or some type of a spray adhesive if I have a ventilated area and enough time to allow it to completely dry.

ANY help in this would be absolutely amazing and extremely appreciated ☺️🖤

Building a 4x2x2 for my ball python George. This is the first time I've ever built anything like this so I'm excited! Let me know what everyone thinks or ideas for decor! Just used great stuff, 100% silicone, coconut coir, and some moss

I have the heating elements and UV lights set up. Gummy is loving her new enclosure! She is a 1 year old ball python. First thing when I put her in, she did like 3 laps around the whole thing, then went into all the little crevices she could find, and finally took a nice nap in her favorite hide :3

So I don't really know if you guys can help with that or not but I just gonna go for it. So I bought a new Enclosure and my friend thought he could just pick it up. Well. The door fell in and broke the floor :/ Is it fixable? Does anyone have experience with that?

I acquired a Arizona mountain kingsnake from my in laws. He needs a huge tank upgrade and since I've enjoyed building the backgrounds for my crested geckos out of silicone and foam, I want to do something similar for him. As he's an AMK he comes from an arid mountainous region and I only have experience with doing tropical tanks so I want to avoid the traditional expanding foam, silicone, and coco fiber backgrounds that I've done in the past. However, I don't know quite what to do. I've seen grout and drylok recommended but I'm hesitant with either because I haven't used them before. If I could get suggestions and advice I'd really appreciate it.

Hay so I’ve made a background from scratch before but now I want to make a nice big enclosure so my question is are there any particular materials that are better then others for the frame,sides and top screen? Or would you recommend trying to find a piece of furniture then remodeling it

ive built two enclosures so far both with great stuff pond and stone expanding foam and that stuff is priceyyyy… if i were to use the non pond and stone version and cover it with a thick layer of coco fiber or grout like i did here would it be bad?

He has never owned a snake before. We just bought a 40 gallon ZooMed enclosure with double front doors hinged. I guess what im asking is what are recomendations for enviroment, heating, lights, humidity, ect. I am currently thinking a Boa for the inhabatant for reference.

First time taking a crack at this. I'm good on my plans and construction, ended up going with plywood instead of PVC for an ackie monitor enclosure.

I was going to use PondShield to seal the plywood (along with silicon caulk at the seams, and Drylok on the XPS foam hardscape). For the actual plywood, should I seal the pieces with PondShield prior to assembly, or put the box together first?

Thanks!

First post here!

Just finished spraying my first spray foam background and I’ve got an idea!

Wondering if anyone has ever used excavator clay to seal/coat their spray foam background?

I figure if I wet it enough I’ll be able to paint it onto the background and have it harden and dry.

It’s for a leopard gecko enclosure it shouldn’t come into contact with much moisture, if any at all.

any thoughts? Thanks guys!