Hi all, I recently picked up a ~9 month old jungle carpet python who I currently have in a 12x12x24 glass enclosure, which is working fine currently. I'm looking to pick up a 4x2x4 that will have radiant heat and arcadia uvb/led. I was going to pick up the Dubia enclosure but it sounds like this sub doesn't love it. I'd appreciate any recommendations on other options for that size, money isn't an issue and I've looked at the Toad Ranch but their lead times are around 3-4 months. Thanks!

Hello everyone!

I am building my first diy terrarium, based on Rudsta cupboard from IKEA. I raised the ground part to hide substrate container. Plan is to have 3-4 takydromus dorsalis and springtails ( I want to avoid keeping isopods). Right now I am planing how to build top cover but have no idea about sizes of heating lamps etc. First photo is how I plan it to look like (from the outside, plants etc will be completely different. What kinds of lamps and heater you would use? Terra will be heavily planted, apologies for my photo editing skills lol. Area below the lamp to ground is around 100x77cm. I would like to have natural day/night cycle with dimming, so I was thinking about Arcadia stuff. However I saw a lot of comments that DHP would not be greatest solution for my case. Any advice is welcome.

https://preview.redd.it/eex3t6j7e2sc1.png?width=738&format=png&auto=webp&s=e7ca01737d85da1d67d167ea91ca9dd998c0c91a

Hello! ok so I'm creating a new layout for my tortoise enclosure and I have a few questions that I very much need help with.

I plan to make a hide for my Tortoise that has ramps either side to allow access to the top of the box, now I could go for a wooden ramp and call it a day, but I dislike making things easy for myself...

My plan is to build up a naturalistic ramp that resembles a dirt/rocky slope, ill build the frame and bulk of said ramp up with wood as its cheap easy to work with and light, I then plan to stick earth, gravel, bark and stones onto the ramp to make it look nature like.

now here's the issue I'm facing, how on earth do I do that! in previous builds I uses spray foam to build up bulk then covered it in 100% silicone to seal it then decorated with wood, bark and earth pressed into the silicone, this worked for a while however tortoises (as I'm sure you all know) are destructive little buggers...so over time my lil guy tore it up a bit.

I have out some thought into this and I've come up with two ideas! I build the slopes up as I did last time (wood and foam) BUT I instead seal it with lightweight concreate (pearlite concrete) OR a thick grout mixture.

each method would allow for me to decorate with bark or stones but in theory it should be a lot stronger and more durable than just silicone over foam.

does anyone here have any experience using a method similar to this?

does anyone have any other ideas or maybe even concerns with my theory crafting?

any advice or criticism is more than welcome, thankyou.

I have a 6x2.5x2 Toad Ranch heated by a radiant heat panel and a CHE. I want in-cage UV via a T5. What is your favorite in-cage ballast?

I’ve got a dubia enclosure and need to keep my lamps directly on the screen for heat and humidity retention. But the screen itself gets dangerously hot (this will be for a ball python, and while she’s not a huge climber she may make contact). I’m thinking about spray painting the screen with something reflective, or at least white. Had anyone done this? Or found some other way to keep the screen from getting hot (or keep your pet away from the screen)? Maybe some sort of cage mounted underneath? Thanks in advance!

My corn is currently housed in a collapsible 4x2x2 Atasuki terrarium and I was wondering how to cover up the back without it being permanent.

I got some sheet moss to put on the background of a bioactive build I'm working on, but I'm not sure how to attach it. Lol the background is foam, covered with silicone and cocofiber substrate, as well as some pieces of corkbark. Anyone able to assist with this? It's the last thing I have to be done and start moving in foliage!

Does anyone know of any PVC enclosures that don't look like crap? Wife doesnt like the look of AP, Toad, or Custom Reptile Habitats. The photos on both AP and CRH are severely lacking in terms of showing what the stuff looks like in person. I think at least the CRH probably look fine (its the fake wood look about the toad ones she doesn't care for).

I'm wanting these to display in the living room so she wants them to be nice. She wants me to go back to glass because it looks much better and its easier to view the snakes. I like the functionality of the PVC but the ones we ordered from the now defunct dragonhaus left a LOT to be desired from both a build quality and looks standpoint.

Or if you have any real world photos of enclosures from those companies (the outside of them, the doors etc or the whole setup including stand if you have it) I would really appreciate it!

In this room i have: 0.1 Lampropeltis nigrita, 0.1 Eryx jaculus, 1.0 Rhacodactylus auricuiatus, 0.2 Heteronotia binoi, 0.0.2 Pipa parva, some Tarantulas, lots of isopods and some other inverts

Hello, friends!

I was getting to thinking something as a reptile/snake owner myself.

How often do yall think about salmonella contamination while handling your reptile? Do yall do anything to prevent it or just let it be? How do you typically clean your enclosures? Are there reptiles more likely to have salmonella than others?

Has anyone here gotten salmonella from a reptile before???

TYIA! Looking for food for thought!

Has anyone ever messed up their PVC cage and repaired it? I don’t have a photo but basically I took a small chunk out of my expensive pvc cage and I cringe every time I see it. Is there some way to repair it with I don’t know some kind of putty and pvc paint I don’t want to make it look worse either…

It’s so frustrating for me that I spent all this money on a beautiful cage only to fuck it up.

Just curious what people are using for lighting in their bioactive enclosures. I have a Arcadia Jungle Dawn thing in there and it gets hot enough that I had to drill additional ventalation and it still gets probably too much in the summer time.

I'm just growing pothos, would the Vivarium Electronics LED bars they sell at reptile basics for like 18 bucks work just as fine?

Thanks.

for my college technical writing class, we have to make and distribute a guide of some sort. I was in the process of starting a vivarium build for my crested gecko so I decided to use that. Honestly, the guide is still a work in progress, but I will update the link as I work on it. I would love to hear your guy's thoughts on it and how it can be improved. I am no expert by any means, so let me know if I missing anything or providing any false information

I'm trying to attach some fake flowers to a base but aquarium silicone isn't setting fast enough as they constantly fall over before it sets. I tried hot glue gun but it doesn't seem to be strong enough. Is there anything super glue like that would be safe? Or any other suggestions? The flowers are very long stemmed so I've bent the stems and that's what I'm trying to glue. Tried propping the flowers up for silicone to set but i just end up with silicone everywhere 🤣

Shelves were bought first and then enclosures built around🔥

Making a bearded dragon enclosure (dry and hot environment), and all I'm trying to do is seal a converted wood cabinet with something transparent/translucent. I have some wood to make climbing platforms, and again would like to seal and still see that wood too.

Everything I've read on the interwebz and seen suggested on YT is immediately contradicted by some other source.

What have you ACTUALLY USED that DID NOT harm your pets, and lasted a few years?

The sealant needs to:

• Be UV resistant
• Cure in a reasonable time, like a week (girlfriend is getting big)
• Last a few years, the longer the better
• Ok in air temps up to 120 degrees
• Clear/transparent/anything but opaque
• Not kill my beardie

It doesn't matter if:

• it's textured, flat, or glossy. Beardie won't walk on most of it, and I can add some sand in the few places she does.

Please send help and I thank all you wonderful people!

Hi all, materials question from a new DIYer:

I am preparing to build several rock structures for my bearded dragon’s new enclosure but am having a hard time choosing an appropriate sealant. My beardie has CANV (i.e. “yellow fungus disease”) which requires everything in his enclosure to be sterilized with a 1:10 bleach solution once per week. From what I’ve seen around the internet it seems like most folks are either using tinted drylok to seal their decor or adding an additional layer of clear epoxy / polyurethane / polycrylic / silicone, etc. to finish off the piece.

I’m concerned that tinted drylok alone is not going to hold up well against repeated exposure to bleach so I want to use something to protect the paint… I’m just not sure what product to choose.

This is a list of possible sealants I put together after browsing this group and other forums:

• Polycrylic
• Polyurethane (water based)
• Epoxy (e.g. Pond Armor / Shield)
• Resin
• Modpodge
• Aquarium silicone (if anyone can shed some light on how one uses this to seal the entire model and not just joints I would be grateful!)
• A number of “eco friendly” / “low VOC” plasticizers (eg SafeCoat Hardseal) have been mentioned, but don’t seem to be very popular.

From what I’ve read it seems like, in general, the higher a product’s UV and chemical resistance is the more you have to worry about off gassing after it is cured. Obviously I would like to avoid VOC’s as much as possible but also don’t want to use a sealant that is going to disintegrate when soaked in a bleach solution, so I’m stuck.

Additionally, I want to ensure that whichever sealant I end up using either provides decent traction or can be modified to improve traction.

Can anyone can help point me in the right direction (and ideally provide specific product recommendations)? Thank you!

Tl;dr: I am looking for product recommendations for a clear, nontoxic, uv and chemical resistant sealant to use over tinted drylok on DIY rocks.

Thank you!