I think my blue tongue skink has gotten tired of his current home.
Here he is sitting on top of his current home.
Lately he has been pacing and rubbing his snout on the side of the tank. Both signs that he is unhappy. I have been wanting to try my hand at building a habitat made from fake rock. There is almost no info about how to do this online, so I pretty much had to come up with my own design.
My plan was make the 3 sides and the floor out of plexiglass. The front would be made of real glass.
I would cut and glue styrofoam to the three plexiglass sides. I planned to place ceramic tiles on the floor.
I would fill in between the styrofoam with spray foam. After all that was done I would paint on tile adhesive to the foam. Give it a day to dry. and put on enough coats until I had the effect that I wanted. Then paint that with non toxic acrylic paint. Over the paint I would put a coat of varnish on it.
Well after I got to Home Depot, I went to get the plexiglass and after seeing the price I realized that I would have to change my plans. I went to the lumber dept. and looked to see if I could find a replacement for the plexiglass.
I found peg board for $12 a sheet. They had about the same thing as peg board except no holes in it for $6 a sheet. I had them cut all the pieces I needed from one sheet. I bought some L brackets to hold it together.
I got home and screwed the hole-less peg board together. Started cutting the foam with my zallsaw and glueing it on. The best glue to use is a hot glue gun. It sticks almost instant.
I then sprayed the foam between the pieces of styrofoam. I let it dry over night.
Next day I painted on the first layer of tile adhesive. Let it dry over night
Here is the pics of what it looked like with one layer of tile adhesive.
Just as a reference, the dimensions of this are 3' X 3' X 2'
I repeated that until I had 3 layers.
I let it dry overnight and I put one layer of paint the next day. I matched the paint to the tiles that are on the bottom. The color is soft wheat. I don't think I'll choose that color next time.
After the first coat dryed it cracked. I think all the uneven surfaces caused it too crack as it dryed. The paint seemed to have stuck it just cracked. It was really a cool effect. The next day I put on a second coat. This time the paint didn't crack and it filled in the cracks from the first coat.
Here are some pics just after the second coat was applied.
After the second layer dyed you could see the cracks from the first layers. I think it makes it look more like real rock.
I have to put the varnish on and then build the front part and I'll be done.
Here he is sitting on top of his current home.
Lately he has been pacing and rubbing his snout on the side of the tank. Both signs that he is unhappy. I have been wanting to try my hand at building a habitat made from fake rock. There is almost no info about how to do this online, so I pretty much had to come up with my own design.
My plan was make the 3 sides and the floor out of plexiglass. The front would be made of real glass.
I would cut and glue styrofoam to the three plexiglass sides. I planned to place ceramic tiles on the floor.
I would fill in between the styrofoam with spray foam. After all that was done I would paint on tile adhesive to the foam. Give it a day to dry. and put on enough coats until I had the effect that I wanted. Then paint that with non toxic acrylic paint. Over the paint I would put a coat of varnish on it.
Well after I got to Home Depot, I went to get the plexiglass and after seeing the price I realized that I would have to change my plans. I went to the lumber dept. and looked to see if I could find a replacement for the plexiglass.
I found peg board for $12 a sheet. They had about the same thing as peg board except no holes in it for $6 a sheet. I had them cut all the pieces I needed from one sheet. I bought some L brackets to hold it together.
I got home and screwed the hole-less peg board together. Started cutting the foam with my zallsaw and glueing it on. The best glue to use is a hot glue gun. It sticks almost instant.
I then sprayed the foam between the pieces of styrofoam. I let it dry over night.
Next day I painted on the first layer of tile adhesive. Let it dry over night
Here is the pics of what it looked like with one layer of tile adhesive.
Just as a reference, the dimensions of this are 3' X 3' X 2'
I repeated that until I had 3 layers.
I let it dry overnight and I put one layer of paint the next day. I matched the paint to the tiles that are on the bottom. The color is soft wheat. I don't think I'll choose that color next time.
After the first coat dryed it cracked. I think all the uneven surfaces caused it too crack as it dryed. The paint seemed to have stuck it just cracked. It was really a cool effect. The next day I put on a second coat. This time the paint didn't crack and it filled in the cracks from the first coat.
Here are some pics just after the second coat was applied.
After the second layer dyed you could see the cracks from the first layers. I think it makes it look more like real rock.
I have to put the varnish on and then build the front part and I'll be done.