Gecko Tank Under Construction

Vicious_Fish

Vicious_Fish

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Mar 6, 2007
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The Land of the Lost
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Well I thought I'd take a crack at building a fake rock wall for a new Leopard Gecko tank I got off a friend of mine. The tank is an Oceanic Lizard Lounge that is roughly the size of a 40 gallon breeder. I helped the same friend who gave me this tank with building a fake rock wall so I'm hoping it all goes the same. I'm doing it a little different though because I'm using "Great Stuff" insulation foam sprayed onto a sheet of foam board. What's great about this spray foam is that once it dries you can carve it however you want.

Here's a photo of the tank and the foam board after I sprayed it with 3 cans of foam. I want to thank Msjinkzd for giving me that awesome piece of driftwood. :)

Tank.jpg


After I let it dry for a few days I started carving it with xacto knives and different dremel tools. Here's what it looks like after I was done making a mess (and yes, it makes a terrible mess so plan ahead).

Back.jpg

back2.jpg


Last night I started painting over the etched foam with tile grout. I added a bit of play sand to the mixture to give it more detail. As of right now the grout is still a little damp. I plan on adding another coat this weekend to strengthen it. Pics to come, wish me luck!
 
good luck! the drywall tools (the ones that look like cheese graters) work good on that stuff too to even out high and low spots.
 
Thats comin along nicely, I look forward to the new pics. Are you going to attempt any plants?
 
calivivarium1 said:
Thats comin along nicely, I look forward to the new pics. Are you going to attempt any plants?
Click to expand...

Thanks and yes, I'm going to try to stick a few live plants in the tank. I have an aloe and a few other succulents I'd like to add in the setup.
 
Awesome!

Some people have great imaginations, me, not so much :(
 
Some ideas from my experience with walls... mix sand with the tile grout to add more traction (also, IMO it looks better). I've a rock wall I made in my bearded dragon tank, I've had chipping in the areas where I've some great stuff foam, but it was also one of the areas that did not get a lot of sealant. Seal with a liquid water base, not a spray. I learned the hard way that a spray does not work well.
 
BreellaBlue87 said:
Some ideas from my experience with walls... mix sand with the tile grout to add more traction (also, IMO it looks better). I've a rock wall I made in my bearded dragon tank, I've had chipping in the areas where I've some great stuff foam, but it was also one of the areas that did not get a lot of sealant. Seal with a liquid water base, not a spray. I learned the hard way that a spray does not work well.
Click to expand...

I'm way ahead of you, I mixed play sand with the grout. I'm adding multiple layers of grout and sand to give it strength. When I helped a friend make a wall for his leopard and viper geckos, we didn't seal it at all and it's holding up fine. But I'll look in to it. What type of sealant did you use? Was it water based because I believe that's the only safe type to use.
 
A great beginning!
 
I'll have to find the bottle, it was the only water based one my local Lowes had, i kinda wish I had just ordered some from the internet. I was looking for a specific brand that some other people had recomended but Reptilerooms.com fourms never recovered all the old posts after they were hacked and I can't seem to find my old build thread there, and I can't get in to BeardedDragon.org to check there right now.
 
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