Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just finished building a 4x2x2 enclosure for my U. Geryi and put up pictures of the entire construction including doing the fake rock walls at the website below for anyone who is interested.

Construction page 1

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Mike Wilson
mwilson@fuu.net

Awesome! Good work! I am about to start something somewhat similar for my ball python... if you have any tips on that fake rock please let me in. Also what did you seal it with? And how is the slate floor working for you? Is there a way to seal that too? Thanks and again... AWESOME!
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"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain

"You laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at you because you are all the same."

~~ Krystal ~~

>>Awesome! Good work! I am about to start something somewhat similar for my ball python... if you have any tips on that fake rock please let me in. Also what did you seal it with? And how is the slate floor working for you? Is there a way to seal that too? Thanks and again... AWESOME!

>> ~~ Krystal ~~

Thanks. There was a lot of trial and error but it turned out pretty good. As for fake rock it went a lot smoother than I expected for my first try. The only tips I can think of is when you are carving it to make it look like rock make sure you really cut in and make distinct shapes as the tile grout covers up a lot of the detail work. I did not do this and most everything came out fairly rounded and bland after grouting. Also I have found that in areas like on the right side where the hides are foam on four or five sides it can take a lot of heat and time to get the temperature up in the morning. Probably this would be a plus if you wanted a fairly even heat between day and night, but with a Uro the hides drop to between 65-70 at night and it takes a while to get the air temp inside them back into the 95-100 degree range on the warm side.

The fake rock was sealed with three coats of water based acrylic tile grout sealer (I used one that claimed it penetrated and sealed) and water just beads up on it. I plan to re-apply it every 2-3 years or when the water stops beading on it.

The slate floor is working great as it provides a nice range of temperatures out from the main basking lights. As for sealing it I did not bother because it is not really slate but hard ceramic tiles that look like slate and do not need sealing. They are not the slick shiny ones but have a slightly rough finish. I do believe you can get sealant for real slate though.

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Mike Wilson
mwilson@fuu.net

Do you know what the brand of that tile grout sealer is? I was only worried about sealing the tile (weither real or artifical slate) because of the urates and feces and bacteria. Do you think I am overly concearned? Thanks for all the help... I just want to make sure I don't have too many things to learn from the bad ways. Oh and my dad has been doing trainsets for longer than I have been alive and he does the fake rock formations all the time with the same technique and he is amazing at making them look real and he will be helping me. We are also going to do a test board or two before we go straight to the cage, via the advice Chris H. gave me in my post (Thanks Chris!) so it shoulden't be too bad in that area. Thanks for the help!
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"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain

"You laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at you because you are all the same."

~~ Krystal ~~

>>Do you know what the brand of that tile grout sealer is? I was only worried about sealing the tile (weither real or artifical slate) because of the urates and feces and bacteria. Do you think I am overly concearned? Thanks for all the help... I just want to make sure I don't have too many things to learn from the bad ways. Oh and my dad has been doing trainsets for longer than I have been alive and he does the fake rock formations all the time with the same technique and he is amazing at making them look real and he will be helping me. We are also going to do a test board or two before we go straight to the cage, via the advice Chris H. gave me in my post (Thanks Chris!) so it shoulden't be too bad in that area. Thanks for the help!
>
>> ~~ Krystal ~~

I just looked up the brand on Lowes website (link below) and it was AquaMix. I didn't do any research on it though I just went in and looked for a water based acrylic sealer.

I don't think there is any advantage is sealing glazed ceramic tiles as they are as waterproof as they are going to get and it might even be that the sealer will not adhere properly to a glazed tiles surface. I doubt it would hurt anything if some got on there.

I do have some natural stone in the enclosure but I did not worry too much about sealing as with uros the urates and feces are almost dry when fresh and after about 2 minutes under the lights become hard little dry pellets. With other species sealing natural stone would probably be something you would want to do.
grout sealer

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Mike Wilson
mwilson@fuu.net

Thanks! Just the answer I have been looking for... Awesome... if you think of anything else I should know, it would be highly appreciated! Thanks again!
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"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain

"You laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at you because you are all the same."

~~ Krystal ~~

The cage is very nice and your step by step pictures are equally good. I think a lot of people will benefit from your site.

A few questions:

1) Did you get the "Ikea" type fasteners from Rockler? I have seen similar fasteners on their site.

2) How did you like the fasteners? What is the advantage of the fasteners?

3) Did you use pre-mixed tile grout or powdered?

4) What type of sealer?

Thanks.

>>The cage is very nice and your step by step pictures are equally good. I think a lot of people will benefit from your site.
>>
>>A few questions:
>>
>>1) Did you get the "Ikea" type fasteners from Rockler? I have seen similar fasteners on their site.
>>
>>2) How did you like the fasteners? What is the advantage of the fasteners?
>>
>>3) Did you use pre-mixed tile grout or powdered?
>>
>>4) What type of sealer?
>>
>>Thanks.

Thanks, I am glad I thought to document each step as it helps me remember where the studs are behind the foam when I need to drill holes for probes and such.

The Ikea (knockdown) fasteners I picked up at a local hardware store, but I have seen them at the big chain hardware stores and at Rockler.

The fasteners take a little more effort to install rather than just screwing or nailing and you can see them on the outside so they do have some downsides. The reason I used them is if I ever need to take it apart for storage or shipping I just need to cut through the fake rock walls at the back two corners and the whole thing should come apart with the fake rock attached to the side and back pieces. Then after assembling again just re-grout the seams where it was cut and seal. Of course since I went to the effort of making it so it would come apart I will probably never have to.

I used the powdered grout and went through 25 lbs of the grey uncolored grout for the base coat and 25 lbs of sand colored grout for the top coats.

The sealer was a water based acrylic that claimed to penetrate and seal and I put on three coats. Probably overkill but I had enough for a third coat. I can't remember the exact brand but picked it up at Lowes in 16 oz containers and was the cheaper one that claimed to last for 5 years instead of the deluxe brand that claimed to last for 10-15 years. Figured after a couple of years I would want to wire brush the whole thing and re-seal anyway.

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Mike Wilson
mwilson@fuu.net