DIY basking spot, first try

[AllTheseKids]

Alright, so I'll be getting a new baby beardie in a week and a half or so, he's had to have part of his tail and two toes amputated. While he's small, he will be housed in a 29 gallon tank I had lying around. I'm making his basking spot using the styrofoam and sanded grout method.

Materials:

Elmers Glue All
Styrofoam sheets- got these from work from shipping boxes
Mapei sanded grout in mocha, two one lb containers
Cheap one time use brush
Chopsticks
Gardening shears to cut the chopsticks
Serrated bread knife to cut the styrofoam
Plastic drop cloth
Beer - husband drank PBR and I drank Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin - 9% ABV yikes!

First we drew up a little sketch of what we wanted it to look like. Then we assembled the basking spot, and glued it together, using chopsticks to help as the glue took forever to dry. In retrospect, it would be a lot better to build it from the ground up.

We then made the "stairs" by breaking the foam into smallish squares and rounding off the edges to look more like rock. We glued as we went, and it didn't stay together all that well, and we reinforced with chopsticks.

When it was relatively dry and kinda stayed together, we carried it out to the garage and used a plastic drop cloth to protect the floor and the bin I used as a table.

We mixed the grout and water per the instructions, and painted it on, trying to fill in all the cracks and crevices. I'm going to pick up a third container of grout today and flip the whole thing upside down and get to the hidden bits and underside of the thing.

The weight of the grout dislodged some of the stairs, so we stuck it together the best we could. Waited for it to dry overnight, and the stairs are still not stuck together, so when we do our next and hopefully last layer of grout, we will reinforce it again.

I'll take some more pictures today.

 

[Mushuandcricket]

This is awesome! Thanks for the detailed instructions. I look forward to the pictures.

 

[PsycoMenace]

Nice idea and great work so far, gives me some ideas now!!

 

[AllTheseKids]

Alright, we forgot to take some pictures while we were grouting the thing, but we put three layers of sanded grout on it, then after it dried we put a wash of a bluish grey dark acrylic paint, then dry brushed on some yellow ochre. After that dried, we sprayed it with a grout sealer, which smelled forever, I'd probably recommend finding something different to seal it with, but now its all set, and in the tank. We used 10 6x6 ceramic tiles for the bottom of the tank.

 

[PatsyB]

I like it!

 

[AllTheseKids]

Thanks PatsyB!

 

[Mushuandcricket]

Looks great. Thanks for showing the step by step pictures.

 

[AllTheseKids]

Thanks! Unfortunately its not sized right for the baby, he kept getting stuck behind it and couldn't climb back up. It will work great when he's bigger though! So we picked up a hammock and some driftwood until he's big enough.

My girls and I painted a desert background for him!

Here is his habitat now.

The cricket keeper is in there because we discovered they can get out of it! We've been finding them all over the house, tomorrow we will buy a more secure container!

 

[PatsyB]

Bummer that it didn't work for him but he'll be big enough for it in no time, I'm sure! Just make sure he can get down from the hammock. You don't want him to get hurt if he falls.

 

[AllTheseKids]

Yup he has no problems, and is always clambering up and down the driftwood. Thanks

 

[Mushuandcricket]

I love the idea of the kids painting a back ground ! I might have to do that. That is a bummer it didn't work for now but at least it wasn't a waist of time between the experience and he will grow into it. I use this cricket keep and I love it. http://www.amazon.com/Exo-Terra-Cri...-1&keywords=Exo+Terra+Cricket+Pen+Size:+Large

 

[AllTheseKids]

Cool I'll see if we can find that today!