DIY Vivs

Hey I'm new here. Just have a couple questions cause I'm going to,start my vivs at the end of the month. 1. Is 31.5x18x16 (80x45x40)big enough without having to up grade later? 2. What's the best material to use im looking at melamine but I've seen others with different materials, want to safe some money? 3. How do you make the rock backgrounds? Thanks for any help Paul

Sorry about the pic I was just messing around didn't know what I was doing.

Wait... you are apologizing for posting a cute picture of a corn snake? :roflmao:

If I were going to build a viv, I would not use melamine. I built a rack out of it once, and it is heavy, expensive, and hard to work with. I have another homemade rack made out of plywood that I then coated with I-don't-remember-for-sure-what sealant, and I like that one much better. You could also paint the plywood before sealing it if you don't want the wood look.

If you google something like "DIY rock background" you'll find a wide variety of how-tos.

Lol that's one of my girls just need to go pick her up.

Isn't ply wood hard to clean though?

I definitely second the plywood and sealant route. It's not hard to clean if you put enough coats of sealant on it. Becomes just as easy to clean as any other surface really. Probably easier than melamine actually. Once it's properly painted and sealed, it becomes a simple task of spray wipe rinse dry.

As for the backgrounds, they're usually made out of styrofoam then hit with a paint or grout and finally covered with multiple coats of sealant. I *believe* (don't quote me on this) that just about any polyurethane sealant is good, just as long as you make sure to cure proper time so there's no more fumes. I haven't dabbled much in the DIY yet so i might be getting my info mixed up from my memory.

Oh yeah, the other advantage of plywood is it's a lot more conductive of heat than melamine is. This means, as long as your sheets are excessively thick, you can actually use most UTH outside instead of trying to set them up inside. It takes a little longer for the wood to heat up compared to glass aquarium style vivs, but it usually will.

Daffy typos and lack of an edit option (one of these days i swear i'm gonna donate!), that sentence should read "... as long as your sheets aren't excessively thick ..."

What are some reptile safe sealants? Been looking haven't found much

you can use mod podge. I've used it before and it's completely safe. It looks like school glue and dries clear.

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What about varnishes to seal the plywood

This is what Im trying to do

You could varnish the for coloration, but you'll still want to use a few coats of polyurethane sealant to make sure it's nice and sealed safely and water/moisture proof. There will be water bowls and humidity in the enclosure.

Here's a link to my DIY viv that I made with glass, wood, staining, venting, tracking, and electrical set up it ended up costing around $600-$700. I used a water based polyeruothane and did three coats and I haven't had any problems leaking. I personally used Aspen hardwood boards because I wanted mine to be a show tank more than anything. Plywood would work but I'd get the planed and pressed kind so you have the outer sheet be a solid sheet and not particle shreds. If any water gets through your coating though plywood would start to break down immediately. The main concern is to make sure whatever wood you use doesn't have any softwoods in it as it causes allergic reactions in snakes, and then make sure it's coated thoroughly to avoid any water damage. Other than that it's the matter of cost and how nice you want it to look in the end. Even with using cheaper woods that viv is a beast and it may cost you upwards of $800-$1000. Good luck with it, it looks amazing. http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130380

yojoe05 said:

The main concern is to make sure whatever wood you use doesn't have any softwoods in it as it causes allergic reactions in snakes,

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I'm pretty sure that once the wood is sealed with the poly sealant, the phenols in pine and similar woods are sealed in, and are no longer a concern. I've heard of plenty of people using sealed pine to build racks or vivs and haven't heard of a problem yet.

I checked out your thread, Yojoe, and that does look very nice!

I just didn't want to take the chance which is why I went with Aspen but yeah I've heard of people using pine and it's fine with the sealant treatment.

Several coats of water based Poly will do. It off gases less than the traditional oil based - and it dries very quickly. Do sand with fine paper between coats to keep the surfaces smooth ( the first coat especially, will be quite fuzzy ).