mike_k
Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2011
- Messages
- 100
- Reaction score
- 0
hey all, been a little while between posts for me. this is a project i started mid way through last year, whilst researching tree snakes. i've now got my hands on one so seeings as it's all complete and inhabited, here it is!
so first of all i had a spare exo terra unit, 600mm high by 450mm square. the little ledge pictured is a turtle bank with inbuilt filter. so i began by fitting my back piece then shaping another piece of foam to match the turtle bank.
my next step i added a small cave and a few ledges to the back piece using liquid nails and toothpicks to secure them while drying.
after everything was set, i then done my layer of grout, two layers if i remember correctly. leaving a good day between coats to dry correctly
next i bought some small fake plants and worked out where i wanted to fit them. all but the fern on the turtle bank were from cheap as chips, wouldn't have cost more then $10, more then the fern alone =S once i was happy with their positions i drilled into the face of the rock wall where they would sit
after that, this step i didn't really take any photo's of, i sprayed the rock wall with water based acrylic paints from a spray bottle. each time using different shade of brown to get a bit more of a rock like look. once i was happy with that i coated the whole thing in pondtite, think about three coats went on. i then silliconed the plants in place and ta da it was good to go... or was it
during my research on tree snakes i did learn a bit about there habitats and how they are used to high humidity areas. being in south australia, right down on the tip... you don't even notice humidty lol. so i made a small humidifyer for the encloser and hooked it up to a hygrostat to keep humidity levels roughly around the same as those in queensland, where my lil guy came from.
and there it is, very basic. all it is, is a cereal container with a hole drill in both ends, one side for the mister to run the cord through, the other to run the mist out into the enclosure. wouldn't have cost me, no more then $30 to make. the hygrostat on the other hand was around $120. the main things i noticed with the mist is that the hose outlet had to be kept as short as possible otherwise the mist just wouldn't budge from the container, also the top of the container had to remain open to allow airflow for the mist to run down.
last, but not least, the introduction of squirt! my first, most likely not last, tree snake.
squirt has happily moved in, and has been curiously watching us from a well hidden view in the leaves. clearly comfortable as today squirt smashed one of our homegrown guppies!
well i hope you all enjoyed my post. i have big plans in the future for larger and much more elaborate enclosures, but i'll hopefully post about that some other day.
mick
so first of all i had a spare exo terra unit, 600mm high by 450mm square. the little ledge pictured is a turtle bank with inbuilt filter. so i began by fitting my back piece then shaping another piece of foam to match the turtle bank.
my next step i added a small cave and a few ledges to the back piece using liquid nails and toothpicks to secure them while drying.
after everything was set, i then done my layer of grout, two layers if i remember correctly. leaving a good day between coats to dry correctly
next i bought some small fake plants and worked out where i wanted to fit them. all but the fern on the turtle bank were from cheap as chips, wouldn't have cost more then $10, more then the fern alone =S once i was happy with their positions i drilled into the face of the rock wall where they would sit
after that, this step i didn't really take any photo's of, i sprayed the rock wall with water based acrylic paints from a spray bottle. each time using different shade of brown to get a bit more of a rock like look. once i was happy with that i coated the whole thing in pondtite, think about three coats went on. i then silliconed the plants in place and ta da it was good to go... or was it
during my research on tree snakes i did learn a bit about there habitats and how they are used to high humidity areas. being in south australia, right down on the tip... you don't even notice humidty lol. so i made a small humidifyer for the encloser and hooked it up to a hygrostat to keep humidity levels roughly around the same as those in queensland, where my lil guy came from.
and there it is, very basic. all it is, is a cereal container with a hole drill in both ends, one side for the mister to run the cord through, the other to run the mist out into the enclosure. wouldn't have cost me, no more then $30 to make. the hygrostat on the other hand was around $120. the main things i noticed with the mist is that the hose outlet had to be kept as short as possible otherwise the mist just wouldn't budge from the container, also the top of the container had to remain open to allow airflow for the mist to run down.
last, but not least, the introduction of squirt! my first, most likely not last, tree snake.
squirt has happily moved in, and has been curiously watching us from a well hidden view in the leaves. clearly comfortable as today squirt smashed one of our homegrown guppies!
well i hope you all enjoyed my post. i have big plans in the future for larger and much more elaborate enclosures, but i'll hopefully post about that some other day.
mick
very nice set up!! thanx for sharing 
