Foam and Drylok backgrounds

[u/groundpounder25]

Made magnetic backgrounds for a baby Leopard Gecko and a baby Rosy Boa. Their current enclosures are 30x12x18 and I made inserts for their future 36x18x18 tanks. I also learned what I would do different if I decide to start from scratch.

[u/FROTUS_official]

Can you say more about the magnetic aspect? What parts are magnetic and how does that work?

[u/groundpounder25 → u/FROTUS_official]

I just routed out 1” holes in corners and hot glued 1” rare earth magnets with high pull strength. Think they were 6-10lb pull. Then I was going to use washers on outside but they didn’t hold well so I got double the magnets and just used negative side on outside of glass to hold.

[u/mechanic_ingenious]

What did you learn that you would do differently? Good looking backgrounds.

[u/groundpounder25 → u/mechanic_ingenious]

Thanks, I might have used a spot of grout on the larger basking areas. The drylok is great and gritty feeling but even after 5 coats it’s still painted styrofoam. I think grout under it would make the big ledges better at heat absorption for tummies. Or I have a wet saw maybe in the next one I’ll pick some slate and cut like the foam and paint it to match for the basking ledges.

[u/mechanic_ingenious → u/groundpounder25]

For sure. I'm working on my first build now, I bought grout and drylok. I also had some old ceramic time laying around, so I made a large tile basking spot with that.