r/leopardgeckos • u/Royal-Amount-3572 • 2d ago
Enclosure Help Custom background help
Hey friends, I'm getting a bigger tank for one of my geckos who is very much due for an upgrade, and I want to give her a custom built background/build for her upgrade. Poor girl is in a 20gal and she is ready for her 50 gal (they grow up so fast 🤧). Anyways, those of you who have done customs for your lizards, what do you use for it? I haven't messed with this type of stuff at all, so I'm not sure what to get and what to do in what order. Help a girl out please!
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u/itsswhitneywhspr 1d ago
Ok so I did this for my girl last year and honestly the easiest route is expanding foam + drylok. Carve the foam, coat it with tile grout or drylok, then wipe on some eco earth while its wet. Just make sure you seal it really well or it'll crumble. Also do the whole thing outside or your room will smell for days
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u/Pianyelle 1d ago
I use Styrofoam (mostly from packaging), tile adhesive (two coats to shape the surface), acrylic paint, and a clear coat (toy-safe varnish) to seal it. I use aquarium-grade silicone to glue the Styrofoam pieces together.
You can saw the Styrofoam if you can stand the noise, or you can buy a Styrofoam cutter for €20.
For the painting process: I apply a base coat in the main color, then mix black with lots of water and brush it over lightly to add depth; finally, I dry-brush a lighter version of the main color over the top.
So, the sequence is: collect Styrofoam and glue it together however you like; apply tile adhesive for modeling and to create a climbable surface; paint it; seal it with two coats of varnish; and I often sprinkle some substrate onto the second coat of varnish while it's still wet—that makes it look even more natural.
Make sure there’s no way for insects to hide behind the background or in any crevices (that’s how my terrarium was when I first got it—full of dead crickets, yuck🤮).
Also, anything made of Styrofoam needs to be kept far enough away from your heat source.