A terrarium background build for my Damon medius

[Eremiten]

I got a nice, large Damon medius a few months back that had spent her life in a plastic box with some cork bark. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, but I felt like she deserved something more extravagant.
So I got an aquarium that measures about 80 cm wide, 35 cm deep and 40 cm tall - 112 liters, and got to work.

First, it was time to make a cave background with lots of nooks and crannies for her to hide in during the day.
I glued and carved styrofoam to my hearts desire, then covered it in thick tile grout. The whole thing was coated in several coats of acrylic paint.

Next up was the tree stumps. I will continue in the comments.

 

[Eremiten]

Next, I used things I had laying around my house. This way I can keep the build cost down (or so I thought, paint is expensive..).

I used PET-bottles for my trunks, and crumpled and twisted metal mesh to create roots and rocks. Everything was then covered in duct tape.


It aint much, but it's honest work.



I wrapped some shopping bags around everything to give the grout something to grab on to later on. In hindsight, some masking tape would have done
the trick.


Next I made some rocks, as to blend the background better with the rest of the decor. I experimented with foil, masking tape and sponges. Everything worked well and became nice little rocks.

Covered in a thinner(still gloopy) layer of tile grout.

 

[Eremiten]

Now, it's time to paint.





After painting and re-painting like 10 times I decided to just call it a day. I sprinkled some chopped up dried moss in the wet paint to save my shitty paint job.

 

[Eremiten]

The lid for the tank is Twin-wall plastic with a strip of ventilation made from aluminium mesh.
I bought 5 meters of RGB LED-strip, carefully cut it up and connected the pieces to cover the lid. It's just slapped on there with some electrical tape.
I can control the lights from my phone. I can simulate dusk and dawn, change colors and dim the light to fit the needs of the inhabitant.



This is at 50%. I keep it around 10% on the evenings when we want to observe her behaviour.



This is an hour after moving her into the enclosure last night. She explored and groomed herself. This morning, I found her nestled deep into a small cave in the background - just as I hoped.

 

[Eremiten]

 

[Wolfram1]

way too much work for me but well done, it looks great, love the twin ferns

when i made one for my E. bacillifer i just siliconed in pressed cork-bark sheets on the top and all sides except for the front and then added some stones and bark to create crevices for them to hide in.

Easy but not as pleasing to the eye.

you even created fake stones

 

[Eremiten]

way too much work for me but well done, it looks great, love the twin ferns

when i made one for my E. bacillifer i just siliconed in pressed cork-bark sheets on the top and all sides except for the front and then added some stones and bark to create crevices for them to hide in.

Easy but not as pleasing to the eye.

you even created fake stones

Thank you!
Honestly it was a huge pain in the butt and took several weeks from start to finish. I like the end result better than my other tanks though, so now I think I have to make another 3-4 backgrounds to match this one. Lol.

 

[Smotzer]

Good job! And yeah making backgrounds are always a lot of work but the results in the end are also always worth it!! Did you "paint" it with dryloc? I have done that sometimes but sometimes I don't get the best growth on it unless I am able to wash the background multiple times, something in the dry lock doesn't agree with my epiphytes growing on it well

 

[Eremiten]

Good job! And yeah making backgrounds are always a lot of work but the results in the end are also always worth it!! Did you "paint" it with dryloc? I have done that sometimes but sometimes I don't get the best growth on it unless I am able to wash the background multiple times, something in the dry lock doesn't agree with my epiphytes growing on it well

Thank you I didn't seal it with anything other than several layers of acrylic paint (it is a bio/nature friendly paint that is considered inert after drying). We don't have dryloc in Sweden, although I have considered importing some to try out. What I considered using was epoxy or lacquer, butthose seem to smell for quite a while after drying and I didn't want to expose the animal to those fumes.

As a precaution/test before adding the arachnid to the tank, I took one of the fake rocks, put it in a plastic bag and heavily misted the bag before sealing it and leaving it for a week. After some prodding and careful scraping I was pleased that the paint didn't react at all or soften from the moisture.