Excavator clay as a background?

[Thomas Dixon]

So, for a P. regalis communal, I'm thinking of building a background from sterile tree bark and excavator clay, to simulate their natural habitat somewhat and have a really nice display piece. Does excavator clay have enough integrity to safely stick to the glass this way, or am I going to have to change my design plans?

 

[Frogdaddy]

So, for a P. regalis communal, I'm thinking of building a background from sterile tree bark and excavator clay, to simulate their natural habitat somewhat and have a really nice display piece. Does excavator clay have enough integrity to safely stick to the glass this way, or am I going to have to change my design plans?

Not sure if it would stick to glass as it dries. What's wrong with a great stuff/coco fiber or peat background?

 

[Thomas Dixon]

Not sure if it would stick to glass as it dries. What's wrong with a great stuff/coco fiber or peat background?

Nothing of course, just had a really cool arboreal cave type idea with areas of bark and bromeliads in mind, I've got a few backup designs anyway I'd like to try out

 

[The Snark]

Not sure if it would stick to glass as it dries.

Always the problem with clay. Remove the moisture you can loose up to 50% of the volume which = never fully adheres to anything.

 

[Frogdaddy]

Plus wet clay is really heavy

 

[Cas S]

it has to be dry to be cured, if it gets wet after its dried it will return to its moldable state

 

[moricollins]

So, for a P. regalis communal, I'm thinking of building a background from sterile tree bark and excavator clay, to simulate their natural habitat somewhat and have a really nice display piece. Does excavator clay have enough integrity to safely stick to the glass this way, or am I going to have to change my design plans?

Poecilotheria regalis are NOT communal.

Clay doesn't love being in a vertical position.
You can make a cave out of great stuff

 

[Thomas Dixon]

Poecilotheria regalis are NOT communal.

Clay doesn't love being in a vertical position.
You can make a cave out of great stuff

I've been keeping them communal since I got them as slings with no hitches for about a year now, it's worked out really well so far!

Definitely going to try building a non clay background though, thanks everyone for the assistance, no clay for these Pokies

 

[Cas S]

I've been keeping them communal since I got them as slings with no hitches for about a year now, it's worked out really well so far!

Definitely going to try building a non clay background though, thanks everyone for the assistance, no clay for these Pokies

Ive heard some Ts are more tolerable of each other as slings but when they grow up they start eating eachother

 

[Dorifto]

Did you considered making your own background out of foam? It's much easier than it sounds.

This is the tutorial I made when I made my foam background:

Foam background enclosure tutorial

Hi guys, seeing that some people are asking about how I made my setup, I´m going to make a litlle tuto about it. It may look difficult, but It was more easy than I thought. The tools: - A propper enclosure, I choosed the European style glass enclosures, since they are cheap, they have a great...

arachnoboards.com

 

[raggamuffin415]

I actually have 2 mature pokies with backgrounds made of cork and clay (in 18" exoterras). Took some experimenting to get the right moisture level, and I layered it mainly in cracks between cork as opposed to big freestanding areas. Tanks are fairly heavy (especially since we keep em on top shelf away from our son) but so far no issues. When I water I just make sure to avoid directly wetting the clay again (do not use for species needing lots of humidity). The glass should be able to handle the weight and I haven't noticed any crumbling or the clay separating from the wall.

Ultimately, foam is prob best way to go, but it is time consuming and can take awhile to cure if not some properly. Another easy way to patch cracks between cork is just hot glue thick patches of tightly packed moss (cant be too dry and you really got to stuff it). Combine that with some clay patches and it's a lot quicker and less messy way to achieve a dope backdrop.

 

[The Snark]

I'm still trying to figure out how our H Minax jackhammer 2 inch holes nearly a foot deep into clay so hard you can't sink the point of a shovel an inch into the stuff.