Foam background enclosure tutorial

[Dorifto]

I did a little research online after I happened on this post. What brand of enclosure is this? I am not finding anything similar in my area except perhaps what they sell for Dart frogs. I searched euro-style terrariums but it is possible I am not getting the best results.

It's not a brand, it's a generic design that it's used commonly across europe for ages, hence the Euro style nickname.

This is the blueprint of mine, quite easy to build if you have enough patience (curing times) and skills.

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• Dorifto
• Oct 2, 2021

If not, this is a easy and cheap way to convert any fish tank in a convection style (euro style) enclosure. Air enters from the bottom and exits from the top.

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• Dorifto
• Jun 30, 2022
• 4

Fish tank mod

You only need some hinges, two grilles, and L shaped profile to support the inner grill and few glass or acrylic pieces, glass preferably as it doesn't warp. Tho cut the holes, just get some cheap round diamond bits.

The dart frog enclosures use the same ventilation principle, but they tend to have a ramp down low to drain any excess of moisture. We don't need that, as we want as much substrate as possible.

 

[TheraMygalo]

Thank you for the information. I had found the blueprints and such, but was hoping to find something similar in Canada. I have the patience and the people with the skills to aid me, I would still have enjoyed the opportunity to purchase such a model. Time is not something I have much of because of work unfortunately.

I have been researching alot on humidity and cross ventilation. I really like how these vivariums are structured and they make sense to me. And i agree, there is not enough space for more substrate in most of what is available.

 

[Dorifto]

Thank you for the information. I had found the blueprints and such, but was hoping to find something similar in Canada. I have the patience and the people with the skills to aid me, I would still have enjoyed the opportunity to purchase such a model. Time is not something I have much of because of work unfortunately.

I have been researching alot on humidity and cross ventilation. I really like how these vivariums are structured and they make sense to me. And i agree, there is not enough space for more substrate in most of what is available.

You can build one in just one afternoon. I tried helping finding those overseas, but they where quite hard to find, and the prices absurdingly high. I build mine with like 40-50€ in materials, far from the 350-400 bucks they were asking overseas...

Hope this video could help you in case you finally decide to build one. I did several steps differently, like applying the silicone. I always applied directly between the joints. Only few pars were glued after placing them.

 

[Dorifto]

Imho cheapest and easyest method to achieve this kind of setups is modding a cheap fish tank. Much less headaches, as they are easy and cheap to find, even cheaper using second hand apps. Just drill some holes, place a piece of glass and a L shaped profile to support the grille and use top mounted doors. Easy

 

[HOITrance]

You can build one in just one afternoon.

I am glad i stumbled on this thread....might have to look into it myself

 

[Tbone192]

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 ventilation and are awesome looking enclosures.
- A cutter or a knife.
- Non expansive foam, they are different grades of expansive foams, take the less expansive one, the explansive ones can break your enclosure because of the pressure they can produce while expanding.
- Water based acrlilyc paint.
- Ultra fine grade joint mortar. I tried the regular one and doesn´t work in my case. I bought the ones used to seal bathroom tiles.
- Some rocks, I used volcanic ones, since they don´t weight so much. but you can skip this part.
- Some driftwood. I sourced mine in the shore after a big storm. You can find some awesome looking woods, and the most important, a lot of them are cured by de sun and the sea, but of course you need to clean and disinfect as much as possible.
- Some plants: you need to choose the right ones for your enclosure, looking to the needs of your T, humidity, substrate etc. In my case were: Chamaedorea elegans, some bromeliads, Nephrolepis, and my last addition was the java moss ( Vesicularia Dubyana).
- An organic substrate, whithout any types of fertilizers, pesticides etc, in my case I choosed, top soil, clay and sand. I also used some xaxim for the background.
- Bioactive agents, like springtails, dwarf isopods (trichorhina tormentosa), medium sized isopods (porcellios) and earth worms to maintain oxigenated the substrate.
- And the most important one, PATIENCE

Lets start

The first thing I did, it was to imagine how I wanted to be the enclosure, possitioning the driftwoods, plants... etc in different possitions, angles... etc. After having an aproximate idea, I painted with the acrilyc paint the shape of the foam background, this way you only see a black surface through the glass, the other way you will se the foam, and won´t look pretty.

A little trick that will help you after, mask with some tape the parts that you don´t want to be painted or foamed. It´s going to be much easier to remove... Don´t ask me how I learned this trick... hahahahahaha

If you need to pass some cables like I had to do, this is the time to drill and pass cables, sensors... etc

View attachment 340761


Next step is to apply the non expansive foam. It will expand, don´t freak out xD, but not as much as other ussually do. Mask the cables or the sensors with some tape. I tried to find a dark one, but they only had a terracota color... If you find a darker color it will give you better results.


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Next estep is to carve the foam, with the help of the cutter, you need to cut the most part of foam and them I suggest you tu remove some chunks of foam with the fingers, this way the foam looks better and not so square shaped. Do not left any shiny or rounded part, it will help you in the next step. If you want to add some rocks, you can drill some holes and insert some sticks to give more stability until you glue them with more foam.

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Next step, forget my socks hahahahaha

Now whe are going to start "painting" the foam. I use fine grade joint mortar, the blend was more thick than liquid, It gave me better results and texture. You can see that I made like a thick paste.

View attachment 340767


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Now with the cutter or a kitchen scrapper remove all the mortar and the paint until you reach the foam rock, and you will end with something like this. As you can see I used the foam to "glue" the driftwood, this way the transition is more fluid.

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Now mask again the glass, because in this point the things becames a little sticky. Use some pet safe silicone and add to the parts that you want to add some dirt (substrate), in my case xaxim for the moss background. I don´t have any photo of this step, but there is no difficulty on this point. You need to be patient, and apply the silicone and with some gloves spreat it, and after add some dirt, xaxim etc. You will need to repeat this proccess several times until you get some thickness of dirt or xaxim. Finally you will end with something like this:

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My concern with the foam backing is the T tearing up the backing and then the enclosure starts looking kinda funky. Maybe my P rufilata is just a hateful ball of fuzz though.

 

[Dorifto]

My concern with the foam backing is the T tearing up the backing and then the enclosure starts looking kinda funky. Maybe my P rufilata is just a hateful ball of fuzz though.

Just "paint" it with ultra fine joint mortar, it gets rock solid, the T couldn't/won't chew it.
Few coats are enough to make it really hard, but still keeping it's lightness.

 

[TheraMygalo]

Imho cheapest and easyest method to achieve this kind of setups is modding a cheap fish tank. Much less headaches, as they are easy and cheap to find, even cheaper using second hand apps. Just drill some holes, place a piece of glass and a L shaped profile to support the grille and use top mounted doors. Easy

Said like that, it definitely seems simpler. There is a store nearby that actualy builds aquariums. I will definitely go and see if they have any used items.

Thank you for your willingness to share information and patience with the questions.

 

[Dorifto]

Said like that, it definitely seems simpler. There is a store nearby that actualy builds aquariums. I will definitely go and see if they have any used items.

Thank you for your willingness to share information and patience with the questions.

It's a pleasure!!

If they build aquariums, pretty sure that they can build you a custom enclosure, it's only few steps more. They can drill some holes or just make the front glass few cm shorter, imho easier for them, so it leaves a gap at the bottom to alow some air ingress, then they have to just place the piece of glass that they cut (from the front panel) few cm toward innerside, to use it like a support for the grille along with the L shaped profile glued at the front. Imho much cleaner than drilling the holes.

It'd be something like this, but with top opening doors. Imho it will give you a much cleaner look.

original_250afeb4-3cee-4ff4-b5ce-6fa193dbb5d0_IMG_20211118_141027.jpg

• Dorifto
• Jul 18, 2022
• 3

Personally I'd place the front (lower) grille a bit higher, to allow some more substrate at the front.

Feel free asking any question about it

 

[TheraMygalo]

It's a pleasure!!

If they build aquariums, pretty sure that they can build you a custom enclosure, it's only few steps more. They can drill some holes or just make the front glass few cm shorter, imho easier for them, so it leaves a gap at the bottom to alow some air ingress, then they have to just place the piece of glass that they cut (from the front panel) few cm toward innerside, to use it like a support for the grille along with the L shaped profile glued at the front. Imho much cleaner than drilling the holes.

It'd be something like this, but with top opening doors. Imho it will give you a much cleaner look.

original_250afeb4-3cee-4ff4-b5ce-6fa193dbb5d0_IMG_20211118_141027.jpg

• Dorifto
• Jul 18, 2022
• 3

Personally I'd place the front (lower) grille a bit higher, to allow some more substrate at the front.

Feel free asking any question about it

It is definitely a treat for the eyes. I was planning on asking them if they do mods. Like you said, if they work with glass, they most likely can make some holes and cut peices to match required needs. I was also thinking of having the grille higher! For more substrate. Thanks for pointing it out. I feel confident I’m visualising things in the right direction.