Leopard Geckos: the ultimate naturalistic vivarium complete with leos

[zelda]

Hi, I'm new here.

Just wanted to show you how I made ​​my leopard gecko terra.

These are my first reptiles, so this was also my first attempt to make a background.


Before I started I had a couple of things that were important:
- Enough caves for four Leos (I only have two, but I want to be able to expand the group).
- Two humidity hides
- Utilise the space
- Plants
- Natural look


This is what I ended up with:
(There are 7 hides, were 2 of them are moist hides.)

Main moist hide without the lid:

I can show you the building process if you want to.

 

[Yoshi'smom]

Nice! Are your plants real or fake? If they're real I'd keep a close eye on humidity. I did a similar background for my single male Leo in a 30gal long! He loves the space and places to climb. It's funny. In his first home, I didn't really give him anything to climb on except for his two hides but now that he can climb, he goes nuts with it! It's funny to find him in the strangest places. I didn't think Leopard's were that apt to climbing! You did a good job! I can tell your Leo's love theirs as much as my boy loves his!

 

[zelda]

Thanks.

They are real. The humidity is the same in the terrarium as in the rest of the apartment, so it's working out great, fortunately.

I water the plants once a month, but outside of the terrarium.


No doubt they can climb! Mine is quite active, and uses all of the space.
But they usually stay in the big moist hide all day long though.

 

[1Gecko]

What did you use to build it? Looks amazing!!

 

[zelda]

Thanks

I used polystyrene and foam to form the landscape. Then I used tile adhesive/concrete on top of that. Maybe it's what you call grout? I'm not quite sure what the correct term.

It was really difficult painting the whole thing. I'm not completely satisfied with how it turned out, but I can allways repaint it later if I want to.

 

[ScottyB]

Very nice job guy. I would like to do something like this in the future. Just have to wait until a vacancy opens up in my lizard hotel and more funds.

 

[hercules]

New gecko

Hi, I just got a new baby crested gecko, and i already have a 1 year old 11 inch leopard gecko. SO COOL.:yahoo:

 

[Saskia]

Really cool setup!!!! Sme people make desert - like set ups with sand, and I believe the finish you have done here is quite similar to what leos live in the wild, not so much a desert but more a dry place with a lot of rocks!! Very very cool

 

[Vector]

I agree with everyone else as well. This has to be the best leopard gecko setup I've ever seen! If you don't mind, could you please tell me where you got the polystyrene foam and Styrofoam? Also, how do you heat the cage? Do you use a UTH or an overhead heat light? If I decide to get a Leopard Gecko, I definitely want to make something like this.

I would also like to see the building process as well

 

[zelda]

Heating:
I use a heat cable to heat up the tank.
I have also attached a tube from the opening in the side and down to the bottom of the tank, so that the cables are hidden.

I didn't want the heat cables to lie directly on the glass, so I took a thin polystyrene plate, cut some tracks to the wire, and filled the tracks with thin tile adhesive/grout.

Then I didn't have to worry about the bottom of the tank cracking, because of the heat, while I also insulated so that heat was led upward.

To control the heat I use Lucky Reptile Thermo Control II.

Here you can kind of see the thin plate for the heat cable:

Polystyrene and building foam
The caves that can be used as moist hides is covered with aquarium safe silicone, which is the only type of silicone I use for these kinds of things.

Tile adhesive/grout

Painting and substrate
I started with dark colors, and went over with lighter colors until I was (almost) satisfied.

The substrate is 50/50 peat/sand mix. It's completely hard, som it's no chanse that the animals can come in contact with the heat cable, nor become constipated by eating the substrate.

Really dark to begin with:

 

[zelda]

If you don't mind, could you please tell me where you got the polystyrene foam and Styrofoam?

I'm not quite sure I've used the correct terms.

But by polystyrene, I mean this:
http://www.polystyrenepackaging.co.za/polystyrene.jpg

And by foam (building foam/spray foam), I mean this:
http://www.instructables.com/image/F5VINLOGJHVGXDO/building-foam.jpg

I got it in Norway, at "Coop Obs BYGG". BYGG = building.
Maybe a hardware store?


(The building process is on page 1 in the thread.)

 

[Vector]

Very nice! You can tell your leos love their home. You did an amazing job Thank you for the building process instructions as well.

 

[zelda]

Thanks!

Feel free to ask questions if there is anything else you want to know regarding the build.

 

[deem]

That is awesome!!!!

 

[HDreptiles]

Amazing build man. I am getting ready to do a rather large build for my Leo's and was wondering.... what kind of plants are those?

 

[MattL]

Wow, that is a VERY nice set up!

 

[zelda]

Amazing build man. I am getting ready to do a rather large build for my Leo's and was wondering.... what kind of plants are those?

Thanks!

They are various types of non-poisonous succulent plants. They fit perfectly in a desert environment, loves sunlight and doesn't require much water (once a month).

I'm also looking for an aloe vera plant (which is a type of succulent plant), but I haven't found one yet.

The leos will climb on the plants, so remember, no spiky plants!

 

[HDreptiles]

Thanks!

They are various types of non-poisonous succulent plants. They fit perfectly in a desert environment, loves sunlight and doesn't require much water (once a month).

I'm also looking for an aloe vera plant (which is a type of succulent plant), but I haven't found one yet.

The leos will climb on the plants, so remember, no spiky plants!

Thanks for the info. I think I am going to add some plants to the Leo vivs when I remake them. I will be avoiding Aloe Vera though as I am very allergic to it. Good luck in your search.

 

[gizmo143]

I cannot even begin to say how amazing this is!!!! :yikes:
couple of questions because i want to do this myself

~ how big is that aquarium?

~ how did you make the substrate?

~ how much did it cost total?

~ will this work fine with a uth?

 

[HDreptiles]

I cannot even begin to say how amazing this is!!!! :yikes:
couple of questions because i want to do this myself

~ how big is that aquarium?

~ how did you make the substrate?

~ how much did it cost total?

~ will this work fine with a uth?

I should have asked about the substrate myself.