Canada Day Weekend Build! : Clay Background Method

[Grimm]

This BG is mostly used for PDF's as far as I can tell. It could probably be used for a Tokay, but I suspect the glass would get muddy very quickly, so it might not be worth it. PDF's are small and dont disturb a viv very much, especially compared to a Tokay

As for keeping it moist, I'm currently "testing" that out. I have my lighting on 12 hours a day, aswell as my water feature on 24/7.....It gets incredibly humid in there. I think as A minimum, the clay would need a misting every 2-3 days, however I dont think it would have a problem being misted 2-3 times daily.

The new piece of wood I attached is comming loose because I didnt secure it with enough clay...Its heavy. So once I fix it, and find more plants, I'll begin filling it in and misting as I normally would (2 times daily)

As for the temps, I dont think I'll be needing anything to supplement heat. The lighting will typically heat the viv up enough. Once I have the plants in, I'll be checking temps. If need be, I'll lower my lighting closer to the tank, or add a small heat strip below the water feature.

[Reptiworld]

Nice job, eh , i've got to try that

[Klowne]

I'm not into keeping PDF's so this isn't something I'm likely to try, but my daughter does love the FBT's every time we go to petsmart

[Grimm]

So I did a little work last night and actually ended taking a couple steps backward, then one forward.

The grapevine had some fuzzies, and it also began to mold slightly. This is because I was too excited to complete my build and forgot to boil/bake my wood. However taking it out was not a problem at all. The clay makes background modifications super easy! Once my wood was finished boiling and baking dry, I added some silicone into a few of the small cracks and holes to prevent it from dripping into my substrate. If you notice my tubing needed to be lengthened because there were a cracks near the top of the wood. Now that they have been filled, I will have a longer “stream” of water and more possible moss growing sites. Then I added about 1” of thickness to the background underneath the mounting points of the grapevine to make sure it doesn’t slide out of place again.
As for the plants, I added some Ficus Pumila “oak leaf” to the left and 2 types of faster growing Ivy to the right sides. Hopefully I’ll be able to pin them to the background above my water feature over time.
Quick question....The right side of my tank at the water feature obviously has no substrate. I was hoping to have vine growth covering every inch of the clay, however I don’t know what would work best near water feature. What do you guys suggest? I was thinking of taking a few healthy vine clippings and sticking the ends into the background, but I’m not certain this will be successful at all...Thoughts, ideas?

[Grimm]

Just for some added insight.....

Now that my clay background has been sitting for almost a week it has started to cure. Curing does not mean that it has dried, it just means that the clay is settling and bonding with itself better then when freshly mixed. I noticed that it was a lot tougher when I removed my driftwood last night, yet still fully moist and malleable.

I also noticed that the cured clay will not absorb water and break down as fast. I may try another quick experiment by making a pyramid, then once it has cured, drip water over it for a few days to see how well it withstands heavy moisture.

[Andry]

Originally Posted by Klowne

Ok so you say it has to stay moist, yet you can't have running water on it because it will get mushy and wash away. I've worked with clay many times and understand this concept perfectly but how would you keep it moist? Would simply keeping the humidity raised in the enclosure provide adequate moisture in the air to prevent it from drying out or would you need a mister system that didn't spray it directly? Also what would you do for heating the enclosure to keep the temps up for whatever may be living in there?

I only ask because it's an awesome background idea that I'm interested to try and it definetly wouldn't work for my kingsnake, too dry of an environment, but my Tokay could probably handle it. What creatures would this bg type work well for?

I know someone who uses the Calcium Bentonite and she says you have to mist it daily or else it will crack. She has a misting system in hers. I would have to hand mist daily which I do already anyway. I'm just worried about going away for 2 days and coming back to a cracked BG. Scarry if it has frogs in the tank.

[froggsong]

I'm curious about this as well. I am NOTORIOUS for forgetting to mist. I'd really like to try this in my frog tank, but I'm not sure yet.

[Grimm]

I went 2.5 days without misting my BG with no cracking. Even on the upper sections that are less then 1/4" thick did not crack. It depends how good your tank can hold humidity. Mine is fully sealed with a glass lid and it take less then a day to get a thick layer of condensation where visibility is obscured...If the humidity is +70% I dont see it possible for the clay to dry out that fast. If the clay dries out, it isnt even humid enough for your frogs anyways.

Even if the clay does crack in spots, big deal. Just remove the dry layer, and slap a new one on in less then 5 minutes! Thats the advantage of this method.

[beckdg]

looks like it has great adhesion to glass. how do you think it'll hold onto say gs or pink foam board?

[Greg H.]

See that is one of the reasons why I don't like the idea of using clay for background ( heavy, need to maintain or repair/replace it, susceptible to mechanical degradation ), and why I tend to opt for a porous cement background.

It doesn't matter if it gets wet or dries - it's still going to offer good mechanical stability for years, and is going to be lighter ( either wet or dry ) than clay.