Need help finding non-toxic sealant

MrDragoni · #1 01-17-2011, 04:56 PM

Hi, I'm new ... my son got his 1st water dragon about 3 weeks ago & we've already figured out his cage is too small even tho the pet store told us it would work ... we are getting ready to make our own terrarium/vivarium (not sure what the difference is??) and need help! We have a few different options for swimming pool, a water fountain kit (waterfall?), the lights, access to wood for branches, etc ... we even have a display case w/sliding glass doors that was given to us. But, I need to seal it somehow so the moisture doesn't rot the wood, etc. Not sure where to start!!

backafter20 · #2 01-17-2011, 08:22 PM

MrDragoni, another newbie here, so I don't offer any expertise, but I can comment some. As you've found, most pet shops offer plenty of free bad advice. Better to contact the experts, which I've found are the true hobbyists in online forums, like here. A terrarium has just plants, a vivarium also houses animals. A paludarium has part land, part water, and an aquarium is just water. I can't answer your primary question, but I have just found a pretty cool website, the author of which may have an answer for you. Try lizard-landscapes.com. He should be able to help. I've just sent some questions off to him myself. Good luck!

MrDragoni · #3 01-17-2011, 08:39 PM

Thanx for your reply backafter20 ... the FAQs on lizard-landscapes.com say that he doesn't think his designs will hold up to the high-humidity needed in our dragon's vivarium, but his advice of using ShieldsAll seemed good. My only problem is that I can't get it locally & don't have time to wait for it to be shipped. I need to get this done ASAP. My heart is breaking watching my water dragon dive repeatedly into the side of his current home

I guess I should elaborate a little too. I have spent hours pouring thru the threads on here & there is a LOT of wonderful advice. And I know the veterans on here get irritated if the same question is asked over & over. My main issue is trying to find an inexpensive alternative to seal the grout technique on a very large space! I found aquatic sealant, but it was just a tiny tube ...

backafter20 · #4 01-17-2011, 09:12 PM

Line it with plexiglass and silicone the seams? Like building an aquarium inside the box? Really thin plexiglass shouldn't be too expensive, and cutting it is easy. That should protect the wood pretty well. Multiple coats of polyurethane will take forever to cure.

MrDragoni · #5 01-17-2011, 09:22 PM

Wow, I guess I left out too much info sorry! The display case came with sliding glass doors on the front & glass inserts for the sides. Just the back is wood & the "framing" around the glass on the other 3 sides. I've decided to keep the glass doors, but need to make a background insert for the back & I'll probably cut wood sides & add a grouted insert w/ventilation on either side too ... My biggest problem right now (reason for urgency to build a new vivarium) is that my water dragon doesn't like glass in general it seems. He is in a 24" hexagon tank that is about 30" tall. He's only about 12" nose to tail I think. I was told he needed an enclosure twice his length, so theoretically it should have been okay. But when I added a branch for him to reach almost to the top & give him the elevation he needed (they live in trees in the wild) he started doing kamakazi dives into the glass. So I removed the branch & just added plastic plants with suction cups that he could climb up on. He loved them at first, but now he is back to diving into the glass. I've heard this is called "snout rubbing" and can cause serious injury. We've even tried adding an artificial background to reduce the reflection in the glass, but he is just in a general "ticked off mood" now. Hence the need for a new enclosure asap...

fallenangelfyre · #6 01-18-2011, 05:19 AM

MrDragoni,
i have never kept a waterdragon before, but thought about it & did a good amount of research. one trick that i remember is putting window tint on the glass. that way you can see in & view him, but he can't see out & cuts way down on the snout rubbing.
also, some other methods of sealing are boat varnishes, & polyacrylic.

Ellylove · #7 01-19-2011, 03:36 AM

Could you post a pic of your current set up? It sounds like you want a pond/waterfall and 3 sides (it's a hex tank, right?) to have a wood background. If you don't have the background going into the water feature, there are several options that don't require sealing. Cork bark is the easiest and readily available at pet stores like Petco and Petsmart, but it can get pricey when covering a big tank. It takes very well to high humidity and is easy to cut to the desired size. Tree Fern Bark slabs are nice looking and hold up well for a while, but I've heard they disintegrate after a few years. Great Stuff Foaming Insulation can be applied directly to the inside of the tank and custom shaved into the desired shape as well as allowing you to add pots for plants and some branches directly into your wall/background. you would need to cover it in either grout, titebond/peatmoss, silicon/cocofiber, or spraypaint. You can also do the clay method, but you would need constant humidity in the tank. Look up some of GRIMM's posts. He shows about 3-4 different background methods. Hope this helps. Good luck!

beckdg · #8 01-19-2011, 11:24 AM

terrarium: noun

1) a box that houses only animals (may be furnished accordingly, but nothing else live)
2) a box that houses only plants (may be furnished accordingly, but nothing else live)
3) a box/cage/etc. who's intended and practical purpose is to house plants, animals or both at some point but currently is empty... and is unable to fill completely with water due to construction of said box.

vivarium: noun

houses animals and plants

paludarium: noun

vivarium with substantial water to land ratio... commonly 50 water/50 land or better/close. one common sense tip to decide whether it's a palu or not... can fish live comfortably in it? (often times palus do have a water-bound life form)