r/HerpHomes

The silicone fumes are just about gone, so Cyrus should be able to get back into his home tomorrow when I get home from work (the pool module itself is very well-ventilated as well, but I’m leaving the door open for the next 20 hours at the time of typing this post text out.

I’ll make a less janky-looking version of the pool later, was sort of on a time crunch since I need to get this done before I’m out of town for two weeks. Anyone who has seen Cyrus’ posts before knows he can freely hunt in enclosure (he’s good at it, too), and the pool is just another thing meant to make things easier for his babysitter. I’ll do one last beetle cull before I leave town to keep from having too many adult Darkling Beetles running around, but… yeah, I’m otherwise done. This enclosure was always meant to require minimal maintenance, but I hope to one day make his 380-415 gallon forever home even better than this one since I know what does/doesn’t work.

Is the play sand in these "Bloom Blocks" safe for lizards? Tag doesn’t say silica contents, but that it "conforms to ASTM D4236".

It's a Dubia 4x2x4 for my ball python, Dashi. She'll have a snaking river waterfall that feeds her own 7 gallon aquarium (and 10 gallon sump). There's a slate-top basking hide on the second story and an underground bunker for her cool hide. It will be a bioactive setup featuring Papaya isopods and orange springtails. I still need to get all the plants in and decide on the aquatic life.

Some important things I learned along the way:

- Don't trust stray foam to be water tight. The original waterfall wad made with spray foam and vinyl tubing for the water channels. Where the water changed directions I thought spray foam, drylok, and silicone would be enough to hold the water. After many leaks I decided to cut out the channels and use zoopoxy instead, I highly recommend it.

- Dubia stands are not rated to hold more than like 150 pounds. The stand with the aquarium and water was not an issue until I started adding gravel, then the stand started buckling under the weight. I had to make a "King of DIY" style aquarium stand to fit as a skeleton inside the fascia of the Dubia stand and then I haven't had issues since.

- Don't buy plants until the build is done. I bought plants along the way but some died as the build kept getting delayed. Other plants didn't fit the look of the tank as things were changing.