ITS FINALLY FINISHED lol its taken about a month but i have finally finished my custom background build. This build was for my female full pinner Crested Gecko, charlie. I can say she absolutely loves it 
So lets kick off.
First you need an exo terra - make sure its clean and dry.

Then plan where you want the background to be, i recommend the back and half the sides. When you have the location in mind make a "canvass" using a sealant/silicon. It has to be black trust me on this you will find out why later. make sure it is 100% solvent free and 100% waterproof. Now "paint your canvass"


Make sure you leave this to dry for a full 24 hours!
When dry start placing your decoration. Take your time over this and make sure everything is where you want it to be.


When everything is in place secure it down using Expanding Foam. Theres no requirements on this just go to your local DIY store and get some
i do recommend trying to find a good one rather than own brands you will have to pay more and try and get one with a gun its a hell of a lot easier to apply.



Next after its all dry, you need to trim back the foam. Its up to you how you want to sculpt your masterpiece. I just made it look a little tidier, trimming to the tops/left and right hand sides.



Now comes the really hard part well tedious part lol - after you have trimmed your background we need to cover it. The best substrate to use is eco earth or plantation soil or coco fibre substrate. I used eco earth the ones that come in bricks. IT MUST BE DRY DO NOT SOAK IT. what you have to do is grate it like so - it takes a while so make sure your laptop is in front of you with a good tv show i watched two episodes of Supernatural haha have fun


To apply the now grated soil, use your bog standard PVA glue again make sure its 100% waterproof, i used wicks own brand pva glue. Now i did try other glues like gorilla glue, silicon etc but i had problems with all so trust me on this use the PVA lol


if you miss some then wait for what you have down to dry and go back over the missed parts - dont rush it take your time.
After mine was fully dry i decided to add some sphagnum moss, again i used PVA to apply.


Now back to why i said to use black sealant when you create your canvass. Its because if you didn't then you would see all the expanding foam you applied and it looks ugly!! with the canvass in place you can see it looks nice/better than lots of expanding foam lol and it gives a nice definition.

So lets kick off.
First you need an exo terra - make sure its clean and dry.

Then plan where you want the background to be, i recommend the back and half the sides. When you have the location in mind make a "canvass" using a sealant/silicon. It has to be black trust me on this you will find out why later. make sure it is 100% solvent free and 100% waterproof. Now "paint your canvass"


Make sure you leave this to dry for a full 24 hours!
When dry start placing your decoration. Take your time over this and make sure everything is where you want it to be.


When everything is in place secure it down using Expanding Foam. Theres no requirements on this just go to your local DIY store and get some



Next after its all dry, you need to trim back the foam. Its up to you how you want to sculpt your masterpiece. I just made it look a little tidier, trimming to the tops/left and right hand sides.



Now comes the really hard part well tedious part lol - after you have trimmed your background we need to cover it. The best substrate to use is eco earth or plantation soil or coco fibre substrate. I used eco earth the ones that come in bricks. IT MUST BE DRY DO NOT SOAK IT. what you have to do is grate it like so - it takes a while so make sure your laptop is in front of you with a good tv show i watched two episodes of Supernatural haha have fun


To apply the now grated soil, use your bog standard PVA glue again make sure its 100% waterproof, i used wicks own brand pva glue. Now i did try other glues like gorilla glue, silicon etc but i had problems with all so trust me on this use the PVA lol


if you miss some then wait for what you have down to dry and go back over the missed parts - dont rush it take your time.
After mine was fully dry i decided to add some sphagnum moss, again i used PVA to apply.


Now back to why i said to use black sealant when you create your canvass. Its because if you didn't then you would see all the expanding foam you applied and it looks ugly!! with the canvass in place you can see it looks nice/better than lots of expanding foam lol and it gives a nice definition.
