Tropical Vivarium DIY - Driftwood hardscaping

[mainbutter]

Welcome to the next installment of my 20 gallon high aquarium conversion to vertical front-door opening vivariums for crested geckos!

Today I'm going to go over how I do the majority of my hardscaping, the part of landscaping that made of rock, wood, artifical materials etc. that provide climbing surfaces, outcrops, planting areas, and vertical space.

I am a huge fan of driftwood as it is a great material, generally plentiful, and FREE. Not only that, but it is also looks great and every piece is unique, providing a builder with all the room to be creative with cage design as desired.

I like going to the shores of big rivers for driftwood. Particularly, I hit up places below dams on the Mississippi here in MN. During the spring thaw of snow and ice, the river levels rise drastically, but in the following weeks (or months, depending on rainfall) they will drop to their low summer levels, and this process picks up and then deposits driftwood along the river banks. Rocky areas are great places for sticks and logs to get jammed in and be deposited in large amounts.

I look for wood that has been well cleaned in the current, all the bark stripped and the wood smoothed. I hone in on pieces that look "interesting" or that might provide a substantially strong base for hardscaping.

Once I have gathered up all the wood I feel like carrying that day, I head back home and begin my process of making sure that the wood is as sterilized and safe as I can get it.

What I do is pretty simple, I like to soak the driftwood in a bathtub full of water for a couple hours, and then I put the driftwood in the oven. I've used temperatures between 250F and 300F, both with the door open and the door closed until it has baked dry, usually 1-3 hours or a little more for a really thick piece.

With the door closed and temperatures above the boiling temperature of water (I like 250F or so), you kind of make sauna conditions that are high in humidity, but this is really good for providing intense heat to kill off anything. I like to have the door cracked open as slightly as possible at 300 degrees to further kill off any bugs/bacteria and dry out the driftwood.

Some people just do 200F for their sterilization, but boiling water temperature (~212F) really is a magic number when it comes to sterilizing just about anything, so I like to be above it.

After sterilizing my driftwood, it's ready to be added to vivariums! I like to bury my driftwood in the substrate all the way down to the substrate divider (the window screen I talk about in my Drainage DIY thread) and pack the substrate around the wood for structural support to help keep it upright if needed. Some people use hot glue or RTV silicone for securing driftwood in vivariums, but I like mine to be less permanent if I later decide to deconstruct the viv or just change up the configuration.

Here are some pics of hardscaping with driftwood

Soaking driftwood after returning home from the river


Baking the driftwood in the oven, door open just for show (only leave it open very slightly at the most)


Some example setups with placing driftwood!




Hope you like my project so far!

[meeistom]

Very nice. Excellent post very informative and well written.