I woke fairly early Saturday morning (as usual), made a strong coffee and headed outside to check on the rock wall. I was hoping the sealer had cured enough to wash down the wall and fogger rock and give it time to dry while I made breakfast. To my surprise the sealer had not fully cured, it was still slightly wet in a few places where it had pooled a little.
Being impatient and just plain fed up with all the fuss the wall and sealing process had caused me I just hosed it down anyway. In the end this turned out to be a good thing (though I didn't know it at the time) as the sealer was to turn a milky colour where it had pooled or was too thick and not soaked into the render. So it ended up washing off some of the excess and reducing milky effect I was to discover later.
I later learnt that the extra coats of grout sealer was not a good idea, all it needs is one single coat unless the render soaks up too much of the sealer. All that the extra coats of sealer did was produce a milky/white look where there was no porous render for it to soak into. I read up on this to see what the cause was and if it can be fixed. The cause is too much grout sealer and it doesn't soak into the render causing it to pool, drip or stay on the surface and this leaves a milky/white look to those parts. If it is minimal the fix is brushing it down with water and a grout brush or if it rather bad (as in my case) then rubbing alcohol diluted down with water is applied, then brushed over with a grout brush and then remove any excess liquid with a absorbent paper towel.
Lesson learnt, if I can be bothered I might try removing some of the white/milky look next weekend although honestly at this stage I am just happy to leave it as it is. It still looks good enough, it's practical and I've just kind of had enough of the rock wall.
Once it had dried, I generously applied liquid nails all around the right side, rear cut-outs, and edges of the rock wall. Then with some help (the rock wall is now rather heavy and is rather awkward to carry alone due to size and shape) the wall was gently slid into place, firmly pressed against the back and side of the vivarium. I found that the front of the right side kept springing out from the vivarium wall (I'm guessing I didn't quite make it square) so with the help of a couple of clamps, I persuaded it to stay put and then left it all to dry while I went car hunting.
Once I returned I began fitting the electrical parts, starting with the heat cord. I thread it through the channel I made when constructing the rock wall, this made things very easy and will keep a nice clean look to the vivarium.
Personally I chose to use a heat cord over a heat mat for one very simple reason; heat cords do not get all that hot, 15°C is the max temp (if I remember correctly), where as heat mats tend to get hotter and have been known to cause burns and injuries to reptiles. I don't know how much of this is true as I am only going on the word I have heard from numerous reptile enthusiasts but either way, the heat cord provides a nice warm spot in the substrate where my snakes large hide will be placed over. With the heat lamp above this should create a nice warm hiding place should she chose to use it. As well as the alcove and ledge for basking under the heat lamp.
After threading the cord through I plugged it into the adaptor, fitted it into the crevice I made during construction of the rock wall and fed the adaptor plug out the back of the vivarium. As said in a previous blog entry, I am using this adaptor as I will be running both the heat lamp and heat cord off the one thermostat, this will keep a simple heating system while providing the best comfort for my snake.
I used silicone to secure the piece of board that has the recess for the heat cord. The reason I used silicone instead of liquid nails is in case for some reason I may want to move or remove the heat cord I will be able to do so with relative ease. If I used liquid nails, moving or removing could prove much for difficult and could result in possible damage and/or ruining the vivarium. Silicone is still a rather good adhesive but it's flexible nature make it easy to remove the item fixed into place.
For the same reasons said above, I only ran a small bead of silicone around the edges of the board. Enough to hold it in place.
I fed the heat cord through the recess and then used the silicone in a few strategic points to keep the cord in place.
Next I used the silicone again to fix the fogger rock into position, poked the cord out the back and plugged up the hole with a blob of silicone.
First I reconnected the heat lamp base, once that was done I thread the lighting cord through the grove in the heat lamp base and attached the heat lamp base loosely. Then I reconnected up the lighting base, attached it to the vivarium and pulled the cord tight and through the heat lamp base, tightened the heat lamp base right up and made sure both cords had been fed completely out the back of the vivarium.
Using the cord holders and some zip ties I had floating about (a good workshop always has zip ties, they have 101 uses) I attached the cord to the roof and secured them neatly into place.
Now that all the holes for the cords where used and I still had the silicone out. I ran it around the edges (top, bottom and sides), into the holes for the cords and also around all the cutouts of the rock wall. This seals off the rock wall and will stop any moisture, dirt, dust and most of all, my snake from getting behind the rock wall.
Then I switched out the silicone for some gap filler, I used that to fill up the channel where the cord for the lighting comes out the base. I used this because it is white and just gives a cleaner look. It looks a little uneven and messy in this picture but that was because it had just been applied, later one once it had set a little I cleaned it up and smoothed it out.
I used a spade bit and drilled a hole to feed the cords of the thermostat out, I made it a fair bit bigger than it needed to be. Seeing as there will be a backing board for the thermostat, I was not worried about the size of the hole and this just made getting the cords through much easier.
I chiseled out a section of the backing board for the thermostat, this is for the actual wires to sit in where they run into the thermostat housing.
Before disconnecting the wires I drew a diagram of where all of them connected up to in the thermostat. That was so there would be no mistakes or chance of wiring it up wrong.
Easily done, all re-wired back up, I stuck the backing board on with liquid nails, popped in a couple of small screws through the housing of the thermostat to attach it to the backing board.
Popped the front cover back on and it all sits nicely with no visible signs of wiring or any holes. I was quite happy with the way this looked.
The 2 cords from the thermostat now dangled out the back with the other electrical cords.
Next I fitted the 2 backing boards for the thermometers, attached them with liquid nails (I had to sand them a little to get them to fit into the cut outs due to the render making the holes slightly smaller). I didn't bother taking pictures of both as they look the same, they are just in different locations. I have one down the hot end of the vivarium and one down the cold end so I can monitor the temperatures of both ends easily.
The thermometers came with sticky double sided rings, making attaching them into place very simple. I quite like the look of these thermometers, honestly I had 2 already but they where odd and totally different types. I bought these to add some symmetry and keep the neatness to the build.
Next I installed one of the branches out of my old vivarium that was attached to the smaller brackets I had bought earlier in the build for the table but never used. I just used some small screws to hold this one in place.
Next I drilled out some holes to attach the other branch, this one used larger brackets so it protruded further from the rock wall. Due to this the screw heads would be too small to hold it in place, so I used some bolts I had lying about. Popped them through to the back, put on a washer and nut, did it up and all was looking good.
Then I screwed in the bulbs and attached the cages around the lights. I already had one cage made of small snake mesh, I used that around the heat lamp. I read that any light 25 watts or under does not require a cage but after testing the moon light globe I went to remove it and discovered it actually does get rather hot. So just to be safe I decided to make a cage for that.
I wasn't going to pay $30-$40 for a cage and I had some chook (Aussie slang for chicken) mesh lying about in my shed (as you probably noticed I have lots of junk lying about my shed, I tend to horde things heh!). I know the holes are slightly on the large side and not 100% suitable but my snake is too big to fit through it and honestly I don't think she could quite reach the light anyway, so this should be more than enough to avoid any burns from her stretching out and touching the globe. I may consider buying one at a later stage, but for now this is will do the job needed.
With very little left I could do to the vivarium without the glass, I moved onto the back and started hooking it all together and neatening it up. I first attached the double adaptor to run both the heat lamp and heat cord off the thermostat, this had a triangle shaped junction that had a hole to put a screw through to affix it.
I bundled up the excess cord from the adaptor and zip tied it together, hung it up using the cord holders and then proceeded to run the rest of the cords. Using zip ties and the cord holders I made it all neat (well neat-ish) and ran it down to the back of the cupboard.
Using my hole saw I cut an opening through the back of the cupboard and poked all the cords through to the inside.
I attached the power board to the top shelf and plugged everything in. The moonlight globe runs off a timer that is set to come on between the hours of 7pm to 7am. The fogger runs off a timer that is set to go on twice a day for 30 minutes each time, once at 6am and again at 6pm, I may adjust this depending on how the humidity level is and how much the fogger effects that level. The thermostat just plugs straight into the power board of course.
Seeing as at this stage I was pretty much at a stand still due to not having the glass doors and it was also getting late in the afternoon (plus it was beer time), I decided I'd just place and attach the other branches I had out of the old vivarium, using zip ties to hold them in place once I worked out good placing for them. The vivarium is really looking fantastic now, once the fake plants, hides, water bowl and substrate goes it then it will look pretty awesome (if I do say so myself).
That was it for Saturday, without an angle grinder, the glass or a panel saw (to cut down the left side as I made it 1mm to big) I was at a standstill. So I called it a day, had a beer (or 4) and went and watched a movie. Figured I'd head to Bunnings in the morning to buy a cheap grinder and deal with the bolts then.
A strong cup of coffee and off to Bunnings I go, bought a real cheap angle grinder that came with discs. I filled the cheap spray bottle I bought last weekend with water so I could spray down the bolts during the grinding process. The reason I did this was because the vents are made of plastic and I didn't want the heat to melt the bolts into them.
I ground down all the bolts right down to the nuts, I didn't want them protruding any further out than that. This way they won't scratch or damage the wall inside the house as the cords protruded slightly further than them. I used a fine hand file to smooth the bolts off and make sure they had no sharp edges.
Seeing as pretty much everything was done that could be done at this point, I marked out, drilled and countersunk the holes ready to attach the left side. This way once I get the glass doors it will be quicker and easier to finish it off.
I'm hoping that my doors are made this week and I can finish the build off this weekend. All that is left to buy is a lock for the glass doors and some reptile cage cleaner, both of which I will pick up from the reptile store hopefully this weekend.
I think the hardest part is going to be waiting for all the glues and products to cure and the smells to neutralise so I can put the substrate, hides, water bowl and plants in ready for my snakes relocation. Though the day it all comes together will be a good day.
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