Custom Melamine Enclosure (Have Questions - Need Ideas)

[Keelah]

Alright so I went ahead and payed a butt load of cash for the exact custom black melamine enclosure (48inch long x 20inch wide x 20inch tall) I had wanted for my girl, Draiga. It was delivered a few days ago only to find that all the stuff I had previously purchased when I got her, is quite miniscule in comparison to the new enclosure. So with that being said I'm going to need to spend even funds on decorating the new enclosure and I'd like to make it super awesome. :lol:

Here is a picture of the enclosure (it has heat fixture on left side and fluorescent UVB fixture with 36inch reptisun bulb - the top enclosure and bottom stand/storage are two separate pieces):

Here is a picture of Draiga's old enclosure:

Now, besides the fact that everything is very small in the new enclosure, I can't for the life of me figure out how in the heck I'll attach a hammock to the melamine enclosure. How would I go about attaching a hammock to melamine with damaging the melamine when I take down the hammock or without leaving a permanent mark of some kind? I'm aware I'll need to sew a whole new hammock, which is fine, though I've only seen hammocks with either suction cups (moisture to stick the cups damages wood) or the hanging hooks, which I would assume use some type of permanent adhesive? *sigh*

I'm also in the same scenario when it comes to putting a background up.. I don't want to commit to any permanently or ruin the $480 custom enclosure though I feel like plain black could get boring? I was worried about my substrate choice since I wanted to go with slate and I didn't want to grout it or adhere it down - but I'm confident if I put a layer of non adhesive shelf liner beneath it and size appropriately, it would scratch or move around on the bottom - I'll be getting that tile today, so we'll know about that later.

Last but not least, I am at a complete loss on how to decorate her enclosure. It's a lot of space that I'd like to use up in the most cost as well as space efficient manner. I am also wanting to go for a cross between modern and naturalistic - she loves her bed, pillow, blanket and hammock so there will be no replacing with just sticks and rocks. I'd have one very angry beardie! So with that being said, shoot some decorating ideas my way! Gimme some inspiration! :lol: :roll:

 

[ju5t1n]

Wow that's a nice vivarium!
I've never had a hammock in my vivariums yet, but I feel like the suction cups wont damage the wood just don't drench it lol. (It's made to be pooped on) If it was my vivarium I'd just drill a hole and put some "screw hooks" into it, since I made mine from plywood at home and already put a few drill holes into it.

I know some people here put a towel under their tiles so the tiles wont scratch the bottom of a glass vivarium. Then when they clean the vivarium wash the towel.
My backgrounds are just plain black too. One has a fake rock wall though. The black background kind of makes the beardies pop out more to me and it's the same color as my TV stand, DVD rack, fish tank stand, the drawers I have all my reptile supplies in, Dubia bins, ect.

I like using driftwood in my vivariums. You can reuse that piece you have in that other picture or check out some malaysian driftwood, mopani driftwood those are just the names of the ones I know of. I recently added a few exo terra fake plants to my vivarium. Someone brought in a old bearded dragon tank to my local reptile store. I bought them used for half price, washed and cleaned them thoroughly.

-Justin

 

[Keelah]

Thank you! It's so nice that I'm scared to do any permanent fixes to it - so drilling is definitely out of the question. My experience with suction cups is that they need to be moist to stick and moisture would essentially be damaging to the wood. That's why I was really hoping to find some kind of adhesive that wouldn't damage the wood, melt, or emit any harmful fumes to my beardie when heated to the proper temperatures. Alas, I think that is too much to ask.

I'm thinking that I'll probably just keep the background black until I venture into the world of DIY rock wall building, then I'd hope to adhere the background to something that is removable so that I don't ruin or make any permanent changes to the enclosure - I'm so paranoid about ruining it. Now as for that branch, it's actually two pieces and they are so tiny when in the big enclosure. I'll be definitely needing all new interior decor for the all new enclosure. :lol:

 

[kakequinn]

I'm not looking forward to those problems if I build my own Melamine Enclosure haha. :lol:

The first thing that popped in my head was those self-adhesive hook things..I don't know if they would damage the wood though?The brand 3M makes some that you can stick to the wall and when you want to take it off you can pull the thing and it comes off.Just a thought though since I don't know if it'd damage the wood.

 

[Keelah]

Oh yeah I thought I could get the enclosure and just put stuff inside. It's a pretty elaborate task though. I spent like 2 hours in the store picking out slate tile.. individually.. and that's just the tile. So everything is taking me forever! I've spent all day trying to figure out what size climbing branch to order from online since my pet stores don't carry any interesting big ones. That's just the branch! I don't know where to start on the interior design or any other decor. Decisions decisions!

Those hooks are an awesome idea so I'm going to look into those.. that could be promising!

 

[Goonie]

[Moved from Enclosures to DIY]

 

[kakequinn]

I think that's how I'm gonna be haha. :lol: With all the time going into getting stuff, I'm sure yours will look amazing! :wink:

I figured I'd suggest the hooks.It seems like it would be a good idea to try out.

 

[Keelah]

I went to pick up my slate tonight which the guy hadn't gotten around to cutting yet.. so not any closer to finishing. :lol:

I did get around to looking at the hooks though and it does appear that they would work perfect except for the fact that in the store they had some really ugly big white ones.. then some really ugly big expensive ones. The little ones they had only held .5lb to 1lb so I figured I'd need heavier duty ones but they were all bulky and eyesores. :roll:

[Edit] For some reason I've got it in my mind that beardies weigh a lot lol technically shouldn't .5lb to 1lb per hook (three hooks all together for the hammock) actually be quite sufficient, even for when she's full grown?