I put together a custom background for my beardie's tank earlier this year, however it's showing signs of significant wear and tear from his climbing etc. and after 6 months, I'm looking to re-do the whole thing for improved aesthetics and robustness.
The previous build used a combination of XPS board and Soudal expanding foam. I then coated these with several layers of Drylok tinted with non-toxic acrylic paint and highlighted from there. My beardie loves to jump from shelf to shelf and climb vigorously, and as a result has introduced a lot of scratch marks into the XPS and foam, sometimes even leaving plastic chippings in his substrate that I have to fish out later.
I'll be making some significant improvements to the structure when I redo it, but I'm still not sure how best I can protect the XPS/foam when I do it. I've heard mixed opinions on coating it in grout, and many people mention it easily fractures and peels off (in which case my boy will find a way to damage it). Polygem ZooPoxy would be a good option but isn't readily available in the UK and would require high shipping costs to import, and Apoxie Sculpt also seems to do a good job from what I've seen but is too expensive to cover 3 sides of a 4x3x2ft tank.
Has anyone had a similar experience to this and is able to recommend an animal-safe material to protect my XPS/foam before applying Drylok (ideally available in the UK)?
by TortRx