Frequently Asked Questions
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Q: What is Terrarium Clay Living Background material made out of?
A: We can’t give away our secret recipe but we can tell you it is a 100% natural and organic blend resulting in a spongy, water wicking, clay-like material that can be used to sculpt a custom background or sidewalls of your plant & animal habitat.
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Q: Is Terrarium Clay safe for my rare plants and animals?
The preparation process renders the material completely sterile and is safe for plants as well as: insects, reptiles, amphibians, spiders & tarantulas, crabs, poison dart frogs, jungle frogs, praying mantids, pygmy leaf chameleons and other vivarium animals. Our Geosesarma sp. jungle crabs have even been spotted eating the material while digging their bolt holes and burrows!
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Q: HELP! My background material is sliding down the glass and not staying where I want it.
A: Your material may have sweated out some of the moisture during it’s trip, try kneading the material to even out the moisture content. If it is too wet, it may continue to slide so allow the material to sit open and dry out a little. Don’t let it dry too much – keep checking! Remember to start adding the material at the bottom of your background area and move upwards. In this way the top is supported by the bottom.
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Q: HELP! My background material is not sticking to the glass at all.
A: Your material may have dried out too much. Add a small bit of water and knead it into your material until it becomes tacky, do not add too much water or it will not stick and will slide down the glass and will need to dry out again.
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Q: HELP! I got my background in but now I have ugly white dried stuff everywhere on my glass.
A: When Living Background dries it’s kind of a white grey color and looks rather unsightly when smeared on your terrarium glass. All you need to remove it is a clean paper towel dipped in some reverse osmosis or distilled water to dissolve the smears.
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Q: Can I build a waterfall with Terrarium Clay ?
A: No, if water runs continually over the background material it will erode just like a mud bank along a river. A gentle misting with a hand held plant sprayer doesn’t affect it but a continuous stream would definitely wash it off the back of your tank and into the bottom. Creatively arranged driftwood, rocks or cork bark can be placed in front of the background with a tube directing the water onto the wood or rocks so that the stream is not running over the Living Background material.
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Q: How do I store Terrarium Clay?
A: The best thing to do is to use it all as soon as you get it but if you must store it, place it in a 5 gallon pail with an airtight lid such as a paint bucket with a lid from the hardware store. If you only have a small amount left over you can store it in an airtight plastic food storage bag. However you try to store it, you must be sure it is airtight. If your material dries out completely and becomes hard it will not be possible to re-wet it.
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Q: Is Terrarium Clay Living Background material really just clay or mud?
A: No “clay” or “mud” is just an easily understood term for what the material kind of looks and feels like..
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Q: Why is shipping so high?
A: Terrarium Clay is mixed and shipped wet so that it should be immediately useable right out of the box which makes it heavy to ship however, we use Flat Rate USPS boxes to ship at the cheapest rate possible.
We are currently seeking a US distributor interested in licensing our product to get it into retail stores to remedy this.
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Q: Why don’t you ship Terrarium Clay Living Background material outside the USA?
A: Mainly because it would be outrageously expensive to ship overseas, the boxes of material start around 20 pounds and go up from there. Not many people want to spend about $75+ postage for a $17 box of material.
We are currently seeking a distributor in the EU interested in licensing our product to get it into retail stores to remedy this.