# Want a monitor pit but are renting? Look here!



## Smittiferous (Apr 7, 2016)

My two sand monitors are growing fast, and will likely outgrow their housing on a couple of months. I also dearly want a Spencer's, another animal that requires some room. Rather than build another indoor enclosure that may not be suitable for them once fully grown, I have been toying with making an outdoor pit. Alas, as I rent, that's not really feasible as a permanent fixture.

My job (I do excavation and structural works for basements on brown sites) often provides opportunities for free bits and pieces that are usually very handy for keeping herps - mostly old bits of various stones (slate, sandstone, bluestone etc) or choice tree branches and stumps to use as basking spots, perches or hides, or other materials suited for enclosure construction. But I couldn't believe my luck when today I was offered for free not one but two Colorbond rainwater tanks!









They were left over from a house demolition, and were due to be crushed and disposed of. Each tank measures 2400 long, 820 wide and 1800 high.

The plan is (in a nutshell) to hack them in half height wise, fix them in pairs on plywood bases, build a hinged lid and put them on castors so they can be wheeled about the garage as required, and pushed outside in the summer months for some real sunshine. 

Now all I have to do is find a way to get them home....


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## Stompsy (Apr 7, 2016)

I always find it difficult to gauge the size of something just by dimensions but I already have suggestions for you pending seeing the tanks in the flesh! 


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## Smittiferous (Apr 7, 2016)

Share?


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## CrazyNut (Apr 7, 2016)

Are those diemensions in cm? How much do those tanks retail for if you know? That be awesome starting point for the mertens tank I'm building of I go with the pit style tank!


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## BrownHash (Apr 7, 2016)

I wrote a reply for this post but it seems to have disapeared.... it was awesome.

Anyway, the post was just to point out that if you do a google search for "corrugated garden beds", you will get lots of these tank type garden beds that are already the necessary size for a monitor pit. An example is tankworks.com.au . They do made-to-measure above ground beds that are up to 3 metres long and over a metre wide. They are a bit pricey, but you can find heaps of similar stuff on gumtree. Just look up "above ground garden bed"


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## Stompsy (Apr 7, 2016)

Smittiferous said:


> Share?



Two mobile pits instead of four. 

Slice them in half and use both halves to create one pit 2400 x 2400 from each tank. 

Yes, it would be a lot more bulky, but would house Jonesy and George a lot longer, while still being small enough to move around. 

And once they are moved in, their current enclosure could house a Spencer's, without the divider. 

And here's where you educate me on why that wouldn't work from a construction perspective!


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## Smittiferous (Apr 7, 2016)

[MENTION=40362]CrazyNut[/MENTION] In millimetres. So 2.4x0.8x1.8m. I'll only need three, and two cut in half gives potentially four, so....
[MENTION=11565]BrownHash[/MENTION] I've seen them for sale in Bunnings, in varying sizes and styles and some with multiple configurations (up to 1.5x3m), instantly saw the potential but there's a big price difference ($300 each for the ones I'd buy, needing maybe three of, so $900 vs these ones being free). But it's a good spot to look nonetheless 
[MENTION=17341]akarsha[/MENTION] no reason that wouldn't work at all. They'll just be huge!


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## Stompsy (Apr 7, 2016)

Smittiferous said:


> [MENTION=17341]akarsha[/MENTION] no reason that wouldn't work at all. They'll just be huge!



If you plan on mounting two on each movable platform when creating four pits, then the bigger size wouldn't be that much bigger. 

I guess I really need to see the tanks first! 

But the bigger the better for growing monitors.


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## BredliFreak (Apr 8, 2016)

Wait, so were would you be putting them when finished? If outside, how would you heat them with the freezing temperatures of Melbourne?

Loving the idea, I want me some water tanks


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## Smittiferous (Apr 8, 2016)

[MENTION=41799]BredliFreak[/MENTION] the house I am currently in has a roller door at both the front and back of the garage, so they'll be garage-bound in wintertime and when it warms up I can wheel them out into the back yard. 
[MENTION=17341]akarsha[/MENTION] on that note, my back roller door is 2.4 wide, they'll get stuck trying to wheel them through if I make them 2.4 x 2.4


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## Stompsy (Apr 8, 2016)

Smittiferous said:


> [MENTION=17341]akarsha[/MENTION] on that note, my back roller door is 2.4 wide, they'll get stuck trying to wheel them through if I make them 2.4 x 2.4



Hmm... 

I was thinking about it a little more last night... 

Even if you made one tank into two as you described and the other into a bigger pit of maybe 2400 x 2000?


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## Murph_BTK (Apr 8, 2016)

I have some ideas but all in my head (next too the voices) i would have to draw it and upload what i would do with the tanks... which BTW great score. Perfect price too....


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## Smittiferous (Apr 8, 2016)

[MENTION=42187]Murph_BTK[/MENTION] do it man!
[MENTION=40362]CrazyNut[/MENTION] thinking about it, the bottom halves would already be watertight, with a tap for draining. So no waterproofing needed!


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## CrazyNut (Apr 8, 2016)

Do they make these wider? Mine needs to be 4ft wide.


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## Smittiferous (Apr 8, 2016)

Yep, they do. You could simply modify a thinner one, would need to tank it then but it's easily done. I'm now considering widening also, I think I know where I can source some unused corrugated steel roofing, if the profile matches it'll simply a matter of cutting the short end down the middle and riveting an extension piece in place.


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## CrazyNut (Apr 8, 2016)

Tank it???


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## Smittiferous (Apr 9, 2016)

Tanking = waterproofing


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## snakehunter (May 27, 2016)

Interested to see if there has been progress on this?


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