Monitor enclousre build advice

Hi guys,
I will beigin building a 7ftx4ftx4ft enclosure very soon (hope to be finished end of Jan-early Feb). It will be housing my Varanus mertensi. Going to have a front plywood panel 1ft high for sub + water dept. Wire mesh lid that can be completely removed or (with tye help of hinges) be 1/2 opend. This will be the only access to the enclsoure. On the water side of things going to eventually intal a filter or sump of some kind as well as a drain for easy maintance (not to sure on that any idears?). Will also have ventilation on the back. I also have a couple of questions. Will I need to seal and waterproof the entire enclosure or just the water section? Also will I need to reinforce the eclosure or will be fine on its own? I'm going to use 12mm ply wood panles, speaking of which anyone know if bunnings can cut down panles for you?

Thanks
kind regards
CN

Never built anything for a water-dwelling species before but:

Timber isn't so suitable for constant high levels of moisture. You can seal it within an inch of it's life but water will eventually work it's way in, and begin to deteriorate the timber. If I were building with ply I'd tank the living **** out of it with proper waterproofing. I'd also use marine ply only, but that itself is heavily treated and all cut edges require re-treatment.

Is it an option to use a small-ish rain water tank, cut down height-wise with the cut edges dressed? With some creative cladding and mounting on a frame you can quite easily hide the fact it's a rainwater tank.

If you decide to go the plywood route, Bunnings offer a cutting service, if I recall correctly the first cut on each piece is free and they charge for all additional cuts


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Thats what I was doing proper waterproofing. It can be done with normal ply because a lot of people build plywood aquariums haha. Thanks though.