Any Ideas. What would you do to make it work

[AussieBen]

Ok guys and girls,

I am in a bit of a dilemma. Some time ago I bought some tanks with the intention of putting frogs in them. When I bought them the bloke had a couple of snakes in them, he mentioned he wanted to eventually get a Albino Darwin. Back then I didn't even know what that was, so I cam home and googled it and that was that, Frogs out, pythons in. I loved the look of them from day dot.

Now the place we live in isn't overly big, so I wanted to sell these tanks and put the money towards making some nice DIY enclosures ( I don't have room for both, but hopefully in the next 6 months or so we will be moving were I will have some more room to play with ). Why there not selling I don't know, I have been buggered around, held them for people that never come, maybe my initial price is high, but I have put a lot of time and effort into these and am not going to give them away, whatever it is, there still here right.

So I am going to give it 1 more week and if they don't sell, I am going to kit them out myself and try to utilize them. This is where I need as much help, advice and whatever input you can throw my way. Now I know these won't be suitable for adult pythons, but it will bide me some time to save some more pennies and get the tools, materials and a new house so I can go forward with my original plans.

What I will be working with.



Total dimensions on the cabinet are approx 8ft long
Hood lifts at the front, hole for cords at the back.
Storage underneath.
Tanks are roughly 600x600x900
Only half of the roof has mesh lids, the other half are enclosed with glass.

Now I have a whole heap of stuff like foam sheets, heaps of the clear / black silicon, cork bark, so I was thinking that would be a good way to insulate it a bit, stop the heat from escaping through the glass.

I was thinking if I could I would take the doors off the cabinet, some how modify it without weakening it and turn it into either one big 8ft enclosure or even splitting into two 4ft enclosures, ( it will be easy to put some sliding glass doors in there, and it already has a shelf, but that is in the middle ) and maybe housing a woma.

But where I am really stuck, is, well, is this even possible ? how the heck would I be able to get any sort of temp gradient ( because only half of the roof is mesh and i need to put some kind of heating in there ) I have a coastal who is not to big at the moment, and hopefully picking up a Bredli soon enough who is only a little fella.

I already have some led lighting that will work a treat in there to.

I guess, if any of you guys and girls where in my situation, what would you do to make it work? Any input wouldn't go astray. And if I use any of your ideas I will put you in the credits in the final post

Cheers,
Ben

 

[bigjoediver]

How about removing the 1st and 3rd glass dividers and turning it into two enclosures? Heat tiles made with heat cords could solve your gradient problem as they provide a warm basking spot without trying to heat the entire enclosure.

 

[Lawra]

Without seeing a plan view pic of the top I'm not 100% sure what you mean, but could you remove the glass from the top and replace with mesh? That would allow for a basking light above.

However I like [MENTION=31866]bigjoediver[/MENTION]'s idea about making it into two enclosures which would allow for a better heat gradient.

Taking off the doors won't weaken the structure but removing the vertical timber pieces between doors would. I'd suggest leaving one centre piece and reinforcing under the glass and along the front with an additional timber rail (behind the timber so it's unseen) for added strength. The last thing you want is to put in all the effort and have the middle bow and crack all that glass!

If you do go ahead and convert the bottom shelf, as suggested above a ceramic tile over a heat cord will provide sufficient heating for a woma, just cut a vent on either end and perhaps a couple in the back.

Don't underestimate the value of storage though, you could hide all your power boards for the top glass area etc in the cupboards - along with all the reptile supplies which seem to accumulate - or is that just me? lol

Happy building I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

 

[AussieBen]

How about removing the 1st and 3rd glass dividers and turning it into two enclosures? Heat tiles made with heat cords could solve your gradient problem as they provide a warm basking spot without trying to heat the entire enclosure.

It's funny you say that [MENTION=31866]bigjoediver[/MENTION], that's what it originally was, but because I was going to go with Frogs to begin with I went to all the trouble in getting it divided instead. But that heat tile option is a good one, I completely forgot about them, I kept thinking of a heat panel for some reason.

Without seeing a plan view pic of the top I'm not 100% sure what you mean, but could you remove the glass from the top and replace with mesh? That would allow for a basking light above.

However I like @bigjoediver's idea about making it into two enclosures which would allow for a better heat gradient.

Taking off the doors won't weaken the structure but removing the vertical timber pieces between doors would. I'd suggest leaving one centre piece and reinforcing under the glass and along the front with an additional timber rail (behind the timber so it's unseen) for added strength. The last thing you want is to put in all the effort and have the middle bow and crack all that glass!

If you do go ahead and convert the bottom shelf, as suggested above a ceramic tile over a heat cord will provide sufficient heating for a woma, just cut a vent on either end and perhaps a couple in the back.

Don't underestimate the value of storage though, you could hide all your power boards for the top glass area etc in the cupboards - along with all the reptile supplies which seem to accumulate - or is that just me? lol

Happy building I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

Hi [MENTION=37955]Lawra[/MENTION],

There is mesh lids in there at the moment but it is only about half of the total roof space, hard to explain but I will try and get some more pictures today and post them. I don't think I will have to remove any of the vertical posts in the cupboard only the shelf, I'm going to have a closer look today to see how hard it may be to re-position it it. But now that you mention storage...Hmmmm... you just gave me something to look at today.. I might be able to have the best of both worlds there... you guys rock, that just opened up a few options to look into today. I want to start planning so there is no mucking around once I bite the bullet.

 

[apprenticegnome]

I taped 20mm foam on the back and sides to insulate my tank and it worked fine. I put some vents in the back of the hood to create some heat dissipation and oxygen exchange. I found the glass worked good at giving minor temperature fluctuations with the ambient air temperature of the room when I set up this way and if anything made it a bit closer to mimicking natural fluctuations found in the wild. Not saying this is the best suggestion but looking at the tank my first thoughts that came to mind was either 2 or 4 separate enclosures. Getting a glazier to cut a large round hole in the base of each section and fitting a pvc pipe in the hole (flush with the base of the tank but protruding a few centimetres above so substrate won't fall through. Fitting glass sliding doors to the cupboards below and making them into matching timber enclosures below. Fitting a small vent to the rear of each timber enclosure. Fitting the top of each glass enclosure with mesh. Given that heat rises the glass tank section Could be regulated to a basking/warm temp and the timber section which is linked by the round hole I am assuming would be less and if not could be adjusted by a larger vent. Not saying that this would definitely work but it gives me a great vision of glass enclosures linked to timber enclosures below. Just a thought.

 

[AussieBen]

Well, just an updat on this, the tanks got sold yesterday pending payment, and will be used for what I designed them for, which was frogs. It's good in a way, now I can start from scratch.

I taped 20mm foam on the back and sides to insulate my tank and it worked fine. I put some vents in the back of the hood to create some heat dissipation and oxygen exchange. I found the glass worked good at giving minor temperature fluctuations with the ambient air temperature of the room when I set up this way and if anything made it a bit closer to mimicking natural fluctuations found in the wild. Not saying this is the best suggestion but looking at the tank my first thoughts that came to mind was either 2 or 4 separate enclosures. Getting a glazier to cut a large round hole in the base of each section and fitting a pvc pipe in the hole (flush with the base of the tank but protruding a few centimetres above so substrate won't fall through. Fitting glass sliding doors to the cupboards below and making them into matching timber enclosures below. Fitting a small vent to the rear of each timber enclosure. Fitting the top of each glass enclosure with mesh. Given that heat rises the glass tank section Could be regulated to a basking/warm temp and the timber section which is linked by the round hole I am assuming would be less and if not could be adjusted by a larger vent. Not saying that this would definitely work but it gives me a great vision of glass enclosures linked to timber enclosures below. Just a thought.

But with saying that, I bought a BHP yesterday and they had the enclosures that were designed as above for other pythons, glass enclosure with a hole in and access to a underneath cabinet. After seeing it in the flesh, I definitely think it was a great idea and although i will be doing timber enclosures I am still going to add this to the design. Thanks for the ideas guys. I can't wait to get started, just have to get some stuff together and get cracking.