Hello people. Thought I'd share a design with you. Loki is currently in a 6ft x 4ft x 4ft viv made from MDF (treated with yacht varnish). Ambient temps at 32 Celsius maintained with 250w ceramic bulb and basking spot with 3 x 100w spotlights in row. Looking to replace viv as the MDF hasn't held out as well as I had hoped with the soil/sand substrate and also the tank is heavy as hell and a nightmare to relocate. Also we are looking to move house and rather than have a day to dismantle old viv and reconstruct in new house I thought I'd just have a new one lined up ready to go straight into new house. Also want to create a few more levels to give him more room as I feel 4ft high enclosure is wasted at the moment. That and wanting to give him a deeper layer of soil to burrow in. Here's a picture of current enclosure minus soil, hide and Loki! He currently has a upside down plastic hard large dog bed as a hide with a rete's stack on top with basking lights above and another smaller corner area and a tub of water, large hollow log. Here is my new design! Made using google sketch up, if anyone wants the project file to tweak and use feel free to drop me a message. It will be made from 2x4 struts and for panels will be plywood. The overall dimensions are 6x4x4, however toying with idea of 7x4x4 depending on house we pick. The enclosure will be made in two halves, 6x4x2 to make it easier to get into rooms. The bottom half will be lined with some sort of vinyl/plastic coating. Does anyone have any suggestion on what to use? I have heard people talk about FRP but I have no idea what this is and where to get it in the UK. The bottom half will have 1'6" of sand/soil mix. Also fitted in place will be a 2'x2' pool with a built in drain system to make changing water a lot easier! Built into top half will be my platform system which consists of a first floor with a hide which is directly below the basking lights (top of hide will be a basking area too). From that floor will be ramp to a shelve on cooler side with a log/tube hide. Underneath the first floor will be his existing upside down dog bed hide! Glass will be two 3ft sliding toughened safety glass panels. Looking to probably continue using my heat set up. So it will have the 3 x 100w basking light row attached to wood hanging from chains to allow to adjust height to perfect temperature connected to a habistat thermostat on a timer 8am-8pm. Also 250w ceramic connected to lucky reptile thermo control pro II with day temp of 32 night temp down to 22-24. However toying with replacing the ceramic bulb with another method. I have looked at tubular heaters but wonder if anyone else has used these or know of any other good methods for heating large enclosures? Currently his enclosure is in an half brick shed which I insulated, rewalled, kitted out and the setup I have maintains temps fine even during horrible cold UK winters. So there it is in a nutshell. If anyone has any feedback I would really appreciate it.
Wow! What an awesome enclosure! And I am definitely going to go play with this Google Sketchup program.... (I use CAD and Inventor at work but something for free to use at home?!?! I need to know about this... lol). Just a couple suggestions: 1)With the overall size of the tank - how will you get in it to clean it? Lol. I know even with my 4x2x2 tank I made out of melemine for my beardie a number of years ago it was a pain in the but to clean! It was so flipping heavy I had to put it on heavy duty casters so I could wheel it around my apartment to get it close to a sink! So I was just wondering if you wanted to look into making the front glass sliders bigger maybe so you could more easily get into it to clean and set things up...? 2) With the lights being mobile - is it possible that he could get to them and accidentily burn himself? Could you get a simple wire protector cage? I know another member on here wound up putting drain protectors over his lights and it worked perfectly! Lol. Here's a link to the thread. 3) I might have missed it but... what are you going to seal the plywood with? A Sealant on Spray Paint form would be good.. Thompson's makes a good one but I'm not sure if you can get it in the UK... I would suggest going to your local hardware store and walking through the paint department to get a better idea of your options.... soemthing to look for is to make sure it doesn't have a lot of outgassing when it is heated or that it doesn't give off chemicals - like mildew inhibitors (they usually release copper to keep the mildew off of them) and that would harm your reptile. 4) What type of ventilation will you have? You could use a couple simple ones like the one below on each side to have a nice little cross ventilation which will actually help heat your entire enclosure because it will allow for a thermal cycle. If heating the entire tank becomes really difficult you could add a little insulation between the 2x4s on the outside of the plywood on the top of the tank... There are also radiating heat panels that are available over here... Here is a link to lllreptile which is one of the providers that I know of. It's a pretty good option for a larger tank The tank looks like it's going to be awesome and you're going to have one seriously spoiled monitor! Keep us updated on what you decide to do and pictures are always a plus Good luck with it!!!
Thanks for feedback sticky paws. His current tank at the moment I can climb inside if I need to clean something out (with crouching) however on this new design I am having to make the glass smaller to allow for deeper substrate. To be honest when he goes to toilet it is in his water bowl and as for changing out substrate it is a military task that involves a spade and digging out all substrate which I should still be able to do in this tank! To be honest moving the tank will be a rarity if it can be helped! When we moved into currently house I his current tank in its two halves which weighed a ton and I had to get it through a house, upstairs, into a room and put it back together on my own. Then when we had the baby I had to take it apart completely to move it back downstairs and outside to fit it into the newly converted Lizard room! However I may make some gaps along the bottom frame to use one of those pallet truck things in case I do need to move it for any reason. Looking at those heat panels they seem more suitable for basking surfaces as opposed to keeping air temperature up. I may have a further look into tubular heaters and the microclimate system. Yeah if heating the tank is an issue I can just plop some polystyrene insulation into the gaps in the frame. This will work beautiful as this is what I used to insulate the outbuilding my herps are in (with plasterboard on top) and heater I have in the room rarely comes on! I will probably seal the plywood with yacht varnish for the top half of the frame. Plywood is a lot more moisture resistant than mdf so it should be more effective. To be honest the top half of my current tank has not had any issues with taking on water, just the bottom half which is filled with substrate. The bottom half on the new tank I will fit some form of plastic sheeting, not figure out what to use yet that isn't going to cost me an arm and a leg! Any suggestions are welcome! I had yet to add vents to the design! In the current one I have two vents on back wall, one top right corner, one top left. I may change it this time to just have two lower vents to improve humidity levels. Yeah he is spoilt rotten but guarantee he'll still sit there with a grumpy look on his face in his new house! He misses being indoors and having people to look at! Especially as he knows the ferrets are allowed to live indoors lol!
Sliding doors were easy peasy to fit. The photo is of my current enclosure by the way, not the one in the designs.
