Built a SWEET cage

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

A friend of my boyfriend's dad gave me a 100 gallon tank. The catch? The bottom of it is cracked and spiderwebbed out to the edges. It's still sturdy and in one piece aside from some tiny splinters but the cracks need strengthened. It's extremely dirty (still some mulch crumbs! and there are some shards of glass in there too), has calium buildup all over it... It has sat unused for like 10 years. It has a hinged door on one side of the top made of plywood and screen, but there is nothing on the other side. The door is in great shape... but extremely unsightly. I was originally going to keep it, paint it, and replace the screen with mesh, but then it went a different and much better route.

My dad decided that the way I wanted to do it was too simple, so he decided to get involved and together we turned this old piece of crap into something really nice! First I made brother and boyfriend drag the thing outside for a serious scrub down. Despite being blasted with a hose and scrubbed, the fractured glass still stood as if it were not even cracked. remember, this is what it looked like before:


I ripped the old door off the top. This involved bending over until I was literally upside down and in the tank while attempting to unscrew rusted corroded screws with a dying electric screw gun. Somehow I managed not to fall over. We got some long planks of wood and my dad brought out his sawblades. We cut the pieces to build a frame to fit exactly flush with the entire top of the tank and then used cabinet-making biscuits and wood glue to put the pieces all together. This is nice because it makes a seamless look without any screws being used. We put them into clamps to let the glue dry overnight. We used the same process to frame the doors themselves. We also cut out grooved in the backs of the door windows to install screen mesh. We used silicone sealant, the wood strips from cutting the grooves and a staple gun to apply that.




Then I lined the cracks with epoxy, and we put a sheet of some white plastic stuff down over the bottom, and glued it down with liquid nails. My dad was kind enough to, instead of just making squiggles... writing my name with the glue!The next day i took all the wood pieces into the field and spray painted it all black. I like black. We attached all the metal parts (hinges handles and deadbolts to hold the doors closed) and the doors and frame were made! We then glued the frame to the tank with some heavy duty construction glue he had laying around and applied buckets of drywall mud overnight. It is some strong stuff. If you tried to pull it off now, the plastic frame holding the tank together would come off first! I once again enslaved boyfriend and brother to lug the thing up the stairs and into the bedroom where it now occupies what once was an awkwardly large empty space against the wall. I applied background to the bottom (now the back since we lay the tank on its side).








I then added aspen, Ra's favorite hideys, a water bowl and plants and a strip light. I then added into the mix, one very angry Ra, my big male king rat snake, who is in shed. He of course showed his gratitude in giving him such a nice new home by turning around and attempting to bite me at least 10 times, pushing his hidey out of it's designated spot, and then flailing rattling, and smacking his huge tail around, shooting aspen all over the place, including, but not limited to, my mouth, the water bowl, and the carpet outside of the cage. The cage's floor space is 4 feet long by just a little over 2 feet wide. I am very pleased with how this project turned out!

[OG2]

thats a cool idea looks good

[tbowman]

I've always wanted to try something like that.

[monk90222]

That is awesome! Great way to recycle a broken tank!

[likebull1]

That is a huge improvement. Do you think your dad could come over my place and help me build some enclosures. I have tons of broken tanks

[waltah!]

Nice job! I like the end result.

[Jason Bowden]

It turned out great!
You guys get an A plus! Thanks for sharing construction, etc with us.

[zackw419]

came out great. what snake are you keeping in it?

[lillyorchid]

Great job! What a nice turnaround.

[Haydenphoto]

Thats looks awesome !