Tanks

Well, I'm back for a bit, and with a question. Hopefully time hasn't erased any members who might actually remember me...

I'm getting tired of wooden cages. I built some pretty nice ones, but hate them. Wood, even when painted, gets dirty easily. The newspaper sticks to the bottom. The white paint is too bright, and doesn't give the night/day difference I'd like. The only upside is that they hold heat well.
And my precision cage I bought from precisioncaging.com isn't fairing well.

I'm heading back into tanks. I like how easy they are. You can heat them well, make good displays. And they're cheap. Thought about going with animal plastics. But to pimp it out to my specifications it'd end up being like 200$ a piece. Forget that. 2 50$ 30's will do me just fine.

My original hate for tanks stemmed from 2 things. They don't hold heat very well, or humidity.

The main problem with heat is the glass itself. And it isn't because the glass is a poor insulator either. It simply lets the light from my red bulbs go right out of the cage. And the light is the source of the heat. If I use those decorative backgrounds on 3 of the 4 sides, leaving the front free, it should keep a lot more of the light and heat from leaving. And it'd look pretty fly.

Another problem with heat, and the entire problem for humidity, is the screen tops. Which is basically where this whole thread should have gone to earlier, sorry.

Basically - does anyone know of a different type of top I could use. It'd need to have a spot for a heat lamp, and hopefully a florescent light.

Maybe cut some rectangles of pegboard, the wooden stuff, seal it? That would help with the humidity. I did that with my friend's 55 gal. and his snake sheds perfectly everytime. I did it the ghetto way though, made handles out of clothesline, LoL, but it does the job. I was trying to find a good way to hold it down, but couldn't find any good clamps or whatnot to use, so he just put guitar amps on top and Snake doesn't get out.

I'm not sure how you would want to cut out openings for the lamp and other fixture, but I'm sure you could get a jigsaw and cut a circle and another small rectangle out of the pegboard, cover it with screen somehow, secure it with staples. I don't know. Worth a try though. Other than that, maybe get a room humidifier, I've heard Wally World has some for a pretty good price. Hope that helped a little.

Great to see ya Godfather!

Id say build your own. You obviously have the experience with that sorta thing ;)

I use plastic wrap. that works well too even if it isnt pretty...

Sorry I don;t have a pic, but I use pegboard for the lid of one of my BP tanks. Granted, it does not allow light through, so you can't have a light from above with any good results. When I feed the occupant (Ashes) I rely on a light to the side of the tank.
I secure the lid with bungee cords, really tight. i do not remove them to take the lid up, but merely slide the lid to the left via a handle I screwed into the mid of the pegboard. I have to pry it up with a little screwdriver, but it is a good lid overall for retaining humidity.

Ok, 30's are 36x18x18, right? Been a while since I did the whole tank thing.

Here is my grand idea...

Turn the 30's on their sides to make them stackable. (with the help of some sort of supporting, I bet the glass will be too fragile) I'd like to build a fixed wooden frame on the open end to hold a hinged plexiglass door swinging down (hinging plexi will be damn tricky) And hold the plexi in place with little latches like these:
http://precisioncaging.com/latch.gif

I hope to heat the entire thing with flexxwatt. And light it with that nifty light rope stuff during the day. It all works out it seems.

Anyone got ideas on how to make it stackable, and not risk straining the glass?

Possible idea on the last question.

If I could make a sorta wooden framing to support the weight, it'd hold all the weight when stacked. No glass would be touching or get strained. Like my idea for the front door kind of. Think of the black framing already on the tank top and bottom: If you layed the tank on it's side, the side glass still won't touch because of the black framing. It's kind of like what the framing would already be for the front door, but put another on the back. So when layed on it's side, it acts just like the black frame already does. Accept it'd be stronger, and protect the glass when they're stacked. Seems to be an easy solution to all my problems, think it'll work? Got better ideas?

I'm still really iffy about the heat pads being the sole source of heating. With the framing lifting up the cage, I'd need to find a way to attach the heat pads... Maybe buy the sticky kind, but they're hella expensive and don't offer controls.

Hm, the heatpads might be too close to the tank below the tank they're intended to heat, and that could perhaps overheat the tank below...? Unless you could leave a gap of a couple inches between each tank?
I too am toying with diggerent ideas for customizing BP tanks. I prefer tanks because my setups are naturalistic and I don't want to waste my effort in rubbermaids which you cannot see through.
Here's a pic of my tank for Goblin; it was made out of (I think this is the size) a 55-breeder tank. Its front is where there are two sliding glass doors and the lid is some kind of perforated metal that is not scratchy. The front is supported by metal rods and the same metal stuff. Sorry my pics are so dim...
I know that the pics, the cage is not naturalistic; that's before I did it!

https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop...28/gobcage.JPG

https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop.../10328/juu.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop.../gobintank.JPG

https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop...8/goncage3.JPG

Good to see you, Godfather! I moved this into the caging forum. Someone here posted recently about stackable aquariums. I think it was Tigergenesis.