Aquarium on side for snake --Doors?

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Originally Posted by Queensnake88

I'm doing it. Already had the tank. Undertank heat pad for heat. Obviously holes in the doors so the thing can breathe!

I'm not spending $300 on a new snake enclosure. Sorry.

I want help, not negativity.

If you can't say nice things, do not comment. Simple.

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1st.... You will have more headspace than needed but after 20 years of keeping you should already know that.
2nd... For $300 I can build a whole rack with 11 tubs and have some cash left over.
3rd... Help isn't always what you want or expect, Its about the best care for your animal and not all about you. ;)

and BTW at the height of a 40 on its front, the Lexan will flex a lot.
You will have to secure the top, middle and bottom where the two sheets meet.
You will also probably be best to use a piano hinge on each side, drilling the glass is fun too.

Shouldn't be a hard endeavor. Although I always appreciate the advice of anyone trying to help, I don't share the same disapproval as some of the other people who responded. But just brainstorming I come up with a few items.

1. I don't know what type of door you want to make (slide or swing). If swing either a piano hinge or two hinges each door will work. You could use a two part epoxy to mount them to the glass.
2. With no bottom lip to the tank I would consider making a small "picture frame" front frame to hold any substrate in that you plan on using (unless you're using paper towels). It will also make the final product look nicer and may be easier to work the doors out.
3. Latching and securing the doors closed is the issue I haven't figured out this quickly in my head for you. I think the front frame I mentioned above might help with that solution. Think of a regular kitchen cabinet with either flush frame doors or raised doors.
4. Regarding the strength of the glass "side". It should be ok, but might flex a little. A 40gal tank is built to withstand, well 40gal of water, which is 8lbs per gallon (yes the side glass of a aquarium tank is designed to hold the psi of the water also.) But again it might flex so there are ways to combat that and you could go as simple using a full length small angle (cheap from homedepot). Or fully support the bottom (what was originally the side of the tank) on a shelf, piece of wood, etc and cut a piece of pvc pipe to use as a "tent pole" in the center of your enclosure to hold the top from bowing. The front picture frame will again help with this if you build it with a middle vertical mullion piece and secure it all to the front of the tank. (hard to explain in words)

There are some things to work out but I think it's very doable and for very cheap.

the only concern i have is i know someone who laid the tank down like you want to and had a jurry rigged door affixed to the glass, the glass broke. Luckily the snake wasn't hurt. The AP t8 are 150 right now.

I seem to recall someone else posting about doing what you're doing, turning a glass tank on its side to have a front opening, but I don't remember what the thread was called.

You can use acrylic cement to attach acrylic hinges and handles, and then you don't need to drill as many holes (which can be tricky to do in acrylic without cracking it, especially near the edges). Check out Tap Plastics, www.tapplastics.com; they sell acrylic sheets, hinges, handles, etc, plus cement, and they have a lot of good videos about working with the products they sell. You can also order your pieces pre-cut and with rounded or routed edges as desired. It's handy and they do a nice cutting job. They will also drill holes if you send them a dimensioned drawing.

One thought I had is that you could use a panel of expanded PVC or wood or melamine (you could make it out of acrylic too, but that would get expensive because it would mean a huge sheet with a big hole cut in it - with wood or PVC you could assemble it from smaller strips) to make a front lip running all the way around. It would narrow the opening a bit on all sides, but then you'd have a good surface to mount an acrylic door, with enough overlap between the door and the rim all around to prevent a BP from pushing the door out because the acrylic flexes. You could design that lip so that the whole thing front door assembly was removable, which would make cleaning a breeze.

The one other thing that you might think about is whether you will need to vary the amount of ventilation in order to control the humidity. I know that in my house, I need lots of ventilation in the summer and minimal ventilation in the winter in order to control humidity. So you might also want to think about places you can put ventilation holes that you can cover and uncover as needed, if you haven't thought about that already. I recently built a PVC enclosure and put lots of ventilation holes on the sides, with sliding panels that can cover or uncover them as needed. A month ago it was warm and humid and I had them all uncovered; now it's started to get cold and they are all covered.

I wouldn't worry about the tank not being strong enough on its side; it's designed to hold 40 gallons of water. It's strong enough.

I do like glass, and have looked into this.

Lots of DIY videos out there for safely drilling glass for vents, breaking down an aquarium, so one can rebuild to suit. You can even get sliding or hinged doors with integral front panel ventilation just like an Exo-terra. They are work, they will require a large space, attention to detail, specialized tools, and considerable time. (I haven't been there in a while, but Dendroboard had excellent plans for the vents - dart frog people make the best vivs anyway.)

I didn't have the space to work on one, so just bought ET's. However, the king needs an upgrade from his top access glass planted tank, and I'd like to give him a 48" planted enclosure. ET doesn't make one that long, so, I'll have to apply myself to a DIY. No need to really bother with an already constructed tank, easier to just work with glass panels.

Joey, KIng of DIY (that is his YouTube channel) has numerous detailed videos on building a tank from scratch. He is a fish guy, so you won't get info on doors, but his vids are still worthwhile for the basic box build, and esp. for drilling.

Hope that helps.

Also, I have no experience here, but consider acrylic. Good visuals, better heat retention, and very strong in the thicker sheets. Very popular with aquarium keepers, somewhat specialized however in the glueing. Again check out one of Joey's videos for detailed specs.

I just got an exo-terra front opening glass tank from pet smart on line delivered to my local store for 127.00 it measures 36x18x18. This was a sale, and they have them all the time. To mount the doors on your 40 gallon you will need a special diamond drill bit and a wet drill or you risk cracking the glass. My husband has a 150 gallon tank and stand he was thinking of adding hinges for a plexiglass cover and dividing it in two and use the tank for other reptile habitat but he discovered it was too risky without a bunch of equipment so He decided to either sell the tank or set it up with discus fish, which he loves. Good luck on your project, and for information on working with glass tanks there is a lot on u-tube, but for me i'd just go with a new set up that already has the front opening doors. Your 40 gal tank can always be an emergency tank for a sick tank or to hold your guy while you clean his regular enclosure. Your going to need a spare anyway.

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Originally Posted by blue roses

To mount the doors on your 40 gallon you will need a special diamond drill bit and a wet drill or you risk cracking the glass.

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Ummm ever hear of epoxy adhesive? You can epoxy the hinge right on to the glass and it won't budge.

By the way Blue Roses, hello from another Long Islander :-)

The main issue here is that fish tanks are meant to withstand pressure in a very particular direction. When you put on on its side the new 'bottom' isn't evenly supported on all four side the way the normal bottom is since having the opening in the side leaves the bottom with pressure on three sides not four and the new top being glass and not air is now also in a stressed position being only supported on three sides as well. Does the tank have a 'brace' across the normal top? You might need to strengthen that with a piece of wood up the back of it to add some support to the top piece of glass. Fish tank glass is heavier than reptile tank glass so being unsupported is a greater issue.

For an example if you push down on the top of a glass cup you probably aren't going to break it, lay it on its side and add the same force you can crush it easily.


Even a normal fish tank if the bottom isn't supported evenly all the way around the glass can crack (yup...learned that the hard way).