Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I've got a 22 inch nile and 22 inch american gator. I was thinking of building an enclosure (water space being 8x3), putting a divider in the middle and let them share the same water while being seperated. Then when they grow I can open it up and leave one in there and make another the same size (8x3)for the animal taken out. Does anyone see a problem with the two animals being in the same water in the divided cage?
Also, anyone have suggestions as to providing an 8x3x1deep pool. I was thinking of either making it of cinder blocks and coating inside with epoxy, or else making it out of plywood (very thick and reinforced) and tiling inside. Not sure if the latter would leak? Would I need to cover plywood with something like 'wonder board' or cement board or something? I will probably be fitting enclosure so that I just drain and refill.
Suggestions welcome.
Thanks again,
Mike

As for the former question, I personally see nothing wrong with them sharing the same water source granted that they are separated and can't see one another. As for the latter question, I will come back to that one when I have a little more time.

Chris

>>Hi, I've got a 22 inch nile and 22 inch american gator. I was thinking of building an enclosure (water space being 8x3), putting a divider in the middle and let them share the same water while being seperated. Then when they grow I can open it up and leave one in there and make another the same size (8x3)for the animal taken out. Does anyone see a problem with the two animals being in the same water in the divided cage?
>>Also, anyone have suggestions as to providing an 8x3x1deep pool. I was thinking of either making it of cinder blocks and coating inside with epoxy, or else making it out of plywood (very thick and reinforced) and tiling inside. Not sure if the latter would leak? Would I need to cover plywood with something like 'wonder board' or cement board or something? I will probably be fitting enclosure so that I just drain and refill.
>>Suggestions welcome.
>>Thanks again,
>>Mike
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Hi Mike,

You can subdivide the water area if you like. I don't usually but this is personal preference and I think you will be fine.

I think your best bet on the pool is to make it out of plywood with an epoxy coating. For the size and depth you want you it should be pretty easy. The construction would be totally plywood with your drains coated on the interior with an epoxy to prevent water loss. You can go to google and punch in 'making a plywood aquarium' to see some examples of much larger aquaria. I am about to build one roughly the size of yours and the biggest issue is making sure the epoxy cures correctly.
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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'

np

Two other ideas that may work for you would be to use fiberglass resin to coat the plywood with. It works really well and I have built many tanks using it. It is also cheap and can be purchased by the gallon at any Home Depot. There is also a product called Zoopoxy that works incredibly well and can be painted and molded to form rocks and such. It is incredibly strong but rather spendy. You can do a search for it on google and it will come right up. Hope this helps.

If only you would have posted that a mere 2 days ago you would have saved me hours of searching to see if fiberglass resin would work well. I had built a plywood water area for our nursery crocs and wanted to coat it with a 'hard' waterproof seal. I must have read 100 DIY plywood aquarium projects and some used fiberglass resin and others something else.

I chose to try the fiberglass resin and coat it with a 1 part epoxy garage paint(also suggested elsewhere). We just finished putting the 3rd or 4th coat on it and will fill it within the next 2-3 days or so. I'll let you know how it works.
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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'

When I was a kid my uncle had a pet store and in the back of the store he had a large caiman set up, water area was 4ft wide x 8ft long, I forget how tall it was .... but it was made out of plywood.

2x4 framing and plywood sheets.

Granted this was many many years ago but I remember being amazed that it held water but it did, perfectly! I dont recall exactly what he had treated it with just a water sealer like Thomsons and he had siliconed all of the seems

I think if I were to build one and I think I just might, I would build the frame probably out of 2 x 4's, use 3/4 or 1 inch plywood, silicone the plywood seems as I attatch the plywood and then silicone the seems again once the plywood is in place, water seal the crap out of all the wood .... then i would probably coat the inside with the fiberglass resin and or epoxy garage paint.

Someone told me silicone used for water containers is toxic. Any thoughts?
Thanks

There are different types of silicone. You can get some that is labeled just for aquariums, but you will pay about double for it. If you get the general purpose clear type at Home Depot it will work just fine. I have been keeping crocs, fresh water, and much more delicate marine animals in tanks I built out of plywood, fiberglass, and silicone for years. A great site to find out about how to do it is garf.org. Another little tidbit if you want to add viewing windows is that as long as you use 1/2inch thick glass you can have the windows be 36 inches tall and as long as you like. Any combination of length and width is fine upto that depth. A great book on building them is called "The Complete Guide to Building Aquariums." It is published by RQP Publications, Inc. Hope this helps

Thanks again. All your info will come in handy when I step up to stage 2 enclosure size for these guys Thanks again.

Sorry about that Chris. The photos I left with you of the tank I had those caimen in showed the process of coating the plywood with fiberglass. If you don't have them anymore I can send you copies. =)

Thanks for the info. I looked up the wood aquariums and found it interesting. However, also intimidating Today I found a good plastic trough, light blue in color, 8x3x2h, exactly what I wanted to build. So that's what I'm going with for now.
Thanks again.