Here are some photos:
This is the terrarium I built for my Collared Lizards. It is made of plastic (Lucite?), and was made for fish with a non-removable top, so I cut a hole in it for my “clamp lamp” using a jigsaw. Cost me $20 at Goodwill. I saw other tanks there too, so you all might want to check that out. The plastic has good thermal qualities plus you can view from the corners without looking through a bunch of silicone. Cutting the hole in the top was humorous because as I would cut the hole, the heat from the friction kept melting the cut back together so I had to cut real slow. The screen is just ¼ inch wire mesh that I cut to size with a pair of sissors and bent it to shape. I like it because you can see through it, and it works since the top of the tank isn’t fully open, as it was designed with access holes only large enough for fish lighting and pump hoses.
I stepped down to a 60 watt bulb to get 104 degrees in the basking area and 76 degrees at the far corner.. Other details. Underneath the sand are some bricks which I’m using to get the rocks to sit a little higher, but they can’t be undermined by the lizards. The rock wall, is just thin pieces of slate that are glued to the back, and each one is also supported in the vertical position by other rocks, or buried bricks plus the self-weight of the sand itself so they don’t come tumbling over. Underneath one of the lower basking areas, where you see a flat rock I used brick supports to create a bridge to give the lizards a hide area. The sand is play sand, and the two tufts of vegetation are partially buried plant pots containing mondo grass.
