Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm at a point in my new herp room that I'm building shelving and planning for some new cages and the layout. I'm having a hard time deciding. The room is 14'x8'

My gecko interests and goals lay primarily in terrestrials: gonis, felinus, coleonyx, basically every other eublapharine species I can someday get my hands on. Of course, I'm open to just about any gecko on the planet!

I have a pair of red tegus, a pair of ackies, and will expand to at least one more dwarf monitor species when the time is right.

I also have a fair number of colubrids and expect to expand that. For these I have a mix of racks of shoeboxes, boot boxes, sweaterboxes. I'd like to go with a few 3'x2' cages for some of the snakes eventually.

I use a random mix of tanks and tubs now. Do I want to go with 2'x2' PVC cages, or 18"x18"x18" exo-terras? Or 30"x12" Visionariums? Or stick with aquariums with screen tops with plexiglass on top to control humidity as I've been doing to varying degrees of satisfaction? Stackable is nice, but shelves of exo-terras seem space efficient too. But are they good for geckos?

Any input?

I used to work with a lot of geckos, including some of the less common terrestrials.

If I were to do it again, I would probably keep them in racks built around the perfectly clear polycarbonate boxes from Cambro. The 9" tall ones combine the advantages of a rack with some of the appeal of a display. I also like that crickets cannot escape from them easily.

While not for geckos, I have been able to grow plants in these Cambro boxes by having light shining through the plastic from the outside.

I'll see if I can find a picture of a rack using the Cambro boxes.
-----
Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

Very intriguing idea! I'd love to see pictures.

It took me awhile to find those boxes, but I dug up 18"x26"x9" clear poly boxes that could work very nicely. Not cheap tho!

Rather than my ugly melamine homemade excuse of a rack, I wonder if I could get some custom ones built of PVC.

I did look for a picture but could not find it. The Cambro boxes are the best and the cheapest prices I have found are here:

https://www.surfasonline.com/products/4805.cfm

That is also my favorite size. You can build a rack where that size box slides in width-wise or two of the half sized boxes slide in lengthwise on the same shelf.

I like the 9" height. It allows some viewing and decoration without wasting too much space.

Custom PVC racks might work but I'd be worried about sagging. I would probably go with custom melamine with real wood edge banding.
-----
Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

Is that price ($30 ) for one box??

That could get pricey.

Yes, but look at the price of indvidual display cages like the original poster is considering. Talk about expensive.

I think if you could see a rack built around these boxes, complete with back lighting and decoration you'd think differently.
-----
Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

Yes, I thought about the costs a bit. I'm used to $5 - $10 for tubs, but they are much smaller and of a different material. These Cambro boxes are big! More footprint space per dollar than the Visionarium or PVC cages or Exo-Terra. I really like this idea.

Tell us more about that backlighting?

Also, how might I go about getting temp/humidity probes into the boxes?

Is the "custom melamine with real wood edge banding" something I would buy at a cabinet shop? My experience with melamine is limited to the stuff from Home Depot and the like.

Again and as always, thanks Chris for a great idea. I'm pretty excited about this one!

Those tubs are big but they have a heavy rim around the top and they slope like other boxes so the floor area is considerably less. I would think of them as a slightly oversized sweater box. I don't have one here so I can't go measure the floor.

>>Tell us more about that backlighting?

Basically you shine light through a side of the cage. You have to play around so you don't get glare, which is the only problem I recall. I don't think very many plants will grow in these conditions but some will.

>>Also, how might I go about getting temp/humidity probes into the boxes?

Drill holes with a titanium coated unibit. They are a stepped, cone-shaped bit that do well in polycarbonate.

>>Is the "custom melamine with real wood edge banding" something I would buy at a cabinet shop?

No, you would build a melamine rack and buy thick strips of real wood that can be glued to the exposed edges. This gives a very nice look. You can even buy pre-milled hardwood edging at some places. I really like the stuff. Most of the pre-milled stuff is pine which looks nice on the maple-veneered melamine.

I do recommend buying a higher quality melamine from a cabinet shop, although it's not absolutely necessary for racks.
-----
Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

I think you would be better off buying a rack from vision , you can easily put geckos in their racks , they have many assorted racks that would easily fit your needs, and their prices are not bad at all compared to the rest its a no brainer , good luck and happy breeding.