Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Wanted to show you guys pics of the 8x3x2 metal trough enclosure I am constructing.

Another angle

If you had a fixed area between the two doors, you could have easily mounted the lites in between the doors. Cheers

Looks AWESOME Jeff!
One suggestion, think about getting it off of the floor.
Casters would be nice way to accomplish this, this way if anything gets behind it you could easily move it!
Again Great job Brother.
Mike
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Mike's Monitors!

What will it be housing? It looks good!!

Where are the lights/heat coming from? Nice carpentry otherwise.

Krusty
Jeff could still place the lights in the center, even though there is no "fixed" part to his top.
Just for the record I do not like the lights being in the dead center. I always in a closed trough like Jeff's place the lights slightly back from the center(hotter in the back, cooler in the front).
What I have done is to wedge a piece of wood from side to side at the rim level. Secure it with self tapping screws and hook my lights there.
It looks like Jeff has some skills and will figure it out...if he hasn't already.
Mike
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Mike's Monitors!

This will be home to my 1.5 YO male Savannah Monitor. Right now the top is half acrylic and half screen. I had someone do the carpentry, so I have to wait for him whenever I need a change. I am going to replace the screen with acrylic and cut out a triangle for the lights on the hot side (probably half way up the hot side). I want to frame the triangle with wood and attach a bank of 3 halogen lights to it. I was also planning on putting the water basin (pictured) right in the middle, like I have seen in some other enclosures. Eventually when he gets really big (2.5 ft now), I will have a water tub that covers half if not the whole cold side.

Does this sound like a efficient setup? Right now the top is 1 ft from the substrate with 1 ft of substrate for the monitor.

My goal is to build a top section of 2-4 ft tall, so I can fill the whole steel trough up and give him 2 ft of substrate and make it more of a vertical enclosure. The problem I see is the weight, which is why I didnt use casters. There is a "floor" under the tank that keeps the tank of the ground, but moving it and the 2000 lbs of dirt would be a chore.

Thanks for all your responses. The monitor is recovering from a abd burn, but will be ready for it in no time!

Keep the bulb wattages very low if he only has 1 foot of 'living space' above the dirt. That is the drawback to troughs (vertical height), but it should work fine, especially for a male (no nesting issues, just hides). Post a final pic when it's done if you will.