Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My baby is in a 20 long right now, and I am assuming this will be okay for a few months. I would like to try my hand at making my own tank out of plexi and aquarium sealer. I want to make a really big one for him to stretch his legs in. I think I can do that for about $50-75. Has anyone done this before? I am going to use 3/8" plexiglass. I am thinking about making the tank 48"x24"x18". That would give him 8 sq feet. Does anyone have any other ideas? I love to build cages not only because it is cheaper, but also because you can do so much with them. I guess another question would be do they need a glass or plexi enclosure? Is that the only thing that will hold the temps up or could I use other materials for the back and sides with a plexi front?

Laura

I just got done building 3 enclosures this week. I went with melamine because they are just real simple, clean up nicely, and hold in the heat nicely. I built 1 4x2x2 and 2 3x2x2. I keep my males alone in the 3x2x2 and I house my females in the 4x2x2. I usually keep 2 females to an enclosure if I get lucky and they decide to like living with another dragon. I like these cause they are stackable and when you have quite a few dragons this is a plus. I went with sliding plexiglas doors on all of them. I was going to use hinges but just did not like the way they came out. In the 4x2x2 I use two light fixtures plus a long fluorescent fixture. In the 3x2x2 I used 1 light fixture and 1 fluorescent fixture. I use mercury vapor bulbs so the 2 foot hieght is needed. These were real easy to make, and cheap too. Each one cost me under 75 to make even for the 4x2x2. I have pictures of a 4x2x2 with an example of the sliders on my pic link if you hit mystical dragons below. The ones I'll post here are a few pics of the 3x2x2 during building so you get an idea.

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Mystical Dragons

Wow! You did a great job. You should sell those. My style, though, is more of a wood look, though. I like the enclosures to look like pieces of furniture. I have several ideas, now I just need the time and the money to try them out!!! I only hope mine turn out half as good as yours!

Laura

Below is the cage I had built not to long ago. It's 5'x2'x2' and made out of wood. There is plexiglass on the sides and along the bottom of the front. Back panel and bottom is 1/8" (I think) underlay plywood (alot cheaper and lighter than a sheet of 1/4" or 1/2" plywood or melamine. It is coated with a water proof varish and let to air out for about a week or two before I introduced the dragons.

The plexiglass section along the front bottom was to be both a guard against playsand being kicked out and to make it easer to sweep it out when it came to change it. However after it was built I decided against the playsand as a substrate.

The only draw-back that I know of with plexiglass is that it turns yellow with age, especially under UV light. And it scratches much more easily than glass.
Other than those two factors, it should do just fine.

D.A.