Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Tonight I spent about thirty minutes at Walmart looking at tubs and I found a wide Plano shelf kit. Another member on here had sent me pictures of his setup and I think he was using the more narrow shelves. I opened the box and assembled it right in one of the aisle and added some rubbermaid tubs as well. It looked good for the price, real good. My idea was to use this as a supplement to the rack I already have. The rack is 14.25"d x 31"w x 74"h and I didn't even have to cut the shelf legs or use extra material to account for the tubs. It will hold two 31qt Rubbermaid containers stacked per level with a 3/4" wood divider or four 12qt tubs also with divider. This gives you sixteen 12qt tubs, eight 31qt tubs, or a mixture like I went with the top shelf for cleaning supplies etc.
For some reason the picture turned out blue so bare with me.

This only took about five minutes to put together once I got it all home. The bottom shelf isn't pictured, the one above it is used for my scale and log books with room for an extra 12qt tub.
I use a log book for all of my animals and if I sell one I give the buyer the page or a copy of it so he/she knows the eating habbits, where it came from, etc. This is a picture of the page setup I use, I found it online but I can't remember where. If anyone knows where it's from let me know so I can give credit where it's due.

This last picture is the box the shelf kit came in. I thought I would share this because it is a cheap, fast, and easy way to get your first rack or to have a backup like I needed. You still need thermostats, flexwatt, etc to complete it though.

Price List

Plano 9505 utility shelf kit $28.97
31qt Rubbermaid tubs with lids $7.50
12qt Rubbermaid tubs with lids $1.97 (on sale this week)
Plus what ever else you need like substrate and thermostat.

Anyone else care to share some cheap setups?
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Pastel 1.0
Spider 1.0
Normals 1.2
Het Pied 1.0
Leopard Geckos 1.1
American Bulldog 1.0

ehehehhe...im not sure what mine is but i got the big black ones for xmas. i have mine split up though. its the set that can go 5 shelves high but because im short (5'1) thats just too high unless i want to use a step ladder- lol
anyways. only one of my 3 is in a plastic tub, but i dont like the way i have him set up- i have to put something heavy on top of his lid to make certain its ok..but i might try stacking like that and see if it works out better. wouldnt be any much more of a pain in the -ss than it is now i reckon...
but then again i have some wood scraps around here that i was going to see if i can build a small rack set up for his tub and one other tub i have that i hope to put something in...
anyways, glad to see im not the only one who uses "cheap" /quick methods...lol...

good luck
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~Snake Charmer~
0.1 russian tortoise (natasha)
3.1 dogs (church, bandit, willy and tonka)
0.2 cats (squeaky, cami)
2.1 'normal' ball pythons (zenith, butters, zahara)and i want more snakes. guess you can say im developing a "reptile addiction"- lol

Not sure if it really counts as a rack, but it's pretty much the same concept. They're just storage drawers you buy at Wal-mart stacked on top of one another. I make sure to get the ones that have both sides and back fully enclosed and the ones that have a gap between the inside of the drawer and top where the snakes could climb out have a mesh screen covering the sides about 1-2" so they can't get out. Never had a problem with them, no escapees, cheap and easy to house them until they're ready for something bigger(the blood in the last pic will be moved soon).

Thats a good idea, I looked at those but never thought about using mesh. I still use the same tubs that I use in my other rack as well and after putting it together last night, I moved all my neonates and juvies into that rack and it gave me alot more room. As in room for five more adult females.
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Pastel 1.0
Spider 1.0
Normals 1.2
Het Pied 1.0
Leopard Geckos 1.1
American Bulldog 1.0

Well I wouldn't just stack them, I took that picture before I was completly finished. I took some 3/4" plywood the made aother shelf inside of those shelves. Like this
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I I
That way I could use flexwatt on the top containers as well, and it worked out that there was exactly 3/4" of play room doing it this and the plywood took that out so everything is nice and tight. I still need to fix the wood to make it look nicer but I haven't decided what as of yet but I'll sure post when it completly done, even had to order a new thermostat and all the goodies. I'm keeping up with what I paid for everything so I can post that as well.
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Pastel 1.0
Spider 1.0
Normals 1.2
Het Pied 1.0
Leopard Geckos 1.1
American Bulldog 1.0