Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Curious to hear from those who have built their own rack sytem, and those who have purchased. I am considering buying the animal plastics rack system that holds 9 blanket boxes/18 sweater boxes, with belly heat. It's $335, plus about $60 for shipping and I have to buy the boxes (mine are sterilite, not sure if they will fit), and a thermostat, so will probably be around $500 or more by the time I'm done. Wondering how hard it is to build my own rack system, and how much it would cost in materials for something comparable. Also, if anyone has this model or the 7-tier one, do you know if you can fit three plastic shoeboxes on a shelf istead of 2 sweater boxes. I am not ready to plunk down for a hatchling rack AND a subadult/breeding group rack at this time, wondering if I could put some hatchlings in the big rack as well.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

See the link
Breeder rack

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Steven
Royal Gold Reptiles
Offspring available now from LV Patternless Albino stock for '03 and '04.
Working towards Bell Patternless Albinos for '05.

what kind of containers are you using, and where did you get them.
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www.mplionhearts.com

They are rubbermaid bins. The 6 inch and 9 inch tall sweater box size. 12x24 I think. Something close to that.
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Steven
Royal Gold Reptiles
Offspring available now from LV Patternless Albino stock for '03 and '04.
Working towards Bell Patternless Albinos for '05.

How long did it take to make and what was the materials cost?
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

I built it several years ago. It is basically 12 inch wide prepainted particle board shelving material.

The side boards are dado'd to hold the shelves better and then held in with three screws on each side.

I need to beef up the bottom shelf. It blew out at the center support. Stupid PB!

The most expensive part was the heat strip system I installed. I should have extended it closer to the edges though to facilitate the small bins better.
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Steven
Royal Gold Reptiles
Offspring available now from LV Patternless Albino stock for '03 and '04.
Working towards Bell Patternless Albinos for '05.

Those look like awesome racks, but if you don't have the cash, check out these instructions I made when I built mine. For that amount of cash, you could build two and have some left over. I'm considering building another one I like mine so much. I have minimal building experience, but it was pretty easy to get this one done and it looks pretty professional IMHO. If you build it yourself, you can vary the heights of each shelf so you can put hatchlings on a level(s) and bigger boxes on others.

Complete instructions, parts list on how I built my rack

If you have any questions or need help in any way, please let me know.
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Rob Jenkins
Have you seen the GeckoCam?
Buy Geckos Here
Email Me

Thanks for the great post. This is probably a stupid question, but I know zippo about wiring. Where do the wires in that diagram come from? Do you strip the heat tape, or buy the wire, or is it attached to the dimmer?

Also, how many hours did it take you (building, wiring etc... not including shopping for the parts)?
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

Your welcome; I'm glad it helps.

The wires are from a 12ft extension cord I got a Home Depot for less than $2 I think. You strip the receptacle off the cord and use lengths of it to go between the shelves. Then use the remainder (if it's still long enough) to go from the dimmer to the wall. Here's a diagram I drew for the wires. There are some sites out there with extensive directions for wiring the flexwatt.

I'm not sure exactly how long it took; I built it in three parts - shelves first, then cut holes for dimmers and cords, then wired the tape together. I think the shelf itself was done in a couple hours and turned out really well. I had to borrow the tools to cut and drill the holes, but it only took about an hour or less to do the two sets (2 dimmers/3 shelves each). The wiring took a little longer, but once I figured out to put the pieces in parallel, it was a piece of cake.
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Rob Jenkins
Have you seen the GeckoCam?
Buy Geckos Here
Email Me