DIY tank, background and hides

[Jaiden23]

My husband and I just finished (finally) one of our display tanks. This was our second time making a background, but first time making a custom tank and hides.

The background and hides were made out of styrofoam, grout, sealant and sand. The floor is tile with a thin layer of sand underneath (with the UTH buried under the sand). The way it is set up, there is very little exposure to the sand at all.
The moist hide and mealworm dish was removed for the picture.

The tank was built out of an old tv stand we had laying around. We replaced the wooden doors with custom plexiglas doors (cutting them was a real pain :main_laugh. We fastened a compact hood to the ceiling and put a low watt red viewing bulb in.

It took alot more work than we expected, and alot more time, but we're happy enough with the results. We don't have a leo in there yet, but we're heading to a local expo next weekend so I'm sure we'll come home with another addition :main_thumbsup:

 

[mudskipper]

Wow, it looks great!!!

 

[GodzillaGecko]

wow thats awesome!! and yeah plexiglass is a pain. Really awesome I'm sure your leo will love it.

 

[SC Geckos]

That looks really good. Nice work!

 

[Jaiden23]

Thanks all! I wish we had been able to make it more elaborate, but I wanted the hides to be really easy to remove for cleaning and whatnot, and that really limited us on what we were able to do with a tank with such odd dimensions.

 

[Jusselin]

It's like club gecko up in there lol....awesome, what is the purpose of the sand though?

 

[Jaiden23]

It's like club gecko up in there lol....awesome, what is the purpose of the sand though?

The sand on the background and hides just provides traction so the leo can climb easier. It was thrown on while the sealant was still wet, so it's a solid part of the background and not loose.

The sand under the tile serves two purposes. First it makes the floor even. When we had the UTH just under the tile, it caused the left side of the floor to be quite a bit higher than the rest of the tank. I doubt it would have bothered the leo, but it drove me crazy :main_laugh:

The main reason I use sand under the tiles though is that it distributes the heat better and I think it creates a better temperature gradient across the tank.

 

[Jusselin]

cool =] You learn something new every day.

 

[rigomez4]

Great job. Looks really good.

 

[mudskipper]

Where does the leo poop?

 

[Jaiden23]

Where does the leo poop?

Haha, well I don't know yet since there isn't a leo living in there quite yet. I've intentionally left the front cool side corner open, as that's where the majority of our other leos have always pooped. I'm hoping she/he will follow that same pattern, but I figure this one will be the difficult one and decide to poop ontop of a hide or something :main_laugh:

 

[Jaiden23]

Well, we made some modifications to the doors on our display tank. The original doors we made worked really well until our son managed to break one :main_rolleyes:. So, we went for sliding doors this time around and are loving it so far. Plus, we bought much thicker plexiglas this time.

Our newest addition, Ashe, has been living in this tank for about a week now and seems right at home. :main_thumbsup: Please excuse the calcium mess she made today.

And just because, here's a full body shot of Ashe from the day we brought her home from the Midwest Reptile Expo.

 

[J&K's Lemy]

that leo gots a nice fat tail

 

[forgivenick]

I love when people repurpose furniture into reptile enclosures. Your old TV stand looks awesome. Congrats! I just saw these coffee tables that can house reptiles and be viewed on all 4 sides as well as through the top.

 

[GodzillaGecko]

If I found furniture that was in good condition (I never have that sort of luck) I'd do what you did. Its an awesome looking tank and your new Leo is beautiful. forgivenick those are really nice. Thanks for showing pics of those now I have an idea for a future project to do with my dad. Good ol family time.