my drainage idea

[serenitystarlite]

I just finished the bottom of Kami's cage. I was having issues getting cutting plexi-glass and ended up just cracking it, so I returned it. Instead, I installed a drawer:

I went to Walmart and bought this:

I took the top off and discovered that the drawer was half an inch too high to fit under my cage. No problem! I cut holes in the bottom to fit over the bars on the bottom:

I bought some aquarium lining with rocks printed on it for the bottom and cut a few holes in the middle:

The baby's cage was really simple. I just put a plant saucer underneath:

Found another smaller aquarium liner and cut a few holes in the middle:

Here they are:

 

[summoner12]

cool, nice work.

 

[GooglezNvincent]

Very good! i dont mean to rain on your parade, but i have seen this design before. Be sure to empty it as much as poccible, because i know the people who had this had a problem when it was full of water. When they tried to remove it water splashed EVERYWHERE. I LOVE the plant picture on the base! very smart!

 

[serenitystarlite]

Lol "rain on my parade" nice pun! Yeah I empty them both pretty regularly, at least once a day. I'm kind of ocd, so the thought of dirty water sitting around in my bedroom makes me a little queasy! I thought the aquarium liners looked nice plus they are really easy to clean, even dried up poop wipes right off. Now if I could find a bigger one for Kami's cage, I would be in business.

 

[Pure]

Very nice. I like this design. The only thing I would add is, under heavy mistings you may find that your bottom lining allows water to leak out of the sides. A simple fix would be to take some 100% silicon caulk and caulk this lining into the wood frame. It will be permanent, but easily removed if you ever decide to replace it. Also I noticed on the one cage the fish tank background doesn't go all the way to the back of the cage. At PetSmart they have this backing on large rolls that you have them cut for you. I would get one from there that actually fills in the whole bottom of the cage.

 

[serenitystarlite]

This was the largest one at the Petsmart that I checked but I may be able to order larger online or find larger somewhere else. What I did for the back was bought a clear plastic shower curtain, cut it, and taped it to the liner so the back is actually covered, it's just clear. I thought about water leaking out of the sides and I have a couple ideas that I might try for that but the caulk is a good idea. Eventually I'll replace the wood around the bottom because I'm sure it will rot from all the water, so caulking there would be no big deal.

 

[SS4Luck]

looks nice. I have my cage set up like your babys

 

[Pure]

That's odd your PS doesn't carry this stuff on rolls. Mine has 4 or 5 different styles on large rolls and they sell it by the foot.

Yeah you can order it online, and at a fraction of the cost. I've bought from both DrFosters n Smith.com and BigAl's.com I think it was BigAl's that I found the one large enough for my 90 gal so you should def check them out.

For the wood rotting. Well go ahead and build yourself another framed bottom and this time paint it with a polyurethane based paint/stain. It will be plenty safe by the time you get around to actually putting it in.

 

[serenitystarlite]

I need to check my posts more often haha.

The petstores have big rolls of the aquarium liner, but the widest one I could find was 19in (so the one that's in there is 19in wide and 24in long). I guess the next cage I build will be a little skinnier

The bottom pieces of wood were sealed with stain and polyurethane, but I think I only used 1 coat of polyurethane because I cut the wood wrong and wasn't happy with it, so I already have a new set of wood that's sealed really well with a couple coats to install when I change out the bottom liner.

I'll check out those links you suggested, thanks

 

[lisagr07]

so just a wooden bottom wouldn't do??? it needs to be covered with something that water can't penetrate???

lisa

 

[serenitystarlite]

Well wood itself might rot. Mine is the aquarium background over screen (and a couple wood bars) and it sits over the drawer or plant saucer and drains into them. There are holes in the bottom. What is the bottom of your cage like and maybe I can think of some ideas for it?

 

[lisagr07]

Well wood itself might rot. Mine is the aquarium background over screen (and a couple wood bars) and it sits over the drawer or plant saucer and drains into them. There are holes in the bottom. What is the bottom of your cage like and maybe I can think of some ideas for it?

well as the story goes...... my husband has decided to build a "more presentable enclosure" than just screen and aluminum..since it's going to be in our den, he's going to make a wood/screen enclosure. so it will be a little more furniture like...

so it actually hasn't been constructed yet, we're putting together ideas...
he wanted to make the bottom solid wood and i'm thinking it needs to be something more water repellant.....

lisa

 

[cindy28358]

You could always try the plastic rap used to rap gift baskets. I'll be venturing soon into Cham ownership, in the mean time I'm busy setting up my Aquarium for African Cichlids. I'm very picky with what I use and could't find the background I wanted so I just used gift wrap in the color of my choice for the background. I did notice they had the rolls of plastic rap used for gift baskets. That should be large enough.

 

[summoner12]

You could always try the plastic rap used to rap gift baskets. I'll be venturing soon into Cham ownership, in the mean time I'm busy setting up my Aquarium for African Cichlids. I'm very picky with what I use and could't find the background I wanted so I just used gift wrap in the color of my choice for the background. I did notice they had the rolls of plastic rap used for gift baskets. That should be large enough.

You should check out Eco Zone Vivarium. They are a site sponsor and can make custom backgrounds I believe.

 

[ajacobson]

great idea!

That's exactly what I have going on! But my cage isn't as pretty as yours! I took out the plastic bottom of my Reptibreeze and replaced it with screen, then put the walmart drawer underneath it to catch water. Works pretty awesomely thus far!