New R. Brev enclosure

[Heika]

I had hoped that the two males in my large tank would get used to each other after a while, but that never happened. I wanted a glass tank that would fit in the space under the 65 gallon, but it was a weird size because the stand is split down the middle. After being shocked by a couple quotes from the two glass places in town, I decided to build one out of melamine and plexiglass. Considering that I am not much of a builder, I am happy with it! Hopefully, it is waterproof. I smeared enough silicone in it to seal 30 bathrooms. The hardest part was cutting the plexiglass. The people at home depot made it sound easy, and sold me this handy dandy little tool that you were supposed to use to cut the plastic and then break it on the cut. Yup, didn't work. Luckily, there was enough plexiglass left over to make the front and door, and I used the rotozip to cut it after my first mishap. I used cork as a background in this one because I didn't want to take up any extra space with a foam background. Overall size is around 35 or 40 gallons, I guess, because I made it really deep. Anyhow.. here it is.

And some of the new residents:

 

[Jerm]

Sweet..

Heika,
I had an idea almost identical to the design of your enclosure. Nice work on the setup! I'm sure that your brevs are lovin it. What type of substrate do you use?

Jerm

 

[Will Hayward]

Looks great. I couldn't quite imagine what it was looking like when you described it to me when we were chatting, but I like how you made the whole front Plexiglass. How about a shot of the two enclosures together.

 

[Heika]

Heika,
I had an idea almost identical to the design of your enclosure. Nice work on the setup! I'm sure that your brevs are lovin it. What type of substrate do you use?

Jerm

Thanks! Bottom layer is aquarium gravel. I used hydroton on the big tank, but I had to order it from Black Jungle because I couldn't find any locally. The price of it isn't bad at all, but the shipping cost was horrid, so I decided to switch this time. Next layer is seperated by a piece of fiberglass screen, and then charcoal. Then, another piece of screen. The next layer is a mixture of coco fiber bedding, pumice crumbles, and organic soil. Then, crumbled leaves that I baked for about a half an hour.. then whole leaves that were also baked. Kinda like making Lasagna! I used this article by Roo as a reference when I put them together.

Looks great. I couldn't quite imagine what it was looking like when you described it to me when we were chatting, but I like how you made the whole front Plexiglass. How about a shot of the two enclosures together.

Thanks Will! I am pretty happy with it. The plexiglass cuts could have been a bit straighter. I got better at it as I went along, so maybe the next one will almost look professional! (Somehow, I doubt it..) If this one works out all right, my plan is to build another one for the other hole. For now, it is storing crickets in a 10 gallon and "stuff". The big tank needs to have the minerals scraped off the glass, so it isn't looking its best. I will do it sometime soon... Here is a pic...