6*2*3ft desert viv with fake ceiling and fake rock wall: picturelog

[Massis]

What better way of introducing myself than with a complete build log of my first vivarium?

This build is for a Bearded dragon, Daku, who's been living it it for a few months now.
The tank itself is 140*50*75cm (equals about 55" x 19.5" x 29.5"), built out of waterproof plywood, 6mm glass doors and a fake ceiling.

Total cost for this project was around €800 (950USD), but that includes all electronics and tools (saws, drillbits, a dremel multi tool, ...)


The thermostats I got for free from a guy I know who has tons of these at his company (which he owns)



So off to a start: the wood arrived


first side attached


...pre drilled...


2nd side attached


and the back wall in


part 2

Went to work with styrofoam, expanding foam and slate rocks


stationary cave with removable top:


overview with 2 tubes which will be used to pass the thermostat probes into the tank



layout:
- left side is cave
- middle will be filled with slate tiles
- right side is a sandbox
- platform will be plain grout



a few close ups




part 3: finishing touches and grouting





















started the fake ceiling



since the entire UVB attachment was to tall to my likings (10cm), i cut off the feet and attached them to the underside with the light, and put the rest on top of the fake ceiling, out of sight. This reduced the height of the light to 4cm, removing it from sight.






fake ceiling includes:
- 3x 50W halogen spot on dimmer, timer and thermostat
- 1x 60W ceramic heater on thermostat
- 1x 120cm reptisun 10.0 UVB TL on timer and on/off switch
- 3x moonlight led (set by lucky reptile) on timer
- lots of cables (they have been organised by now)




Then I added the 2 front panels (top and bottom) with ventilation in the bottom one, and added the real ceiling which hase the same ventilation:


The colour in that image was a try out, which failed miserably (got pretty gay pink instead of dark reddish terracotta...)

so back to grey it was:


After this I covered the entire thing in yacht varnish. this not only made the entire thing glossy (it said matte finish!!!) but it also reacted with the black colourant in the grout, giving it a strange look. luckely enough I kinda like it



I also put in a real plant, a basking log, 25lbs of white playsand, the removable cover for his cave and his feeding dish.





switches & thermostats (upper one controls daytime halogen spots, lower one controls backup temperature with 60W heater)





one of the thermostat probes coming out of the tubes built into the back wall:


nighttime lighting:



the finished product



inhabitant the first day: (20th September 2009)


same inhabitant 2 months later: (19th November 2009)


he's gone from 25.5cm and 43 grams on 12th Sept 2009 to 43.5cm and 255 grams on 19th November 2009!!

[Deacon240]

Great build!

[froggsong]

Very Nice! I love the way the outside of yours looks. You should see my ghetto tank, lol... I built mine out of scrap plywood and moving crates! It cost me maybe 50 bucks all together, lol, 20 of that for the fluorescent lighting, which I'm not even happy with. I didn't think to build a false ceiling for it like you did. I wish I had! I may have to add one. I don't like that he can potentially get on the lights and get burned, plus they eat about 6 inches vertical space of the top of the enclosure.

Anyway! Good job! I really like it. I think it would have looked better with a terra cotta colored grout though... Too bad it came out too pink!

[Agamidae Architect]

Hey i know you said you got those thermostats for free from a friend, does his company sell them? The ones ive found are really expensive.

[Emily]

That's fantastic! I'm finishing up my bearded dragons' 4'x2' fake rock wall this weekend.

I love what you did with the light/heat setup. I feel all ghetto w/ my dome lights now.

And yes, I feel your pain. When I did a fake rock wall for my leopard gecko, I discovered that "semi gloss" polyurethane actually means "really freaking shiny"!

[Massis]

thanks for the response guys!

Originally Posted by Agamidae Architect

Hey i know you said you got those thermostats for free from a friend, does his company sell them? The ones ive found are really expensive.

€80 a piece... (that's 120USD)

if you need a decent thermostat => thermocontrol pro II, I've heard nothing but good stuff about it!

[Pavel]

Very nice! I am impressed!

[froggsong]

As far as thermostats go, sometimes you can find waterbed thermostats on craigslist or freecycle for free or super cheap. It might not be the prettiest, but those are generally pretty accurate, that said, I have not tried to use one for a tank yet, just because I haven't come across anyone getting rid of just the heater parts.

[beckdg]

daku... looks reeeeeeeaally happy! good build!