Thursday, March 14, 2013

Building my Own Tank: Planning Ahead

I've been swamped with work lately, so forgive the lack of posts!  I was hoping / thought I had posted at least once last month, but with reading week blues and formal labs to hand in, I just didn't get the time.

I've haven't been busy, but my mind has.  I've decided I will (eventually!) build my own tank.  I feel as though I'll make a ball python habitat first and work from there.  It would be a fair-sized build, but not the biggest I'd like to do.

It's not the first time I've thought about, but it is the first time I've actually looked into products, made plans, and generally put more than an evening's worth of thought into it.  I'll post my plans in the days to come, as it's a little late tonight to start playing around with SketchUp.  I've fleshed them out in 3D, so I can get a real feel for the size.

Looking into some materials, I've come to the conclusion that I will be spending approximately 300.00$ on this, and that's without actually calculating how much wood I'll need, or the price of sliding glass doors.  Everything looks like it costs relatively little, but it adds up so fast!

I'll need screening, ventilation, locks, hinges, doors, and wood, not tomention any coating I want to apply for protection and finish.  Plus tools.

Maybe more like 500.00$, but it will be nice, sturdy and able to hold temperature. I'll be quite happy with it.  I won't pick on anyone in particular, but some of the ideas I saw online looked really cheaply done.  My tanks are as much an esthetic part of my environment as they are a self-contained habitat for my animals.  I also believe anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

I'm also looking into what kind of product I should use. Right now, I'm basically designing a box that can act as a piece of durable furniture as well!  I am hoping to be able to stack it one day, so I want to make sure the weight will be supported.

In the meanwhile, some nice examples of custom built habitats can be seen from Vivexotics.