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Building a Vivarium for a Corn

N

northampton_mat

New member
I am considering building my own viv, it would be nice to build a smaller one first, but I am really looking for a 4ft and not having much response to my wanted ads. What considerations are there when building Vivs?

I would use laminated contiboard, or is MDF ok? What about for the back, contiboard again or thinish mdf?

Do the edges need to be sealed? Silicone sealent? Special sealent from a retile shop?

How do you put it all together, dowels and glue? or just glue & screws?

What are the other features needed incase i forget any! Standard light bulb holder, vents.....second bulb holder for a 'red light'?

And then on top of those costs, there's the heat mat, thermometer, water bowl, hides, branches....

Anything i'm missing, or any important points I may not be aware of please let me know.

Cheers

Matt
 
I wouldn't use M.D.F. this stuff sucks water in easily.
Are you making a glass sliding front type. If so I would put air vents into the sides and the top. Best if you put a vent low down on one side and high up on the other.
Use sylicon sealant into all joints and seames.
Heat mat should only take up half of the tank.
Build tank then have the glass cut after wards, very frustrating if you build a nice viv and the glass don't fit.
Everything else you have said sounds right.
 
We use contiboard for making our vivs and either hardboard or 6mm MDF for the backing,we use adjustable vents on the top and bottom of the backing so the thickness of the MDF allows for the screws.With the hardboard backing it has to be some type of mesh or gauze vents that you use as it has to be silicone sealed on from the outside.
We use the sealant you can get from tropical fish shops,in my opinion its the only stuff to use,give it a day or two after sealing to put any animals in to allow for the fumes to die down and try not to breath too much of it in yourself,its awful stuff.
We hold our vivs together with just screws but you can use the blocks as well that you can put on the inside of the vivs to give a little extra support for the larger viv sizes.
We heat ours with basking bulbs,so buy the light fittings from B&Q for a couple of quid and a cage for the bulb which we make ourselves and a dimming stat and the vents also from B&Q,plus as you said hides,water bowl,etc.Plus runners for the glass which you can get from places like B&Q and Focus or some hardware stores do them(a lot cheaper!)
And as fatso said don't order the glass until the viv is ready to go,when you have the runners fitted(have a thicker depth one for the top and thinner for the bottom and sides) measure from the top of the top runner to the top of the bottom runner and that should be your height of the glass.
If you check out Homebase at the moment they have their contiboard at half price...about a tenner for an 8ft x 2ft sheet and they also cut it for you!
Hope that helps a little!

;)
 
thanks fatso and gina, thats most helpful

have just been down B&Q actually, they only had white conti :( but will look in homebase during the week. Blocks are a good idea, I hadn't though of that, and yes I was going to get the store to cut the wood for me to get good edges. Never saw the glass runners anywhere though?

Am going to phone a couple of places tommorrow for glass quotes, for a 4ft and a 2ft viv. Will just use estimate sizes.

Problem is if I build a little on to start with then i'll have to get a little snake too!

Matt
 
They're really easy to make...honestly.Big one or small one,it wouldn't really make any difference.
Our glaziers would charge around £15 for glass for a 4 x 2.Make sure you ask for 4mm (float glass)with polished edges,unless of course you want to use 6mm,but 4mm is fine,thats what most people use unless its for iggys and the larger snakes then you need it slightly thicker.:)
 
Just trying to work out a price list

Wood - ~£15
Glass - ~£15
Heat mat - £15
2 Thermometers - £5
Lock - £5
Light/fitting - £3
Vents - ~£5 ???
Sealent - £5 ???
glue/screws/dowel/blocks - ~£5

So thats £73 for s 48x21x21 Viv, not bad compared to shop prices, but still a bit over my budget, and i'd really want that in Pine/Beech laminate conti. Plus then the costs substrate, water bowl, hides, branches......

The conti in B&Q was 21" wide, it looked a bit better that the 24", I think 24" may be a bit to deep. It's only gonna be for a 3-4ft snake.

Matt

PS: BTW whats 'Float Glass'??
 
Float glass is just what the glaziers refer to it as,i'm not sure why,we never ask for float glass just 4mm with polished edges but it always says float glass on the receipt!
If its for a corn,we keep all ours seperate and they all have 3ft x 18" x 18" vivs no matter what size they are(from babies to adulthood)
Homebase have allsorts of colours,we got beech effect,its kinda like pine but a little lighter,they also have pine and limed oak,which is quite nice.
 
You use a 3ft viv for a 4ft+ snake? Is that not a problem?

36x18" would certainly be more practical than the huge volume of a 48x21. Thats actually reassuring as i've seen a few 36x18 vivs and worried they may not be suitable if I got a snake too big.

Matt
 
We have actually been told that a 3ft x 18" x18" is suitable for a pair of adult corns (was told that by HawgnHerp in Leicester)although i wouldn't go that far,our adult anery is quite snug in his viv and i wouldn't want to add another but he's fine on his own,we do have a 3x2x2 which houses our snow corn but thats purely because we used to have 2 in there and have recently split all our corns,but a 3ft x 18" x 18" is fine for one,i did a lot of asking round before selecting a size to build for them all and that was the size i was recommended by several different people.:) But do whatever size feels comfortable for you.:)
 
I built this viv for my spotted pythons.
It is made of 20mm block board, with 3 coats of exterior varnish.
The runners are as Gina says from B&Q. But they are 6mm runners. So I had 6mm toughened glass cut for it.
In this viv there is a spotlight shinning onto a shelf, and a heat mat at the bottom both on the same side of the viv.
 

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That is a very nice set-up fatso - congratulations!

How long did you have to wait for the varnish to stop smelling before you could move the snakes in?

Thanks, Skye
 
I built it in the spring when I could put the pythons in my cornsnake building, so I varnished it in about April. Then the wife wanted to redecorate the living room, so I left the Pythons in the cornsnake building until I brumated the corns in early Oct. So the varnish had a very long time to dry out completely.

I had one surprize about this setup.I keep all of my other snakes on heat mats and prase them up as most people say that a snake needs belly heat to properly digest there food and to thermoregulate, but the temp under the spot light and the temp. on top of the substate over the heat mat are the same, the snakes in this set up spend most of there warm up time under the spot light.:confused:
 
I have always said that most corns can and do bask given the opportunity. The light shines on the ground, and warms the ground - the corns lie on the warm ground and get belly heat and also get the warming rays on their backs. I use basking lights for all my adult corns. I can't speak for other species of snakes though.

Skye
 
thanks everyone for the advice, looks like i'm now after a 36x18 viv, this is much more practical for me!

Looking in ScrewFix tonight they do really nice spot light units for less than £3, it would almost flush with the top of the viv, but would leave a largish unit sticking out the top, plus the cost of a hole cutter drill for the 70mm cut! The adjustable brick vents looked good though for about 60p!

Can you get basic batten holders for SES bulbs? or Spots in Bayonet Cap??

Anyway if i'm using 1 light fitting for the heat (~40w), is it worth fitting a second for a coloured light, say 25W Red?? And if so where should this be positioned, near hot end or central?

Will go down to Homebase one lucnhtime next week for a revised pricelist!

Matt
 
Sorry the main reason for posting the pic.(I lost track last night) was to show that you MUST put a guard of some description around the lights.:eek:
All lighting or heating should be on one side (the warm end)LOL
 
Perfect!

Am planning for two lamp holders wired into a dual dimmer set into a box screwd to the side.

Phoned a couple of glass places today, it is going to cost £17 for the glass for a 36x18, and thats assuming a 4" high wood strip across the bottom/front, so glass around 18x14 each, would finalise sizes after the wood construction to get a good 2-3 inches overlap in the middle.

Tommorrow lunchtime, Homebase!

Matt
 
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