DIY Viv stack - how suitable is this plan?

[jovamabob]

I have my 28" corn (who is very small for his age) living in a glass tank at the moment which gets too humid and looses heat far too fast in a very cold house. I can't afford a wooden viv, but i have been offered a spare bookcase that would be an ideal project, but i wanted to check its dimensions and my plans out first,
It is: 34 H x 36 L x 9 D. It has 3 shelves and each have individual sliding glass doors.

This is the unit at the moment:

I know its not incredibly deep so i wanted to cut a 10cm2 hole into the bottom of the top shelf so that the top and middle ones are joined into one multi level viv and put a ramp to connect the two. That way he has enough room for exercise and he does spend a lot of time outta the viv anyway. I'd use the bottom one for my baby corn. I'd ideally heat all 3 levels them with heat cable purely for ease of the awkward dimensions which would be controlled by a thermostat. I already use heat cable in a rack system and love it. Id put the cable directly in the viv but underneath a linoleum substrate. I'd secure the lino using screws - i've done this before and its worked. The edges/corners will be sealed with clear aquarium sealant. I'd put vents along the back wall (standard viv vents) and cut a grommet hole for the cable. I dont often use lights in my vivs since they're in sunny places, but i may use an undercabinet fluorescent if they're too dark.


Would this be an okay solution? My corn is a fair smaller than the length of the unit at 2 years and i'd be willing to relocate the baby (4 months) the moment he's too big for it.

 

[epicdoom]

I think it would be fine the depth is rather shallow but as long as he has room to stretch out I think it will be just fine. I would cut the shelves for sure and you could use nearly any long item like a stick, baked tree branch for him to climb to others levels. I built something like this for my brother using an old gun cabinet. I installed 3 shelves and a long climbing branch so his snake could access any of the levels. On the top and bottom levels I put a heat pads dimmer controlled. this allowed him to control hot and cool areas during the winter. later I cut a hole and installed a small muffin fan for summer time to keep the viv at the proper temp. I wired it to a thermostat so it cycles on and off as needed.

 

[jovamabob]

Started getting my stuff together for this today - got the vents and such, just gotta wait till tomorrow to start fixing it up

Quick question, Im using heat cable underneath lino - For the two-tier enclosure would i be best heating the entire of one tier and none of the upper tier, or should i heat half of both?

 

[epicdoom]

I would actually only heat on tier you have to give your snake a place to go to escape the heat so he can regulate his temp. he will move about as needed. I would maybe do a section of the shelf as apposed to the whole shelf maybe 1/3

 

[jovamabob]

Started doing this today - took some photos for it

I only had a 99p junior hacksaw, jab saw, electronic screwdriver, sheer stubbornness and the desire to not waste a perfectly good book-case so i think it came out not too bad thus far!

I needed to cut out the hole for connecting the two tiers but the wood was so thick, the only way to do it was to take of the back and saw into the back of the shelf. Of course all the screws were old and rusted so half of them had to be forced out. Managed to get all but the ones along the bottom out and it was flexible enough that i could prop the backing to one side with a tub of washing powder and get in to work. Used the hacksaw to cut out the section i needed then fixed the back on with some new screws.

Used the jab saw to cut out the holes for the vents - its very thin wood board and most of it will be hidden by the vent, so i decided neatness/accuracy was not required here, thank god. I picked up some Louvre vents with fly-screens to prevent escapee's which seem to be able to do the job. Just gotta get some no more nails to fix them onto the actual board since its so thin it can't take screws.

All i need to do now is get some sealant to seal up the edges and to fill a tiny gap in the backing that links the two separate enclosures. Then i just have to glue on the vents, order the heat cable so i can add that in and then fix down the cage-carpet/lino. I can do all that in a few hours, so im almost done! Made a huge mess of the back room though, and insisted the boyfriend was not allowed to help (which resulted in me getting about a gazillion splinters and a busted thumb!) Beyond that, its just decorating the enclosures. Im thinking forest effects

 

[jovamabob]

Finally got all the stuff together to finish this today and i have a quick question. Laid out the heat cable to see where im gonna route it and i have 2 options:

Option 1: Heat both tiers as if they were separate enclosures and heat them both as normal.

Option 2: Heat just the middle tier and have a entirely heated section and an entirely cool section.

The second option is probably easier to route since i dont need to make as many holes in the back, but i'll do whatevers best. I was thinking that since he got an RI with using aspen, i'll switch to the reptibark and have half of the heated section bedded, and half of the cool section bedded. The non bedded sections are gonna have slate/ceramic tiles and all the temperature sections will have hides that are filled with shredded kitchen roll instead of the bark.

I played around with some of the tiles today and thought i'd show you.

Let Sebby explore a little - he's in shed but still had a nosy round He seems to fit in it very well, even with his recent major growth spurt

 

[yojoe05]

Looks like a great base plan to start with. Like epic said it's a little shallow but I think with the 36 inch length that would compensate for it well enough.