Habitat - Indoor :: Frankie's "new" basking area

[BullDog]

I've been wanting to upgrade Frankie's basking area for a while. Played with a couple ideas, some more complex than others, but decided to KISS would be best.
This was the old basking area:

It was a chopped up plastic basket + some scrap plexi glass. That picture is from when I first built it. It was looking a little more derelict than that now a days

A sheet of egg crate, 60 zip ties, and a blister later, this is the new one:


Took about 3 hours total, maybe pushing 4 hours by the time I cleaned up. It took as much or more time to fit it around the slanted ceiling as it did to build the main structure. If the room didn't have the slanted ceiling, it would have taken probably half as long

Anyhow, it is technically removable. I used the old ramp + basking platform, since they were in fine shape (though probably could have done with a bit of a clean).
The new cage give a little bit more room for Frankie basking, and it's also more secure than the old basket.

Inside:


And this is trying to show how the cage sits on top of the tank:

There is about a 2cm strip that acts as a shelf that sits on the sides of the tank, and about 2cm of egg crate hanging down on the outsides of the tank. Trimmed here and there for the filter output and so it sits on the inside rim across the center of the tank.

It used pretty much the entire sheet of egg crate (4'x2'), plus a little bit of scrap I had.
Egg crate was $12.94+tax (Home Depot).
Zip ties were a pack of 60 for $1 + tax from the dollar store.

The zip ties I have decided are really the best way to go, no waiting for glue to dry, and last longer than glue or silicone.

I have also bought another type of light diffuser that is semi-translucent. I was thinking about doing "windows" with it on 2 sides. I will be putting a layer of it on one side of the cage to act as a bit of a windbreak. In the summer, we like to open the windows to get a cross breeze through the house, so I'll put this light diffuser on the open side of the cage, so it isn't too breezy for her.
This extra piece of light diffuser was $6.50, so the whole thing was less than $22 all told.

Just talking to myself here as much as anything, but I'm thinking I might try replacing the lamp that's holding the UVB with a clip lamp. The lamp it's in right now is a floor lamp that I found in the wal-mart parking lot o_O. It's worked well up until now, but I've got a spare clip lamp now, and I think that might help de-clutter the area a bit.

[penelope]

I really like it. I agree with the KISS approach. I am trying to decide how to build a basking area that works for us.
Yours looks very streamlined and functional.
I like the plastic tie idea...I will keep that in mind.
Thanks for posting your 'improvements'

[Diamondbacks4Life]

I preferred the weird basket thing cut up . Lol jk, much better

[BullDog]

Thanks guys
I added the piece of plastic light diffuser to the "open" side of the basking area, and got a new lamp for the UVB (yay )

Right now the plastic is just held in place by the ends of the zip ties. If I find it's falling down, I'll do a more permanent solution.

And a whole tank shot, since the tank was looking nice and clean

Don't mind the cords hanging in the background, like I said, I got a new lamp, and I forgot to organize the cords before I took a pic.

Frankie:

"Are you done yet? Can I start basking now?"

[steve]

I like the upgrade a lot. What about using reflective mirror foil, that way you can look in but she only sees her reflection?

[BullDog]

Never thought of that! That'd sure be neat. Actually, I've never seen that in my wanderings... I just happened to see this plastic stuff next to the egg crate and thought, "Hey, that might somehow into my basking area..."

She was checking out the new basking area pretty seriously this morning from the safety of the ramp.... "Hmm... I don't know, looks kind of different up there!"
I was thinking about adding a piece of the plastic to the back sides of the cage, just so it looks more "solid" to her.

[steve]

Couldn't hurt... maybe some more plastic plants?

[penelope]

I wandered the hardware store and Wal-mart for inspiration. I wound up getting a crate at Wal-mart and Window Tint at the hardware store. I adhered the tint to the inside of the crate because it is smooth and will prevent her trying to use the crate to escape. It wound up looking like a backwards peeping-tom thing. I can see her, but she can't see me --- well, in theory ---I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but it looks good.

[2_red_ears]

Great idea! How do fasten the ramp at the correct degree so Frankie can easily climb up?

[Sierrradawn]

What size tank do you have and what did you do/use to make the ramp?

[BullDog]

Might be a bit late to answer 2_red_ears, but the ramp was attached with zip ties at an angle I thought seemed good, and reinforced (Frankie is a big girl) with a bit of plastic tubing tied around one side of the rap and around the walls of the basking area.

Sierradawn - It's a 90 gallon tank. It was made with eggcrate and zip ties. There's a few pics on this old thread:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24703

It's funny this thread should pop up now... I've been racking my brain recently what I can do to slow Frankie's decent down the ramp. Most of the time, she's able to "hang on" and go for a controlled decent down the ramp. But sometimes, she goes down with just half her body on the ramp, and so goes shooting into the tank and goes *clunk* on the walls of the tank.