Habitat - Indoor

Oh I see. Very cool.

Good luck with construction!

Looks great so far!

I'm excited to get it finished up. I was only able to get the sliding door track in tan, which was kind of a bummer. I might try that plastic spraypaint on it and paint it black. I'm also looking for knobs for the plexiglass doors. I think I would like to use acrylic knobs, but when you add the cost of cement and applicators it starts to get expensive. Maybe I will just drill holes and use screw on knobs. I was also bummed when I realized my eggcrate is 45" and not 48", so I will need to use 2 pieces for the lid.

So I finally found a good supply of driftwood from one of our local lakes. This is the first attempt. I plan to do a couple things different to improve it. I'm gonna make a build thread in the indoor habitat section for this project. Tell me what you guys and gals think;)

That's cool. Do you have to worry about him getting out?

oh no it is not next to the walls

So I got the track for the sliding doors installed today, but unfortunately I screwed up the measurements and the doors were cut wrong. I'll get that sorted out tomorrow. The tiles that will make up the floor are in, I have the lid cut to size, and I put a couple handles on the sides to make it easier to put on / take off. I should get it in place tomorrow...

slider_keeper wrote:oh no it is not next to the walls

Oh ok. Maybe it was just the angle of the shot. Very cool.

Very nice liamlunchtray.

I really like it. Handles were a nice touch.

Here we go - All up and running. I still want to pretty up the ATBA with some decorations to make it a little more land like. The floor is faux slate and I used JB Water Weld to attach the ramp to the bottom of the tile. After I took this shot I moved the decorations in the aquarium over to the left side of the tank to give him more room to get onto the ramp. One of my big concerns was lighting the water, so the rear wall of the ATBA is about 3" forward of the back of the tank. I have a couple cheap 18" flourescent lights back there that light up the water. So far so good. Sammy has gone up and down his ramp about 10 times in the last hour, so all seems well.

Very cool! I would assume you have a huge canister filter. How are you getting the into the setup? Did you cut a hole in your awesome ATBA? Sammy looks like he'll have lots of fun in there.

I have a Rena xp3. Seems to be doing a great job so far. The back wall of the ATBA is about 3" forward of the back wall of the aquarium, so there is room for light fixtures as well as the filter in/out. I wrestled with the issue of how to light the water as well as have a full width enclosure for a while - I think this works well. And I love the sliding doors because I dont have to move lights or anything to access the tank.

Ah I see. Very neat. Especially if it doesn't make life more difficult.

I'm not sure if this has been already covered or not, but I was having a really hard time getting plexiglas to snap clean after scoring it. After a few failed attempts I tried cutting with a jig saw and found that after about 3-4" it would melt. I then had my son stand by with a spray bottle full of water and has him spray the blade every few seconds. It worked great and gave a very smooth cut. Smoother even than the pieces I had cut at Lowes. After we cut the ramp out I used the propane torch to flame polish the edges and now they are crystal clear. I was really surprised at how well it worked.

Here is my new basking/nesting area it is not finished yet I plan on making the wood look nicer not sure how yet ( suggestions? ). I am also going to put some astroturff on the ramp to make climbing easier and to help remove some of the dirt/sand mix from Frankie while she is climbing out.

Habitat - Indoor :: POST YOUR BASKING AREA PICTURES HERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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