Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise



An update on the front opening cage build in last weeks article Adventures in Herpetology: Happiness & Excellence in the Face of Doom

My go at the second conversion was a disasterville.

Because the front vent glass was not properly aligned—or maybe it slumped a little while the silicone was hardening—the glass doors were slipping out of the track on the right hand side. Ended up having to tear it apart and start over again.

Tinkering around with some 1 inch wide plastic strips I have on hand I came up with an alternative design for the Euro Vent that is a little more stable and easier to build. But with that added on top of the two strips of front glass made it too high for the door panes. Tried sanding them down but that was a glacial process and in the end it was easier to just have a new set cut and save the old one for the next build which is going to be a different type of vent system. A Sherman vent which consists of two glass strips with some square tubing pieces for spacers that is put together separately and put on top of the substrate dam which is also the front glass. I would have done them all that way but for the want of tubing for the spacers which I found this week. But it is what it is.

I’d also consider redoing the first two were it not so much trouble to take apart the glass again. The crooked strip of Vent glass broke yesterday when I carried the tank out of the Florida Room and that was a blessing in disguise as it saved me a lot of effort required to get it off intact a had a few spares on hand.

This is what I came up with using a wood burning pen to make holes in the plastic vent strip. Wanted to cut a rectangular slot the whole way across but that would have been difficult and time consuming so I opted for this. Still better ventilation than an Exo Terra.

Cut the Template used for the first build down to serve as a guide for the guy at the hardware store to size the new set of glass doors.

Was a lovely day in the Room. Sunny 76 degrees!

Have the second tank—now officially a front opening cage—back in place on the platform above the big metal frame vivarium. It’s come a long way since the end of September but still has a way to go before it’s ready for occupants. Going to do a background build and false bottom something like the other vivariums and probably would have done it last night were it not for the want of some insulation board that I’ll try to pick up on the way to work this afternoon.

I also have adhesive aquariums lid handles on order for all four cages plus the coversI made for the center braced 40B tank outside the Room.

And there you have it thus far.

Going to let the second duo sit while I work on these two.

Update Saturday at 2:25 PM

Got the remainder of my material for the build as I rush off to work. I am ready to do the background build now. It will probably start to happen a few days from now when I’m off again.