My first DIY 3unit display viv!

i sanded the inside pieces and applied the Kilz primer and a clear top coat by Krylon. I then sealed the edges with silicone. i gave it a good spray down with that bleach water mix that's floating around here on the boards somewhere and its proved waterproof. Now if you have snakes that are prone to tipping over their water dishes, I'm not sure how it would withstand to pool of water sitting on it until you noticed it. the primer is a waterbased latex.

hopefully that answers the question you had.

It did! Thanks so much...Im starting on mine soon.

glad i could help!!!

can't wait to see pictures of your finished product when you're done! =]

blueturtle said:

The bottom unit is being used as storage until this summer. I'm looking for a 1.0 Ghost stripe.

In case anyone was wondering, I finally found aspen at Walmart by the brand of AlphaPet. They only have the smaller bags of 1500cu in for about $3-4 but I like the quality. I haven't noticed dust with the exception of the end of the bag much like the Kaytee I was using. It also seems to be shredded small pieces. Looks kind of like the ZooMed snake bedding. Nice and fluffy. The package states that it's laboratory quality. I wish I could have found a co-op store near me to buy the big bales for cheap but this will do until then.

So what do you think?

Thanks for looking!

-Aida

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What amazing setup! I wish I were brave enough to do something like that. I use the Aspen you mentioned. I always freeze mine for 2 weeks to kill off any possible bugs. I got that habit from when I used to raise gerbils. Never found that exact brand larger than that though. Had to use an old blender to shred the big flakes from petsmart finer. Never turned out as nice as this stuff though so I buy the smaller package like you.

What does 1.0 mean when you talk about the ghost you are looking for?

Kathy

geiniandkathy said:

What amazing setup! I wish I were brave enough to do something like that. I use the Aspen you mentioned. I always freeze mine for 2 weeks to kill off any possible bugs. I got that habit from when I used to raise gerbils. Never found that exact brand larger than that though. Had to use an old blender to shred the big flakes from petsmart finer. Never turned out as nice as this stuff though so I buy the smaller package like you.

What does 1.0 mean when you talk about the ghost you are looking for?

Kathy

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1.0 means a male. 0.1 would mean a female. and 0.0.1 would mean unknown sex.

Nice work! It looks great, and the snakes look wonderful in it. It'll be perfect when you find that ghost!

Thank you!! I'm really happy with how it turned out. I was scared I was going to fail. lol

Hey, I have a question for you. I am building mine which is basically just like yours but am running into a problem....at the bottom where you have your hinges, is that silicone in your pic? I dont have hatchlings, but now that Ive put mine together Im afraid someone will push on the bottom acrylic and sneak out. Did you silicone the slit between the plexi and that ledge?

JustineNYC said:

Hey, I have a question for you. I am building mine which is basically just like yours but am running into a problem....at the bottom where you have your hinges, is that silicone in your pic? I dont have hatchlings, but now that Ive put mine together Im afraid someone will push on the bottom acrylic and sneak out. Did you silicone the slit between the plexi and that ledge?

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Let me see if I can explain it good.

On the bottom of each door, I have 3 hinges. You do see silicone at the bottom but that is silicone that is attached to the dam to keep it in place. I didn't place any silicone between the slit of the plexi and viv ledge. When the door is closed, the acrylic bottom sits nearly flush against the floor. there's only enough space for a fingernail tip to slide in. Now my dam is spaced a bit away from the door to allow room for the nut and bolt. The space barely lets Alcy my 100g snake fit her head in the gap. It doesn't leave her any room to push against the acrylic to flare out the bottom between the hinges. Even if there was enough room for her to push, the acrylic wouldn't give her enough slack to slip out.

I'm not sure if your doors will end up the way mine did but if you think they'll be able to flare out the plexi between the hinges, I would just put a couple of those screen clips on the bottom between the hinges. Though, if your acrylic is 1/4in thick, i doubt that they'd be able to flare it if you used 3 hinges, maybe if you only used 2.

Here are 2 pictures to help with my explanation. The first is a closeup of the door closed. You can kind of make out the edge of the door next to the hinge.
Second picture is a close up of the door opened to show that there's no silicone other than on the dam. Hope this helped! =]

Ah ok I see what you did. I only used 2 hinges, and there is a space between my ledge and my plexi that Im going to try and fill today, maybe with some sort of rubber, and then Ill silicone that slit and clip it.

Im UBBER paranoid of escapes. I think Im going to use another clip down there instead of adding a 3rd hinge cause Id have to take it apart.

TY for your explanation!

BTW- If someone gets there butt between my ledge and the pleix enough to push it, its not so much an escape as it is, getting a head out and getting stuck there in that position.

hahaha yea, i think if my snakes managed to push it out enough to stick their head through, they'd probably end up cutting themselves, for one, and choking themselves, for two.

I figure if I can't push it, they cant. These are snakes who NEVER come out mind you LOL

Someone on here had an awful story with one of those sliding glass door vivs, where they walked into the room and the snake had gotten its head and neck out between the space between the glass and was kind of dangling. They had to remove the doors to free it.

Great vivs

I have been looking at my bookcases wondering how I could use them to make vivs.. Great job. and also to the original by blueapplepaste. Thanks for the info.

Thank you! Glad my first attempt was successful enough to help some people out.

Wow! I love the set up. Very beautiful!

Okeetee_Corn_Snakes said:

Wow! I love the set up. Very beautiful!

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Thank you so much!!

Very nice. If I were a snake, I'd be happy to live at your place.

Very nice setup!! Great job :0)

Now I'm going to have to scan craigs list to see what kind of book case I can find. That is an awesome job and something I've been wanting to do for my snakes. Thanks for the pics and the detailed explanation on how you achieved it.