Vivarium build, from scratch (Photo heavy)

[Barry]

Thought some may be interested in my current project that I'm working on

The project is to design and build a larger vivarium for my Bearded Dragon George

So..

George..



The design..





The start..





Costs of wood ect came to about £90 from B&Q, got a really nice chap that cut all the ply to size for me for free

The glass consists of

2 14"x10" - 4mm (top sides)
2 14"x17" - 4mm (bottom sides)

2 24"x17" - 6mm (doors)
1 47"x10" - 4mm (top front)

All toughened

[Barry]

The basic frame







Cost wise £160 all in is not bad imo considering what you would pay for a 3x2x4 viv (without this amount of glass) then most will pay out 30 - 40 to build the fake wall ect and I have all that factored in to the cost

[Barry]

Glass!



The fake wall background is made from polystyrene.

The victim



The weapon of choice



The result

[Barry]

Did the cutting out for the glass today, the plan was to cut groves all around about 4mm in but after destroying loads of wood cutting discs and creating more smoke then a burning house I gave up on that idea and decided to inset the glass on the outside of the vivarium (this will all be covered with 6mm hardwood plywood anyway)

So anyway

The cut outs



With the glass in place





Groves for the top front panel cut and fitted!



Wall secured in to place and gaps all around the edges filled in and the 2 ledges secured in.

[Barry]

The light fitting for his basking spot





Final glass fit test before I start the tidying up ect



Pipper and George testing it for size!

[razer121]

Nice one, i've always thought about building a new Viv for my Beardy, he is a 8 year old feller and so damn lazy! do you find yours is lazy? and BTW how old is he? pretty small for a male is he not?

Your new Viv looks awesome an im pretty intrested to see where this ends, ive tried the Poly walls....never did get round to finishing it mind! keep us updated!

[Barry]

Hes only 10 months old so plenty of growing left in him and hes far from lazy, done a few fake walls before, my last one I built for a 4ftx18inchx15inch

[chuckskull]

Looking good, like the design. Always liked bearded dragons a mate's dad keeps a few, cool little things. No room myself.

[Zadock]

That is one spoilt bearded dragon

Are you using a combine UV bulb with both wave lengths or seperate ones? They need one for energy and one for metabolising calcium if I remember correctly? I have a albino leopard gecko so nocturnal, she is 5 years old... thinking of building a vivarium myself because I cannot find anything bigger than I have now but not so big it takes up my whole front room!

[Barry]

12% 30w UVB and standard spot for basking/heat

I'm lucky enough to just moved to a new house where the front room is twice the size of my old one so the vivarium won't even make a dent in the size!

[Barry]

Finally got round to grouting



First 2 coats were with floor grout



Then the last 2 coats with tile grout, I noticed after the second coat that the grout contained fungicide but it shouldn't matter since I intend to doing 3 good coats of floor varnish over it all!

Just need to let the last coat dry then clean up/painting starts

[razer121]

What do you use to seal it? its looking super good man, really excited to see this finished

[Barry]

Floor varnish and aquarium silicone sealant

[razer121]

Hm, how is the process? you do it slightly different to how i've read online? sorry im really intrested in this, it's a big learning curve for me aswell, this log is an inspiration!

[neonplanet40]

Looks great mate Love DIY building threads like this

[chris_argyle]

Fantastic build. I think my beardy is getting jealous!