The inside of my racks and details about them

[Hypnotic]

Today I'd love to show you guys the insides of my 3 racks. These aren't really reptile racks, more like office supply racks/storage racks, also known as drawer cabinets.
The first thing I think of when I hear the word rack, is a breeder, no decoration, a small waterdish and also bad lighting. Well, I wanted to see if I could achieve a great enclosure this way, and by replacing my exo-terra waterdishes, by plastic ones, I feel I've now achieved great enclosures that are a breeze when it comes to maintenance, that actually don't cost that much to create and are a fantastic space saver!

First let's get into some specifics: These enclosures are 14x12x8, cost 24.90$ and house 3 frogs each. (I could stack them even more if I wanted, but I'm not sure the material would hold more then 6 high)
They are heated with a 15 watt heat cables and 3, 15 watt heatmats per rack, giving me a temperature of 80°-82.5° during the day and 74.5°-78.5° at night. My ambient room temperature is between 64.4°-71.5° (alot of terrariums in here)
Now, the plastic tubs you see cost me 1.92$ each, with the big ones being slightly more. Sizes are : 7x4.7x3.1 for the little ones and 11x6.8x3.1 for the big ones.
My smallest males had problems getting out of the tubs, wich is why I put large rocks in them and upside down small exo-terra waterdishes I had lying around. I wassn't happy with my old exo-terra dishes, the shape took up alot of space, they cost me a fortune each and my frogs could never enjoy a nice deep soak. (don't worry, the water isn't too deep!)

Let me tell you about the perks of these enclosures: no more fidgetting around to get your substrate in, they have spacing between each enclosure giving them fantastic ventilation. They literally take minutes to clean! While I'm used to scrubbing 30 minutes on each terrarium alone, I clean and remake these in a good 10 minutes. I've kept a close eye on the ventilation, these don't have holes in the sides, I could drill them, but don't find them necessary.
Oh, before I forget! I realise it seems like all 4 of the enclosures sides are transparent, but only the back and front are. The case they slide into, has jungle paper on the sides, so once they are inside, they only can view out the back and the front. The back is about 2" from the wall, with a TL light attached to it, illuminating all of my enclosures.

The downsides: the top drawer is always slightly warmer then the bottom one, so if the top drawer hits a too high temperature, I will cool the entire enclosure. But the heat difference isn't very big
Because of the waterdishes I use, I'm forced to use a minimum of 2.5" of substrate. I want to allow my frogs easy acces in and out, so if I don't add that much, I'm afraid something could go wrong.
I have tested it and kept an eye on all my frogs entering and exiting. Like I stated above, only my 3 smaller males had problems exiting the dishes, so I added steps.


I also want to mention the following: My females are cramped in a bit tight, only because I gave them bigger waterdishes today, I have a new rack on order wich is 20x15.8x8, wich should be a paradise for them!
Also, the frog in the first picture is my oldest female, and only bothers to show herself for food & the frog in picture 3 was taking a poop during the picture.

I'd love to hear what you guys think about them, and if you think I can still improve some things!

[Skelly98]

I do the same thing, actually. My azureus get their own tank with plants and light, but the african bullfrog lives in a rack where i keep my snakes. The rack has more than enough space atm, but no lighting ( i'm considering this a grow out enclosure for the future when he gets moved to either a forty or a seventy gallon tank, which i already have just sitting there.)

[Hypnotic]

Well, lighting was actually my biggest concern. I realise these animals need a good day and night cycle and actually , I was surprised to see how easy it is to light up an enclosure.
I used to think more space was better, my oldest female lived in a 32x20x20 for about 2 months, untill I realised I was just wasting valuable space and eco-earth.
She litterally burrows in next to her waterdish and doesn't move, ever. While I have some frogs wich are a bit more active, I feel none of them would really require bigger measurements. Besides my females in the current enclosures offcourse.
But, pixies are a different story!

[WorldClassFrogCoddler]

This set up is FANTASTIC! I am DEFINATELY going to follow your method in contructing my own rack.

Please give some more detail about how you achieved the heating and lighting. Pictures would be very helpful as well. Are those silk plants? Looks fantastic and your frogs must be happy with their set up. Good job! Keep it up!

Edited to add, it's obviously working well because all your frogs are chilling in the water, which to me shows they are relaxed and happy.

[Hypnotic]

Sorry but most of them were dropped in the bowls, I always do this after cleaning, to allow them to find their own way. well, the heating is simple for me, I did some measuring and my ambient room temp is always the same, so I went off that. Sometimes it's a little warmer and sometimes a little cooler, just like in the wild. I do keep a close eye on the temps, especially since we had a really warm winter here. But in the summer, I'l most likely unplug the heat cables.
It's not hard, just experiment a little, but make sure not to heat from the bottom.

[WorldClassFrogCoddler]

Thanks for the reply. Let us know how it works out for you. I really dig it. I'm gonna do something similar in a month or two myself.