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!
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