Drainage hole in Zoo Med Terrarium

[MikeM670]

Another newbie question. All of you must just love us!!!!!

This question is for those whe use the Zoo Med Naturalistic Terrarium, 18in. x 18in. x 24in and removing excess water from the enclouser. Do you manually remove the water or has anyone drilled the glass to provide a access hole for a drainage line? I'm very interested in adding a drainage line since I would like to add a automatic mister.

Mike

[HatchettUK]

I may be wrong, as I too am new to all of this. But I think that this is what a 'false bottom' is for

Regards

[MikeM670]

I may be wrong, as I too am new to all of this. But I think that this is what a 'false bottom' is for

Regards

Yes there will be a false bottom but depending on the amount of misting you do that level can get too high. I just want to make it easier on myself with a drain.

[HatchettUK]

Ah i see

Well, I can't see there being any problems with installing a drain fo some sort, sounds like a good idea to be honest!

Hopefully a more experienced member will chime in

Regards

[UncleChester]

If you (or someone you know) has the tools and ability to drill glass, then I don't see a problem. You'd want to make sure the glass isn't tempered, as that's apparently much trickier to drill (I have no glass drilling experience myself).

With no drain, you can stick a short piece of pvc tubing down to the bottom layer and poking above the substrate. Then you always have easy access to put a flexible hose down to drain excess water. Put a removable cap on the pvc tube so crickets and other feeders can't go down to drown.

[MikeM670]

Yes if its tempered glass that is pretty hard to do. I can get the diamond drill bits to do the holes and have read up on it for installing bulkheads for aquarium use. Wonder if Zoo Med will provide that information.

[bshmerlie]

I'll bet good money that it is not tempered. The tempering process would increase the cost to manufacture and it would only be done as a safety precaution if they were worried someone might slam their face into it. So logically it would not be tempered.

[UncleChester]

I agree it's most likely not tempered. I have heard of the bottom panels of some aquariums being made of tempered glass, and being wrong makes a nice mess, so the paranoia in me would want to make sure.

[MikeM670]

When I go to the local petstore and look at the display of new tanks you can see the warning sticker about tempered glass on the bottom glass pane. What I always wondered was did this warning just apply to the bottom one. I e-mailed Zoo Med with my question so hopefully they will respond.

Mike

[MikeM670]

I received a reply to my email.

"The glass in the Naturalistic Terrarium is not tempered and can be carefully drilled."

This is good news for those wanting to add a drainage line to their terrariums.

Mike

[J Teezy]

this is an old topic but I'll add my experience to it. I drilled a hole in a 10 gallon vertical for the same thing as a drainage. I used a 3/4" bulkhead which required a 1.5" hole. The bit i used was from glass-holes.com. I also drilled holes in the top for a mist nozzle and for wires of my temp / humidity probes to go in. I had to drill a 3/4" hole to allow the sensor of the exo terra temp / humidity to fit in. The mister's hole was a 5/8" hole.

Some quick things to make drilling glass easier

Use a template / guide hole or some kind of guide for drilling the hole to keep the bit from skipping around when you first start drilling

Don't push on the drill, let gravity and the weight of the drill do the work

Keep the bit cool by using plumber's putty and water or my favorite method a garden hose with constant water running over the drill bit and surface area of the glass

Take your time, glass drilling is a slow process to be done right as you are not drilling it like it was wood, you are actually grinding the glass away