I have an iguana and plan on building a cage for him soon. I really like the cages here http://jworlds.net/unit45.html but don't want to spend $4-$5k for one. I'm wanting to build a tropical cage with a partial land bottom but mostly aquatic. They cage is for my iguana and I would like to have my two turtles in the bottom. I have a Fluval 405 canister filter that I would house inside the land part. I've asked about on reptile forums but it seems that the bottom is more akin to an aquarium so I found myself here. I plan on placing a drain in the bottom of the tank for easy drainage.I've included a rough draft.
The grey square will be an access panel to the canister filter. Which I can pull out anytime I need to. The tubing to the filter seals shut when I go to remove it to clean the filter, but I may need to add another valve on the opposite end so I can pull out the tubing to clean them out too. The grey lines are a possible outline to the pieces of glass/acrylic. I haven't decided which I ought to use. Different types of bulbs up top, I think I want the fixtures hidden away up their which would also give me room for all the wires. Not sure how I'll manage the logs. Not shown are the vents and the drain for the water and not everything to scale. Ideally, I'll need to disassemble this cage when I move in a few years. The glass/acrylic holding in the water really will only be on the front side but I am considering trying to on the right side as well. Their will be glass/acrylic up top as well but none of that needs to hold in water so it isn't as big of a concern. I'm thinking that the dimensions for the actual water will be around 30" wide X 18" tall X 36" long at the top, possibly as low as 24" at the bottom. I'm open to adjusting these measurements. I'm not sure how many gallons this will total. Whether to use glass or acrylic, or how thick it needs to be. So really I'm looking for any sorts of tips.
The grey square will be an access panel to the canister filter. Which I can pull out anytime I need to. The tubing to the filter seals shut when I go to remove it to clean the filter, but I may need to add another valve on the opposite end so I can pull out the tubing to clean them out too. The grey lines are a possible outline to the pieces of glass/acrylic. I haven't decided which I ought to use. Different types of bulbs up top, I think I want the fixtures hidden away up their which would also give me room for all the wires. Not sure how I'll manage the logs. Not shown are the vents and the drain for the water and not everything to scale. Ideally, I'll need to disassemble this cage when I move in a few years. The glass/acrylic holding in the water really will only be on the front side but I am considering trying to on the right side as well. Their will be glass/acrylic up top as well but none of that needs to hold in water so it isn't as big of a concern. I'm thinking that the dimensions for the actual water will be around 30" wide X 18" tall X 36" long at the top, possibly as low as 24" at the bottom. I'm open to adjusting these measurements. I'm not sure how many gallons this will total. Whether to use glass or acrylic, or how thick it needs to be. So really I'm looking for any sorts of tips.