ChickenWaffle wrote: I was wanting to build tanks out perspex cause ive noticed glass tanks from pet stores crack... and the lids are horrible. But I saw the other day they were housing some fire legs and red knees in nice perspex cases maybe ill be able to ask them where I can get those will be much easier than having to build my own nice perspex tanks.

Perspex (aka Plexiglas) is not as good as it's cracked up to be.(Pun intended! :silly: ) For instance, it scratches far too easily. It may not break as readily as real glass but about the third time you clean one it'll really look ugly. Glass cages will scratch a little over time, but it's after years of heavy use instead of just a few months.

And yes, you can buy kits to polish out the scratches in Perspex (readily available from places that sell the Perspex as well as larger tropical fish stores that sell Perspex aquariums). But the kits aren't free, and you then have yet another onerous chore to add to the growing list instead of merely enjoying your tarantulas, your original goal.

While glass cages may crack or break, they break much less often than the Perspex will scratch. Besides, if you're handy enough with tools that you can build Perspex cages, you should also be handy enough to replace a broken pane of glass in a glass cage.

Relative costs are very sensitive to your local market, but in North America (specifically Canada) Perspex cages cost significantly more than glass ones, and I'm assuming that the same is true of the raw sheets of Perspex. Also, when figuring costs you need to figure in the original development costs (i.e., you need to waste some material as you learn how to work with it). And, because of mistakes, accidents, and the waste around the edges you will not get as many Perspex cages out of a given sheet as you might at first estimate. All these can increase costs substantially.

Lastly, real glass cages are somewhat heavier than the Perspex ones, and that's a good thing! They're a lot less likely to slide or be knocked off a shelf or table by you, your clumsy oaf buddy, or the family cat.

I've used both (or their equivalents) and vote strongly in favor of real glass.

Enjoy your little 8-legged, cage dweller!

PeterUK wrote: For arborials i use cereal tubs like this
I priced up making my own shelving units and I couldnt BUY the materials for the price that the book shelves from Ikea cost.
Like these from my old spider collection . . . . .
My boys "stole" the shelves for their CD's and computer games so I made these shelves up in an afternoon for my new spider collection and the total cost was £26. There are many more spiders on the shelves now so I need to build a few more soon.

That was one thing my Old boss was made about, He had catalog from Ikea and anything and every thing we needed for the office out came the catalog and we got to chose what we wanted!
the next day it is waiting for you by the door ready for you to put it together.

Thanks for the replies,

We do have a couple of standard sizes of fish tanks that are readily available, my main issue with this is that it is not really the correct sizes for what I want.
People tend to take you for every cent they can, supply and demand and the fact that they have some worker in their back yard building the tanks, Allows them to charge for "their" time and the mans expertise and they still don't come with a lid! Tiring to become rich!
I find building my own tanks is cheaper, half the price cheaper, which allows me the satisfaction that I, have beat the system and it allows me to build 2 or more tanks for the price it is getting sold at my local pet store or any pet store for that matter.(and I enjoy doing it myself)
When buying bulk glass it is even cheaper, than getting the glazer to cut pieces of glass for you.

Waiting for walmart to make it big splash in SA and for all the cheap things(plastic container) to come with it!

I have looked at Metal shelving as well, like what you use, but again someone wants to become rich off of me.
I have found old shelving units that would be perfect and work for what I want, they wore used for spiders and snakes, but the price is far too expensive and again the local pet shop owner is tiring to become rich over night.
So hence why I would like to build myself some units! R1000 ($123.00) builds 3 units and gives me about 100 spaces for my glass units for my spiders.

There are a couple of reasons why I want to build the shelves or need.

Firstly, My spiders are growing, at this point I have got space, sort of, but by next year I will be out of space, as my larger spiders will not stop growing, so a unit that allows me to stack to the ceiling will take up less space than a counter top that has to spread right around the house just to allow me to have some Tarantulas in my collection, also I’m not one of these people that want to stream line and only focus on curtain species, There are far too many Species of tarantulas to choose from, so I will never be happy with settling for just one kind of species at this point.
Unless I leave the hobby and become a hermit, and stay of the sites and the internet shops, and just stick to my collection I have now, but if you could call it love/addiction/obsession is to strong just to give up the hobby that easy.

Secondly, there might be a chance my Aunt or sister will be moving into the flat (My spiders home at the moment) so my spiders need a home if that happens.

Thirdly, the units will be used as my display units in the house.

fourthly, I like book shelving, cupboard units, T.V units, I can look at that kind of designs, all day long, so for me to have a unit that reaches to the ceiling from the floor, filled with glass tanks, That will be something I will be proud of!

With regards to it taking too much of my time on building the units and building the glass units.

How much time is taken sitting in front of the TV watching Opera or 7De laan now a days. How much time is taken driving in traffic, so there is some justification in me building spending 3 hours a day or night and sticking my tanks together and building the units myself.
It gets me out side in the garden, allows my daughter to play outside will I work and at the end of the day I enjoy doing things with my hands. Another thing that it does for me, it takes me away from some stress(basically not thinking), the rush of life, and it is doing something for my spiders, it also relaxing for me and I have something to show for it.
You have to try your hand and doing something just once in your life, if you not any good at it, then you go get a carpenter to build the units for you and then you pay him for his time.

But at the end of the Day, I have budget or a set amount of money that is set aside for my spiders and anything relating to my spiders!

Well said Cascade. I am also a DIY guy and love working with my hands. I build all of my snake cages myself. I can build it to the exact size I want and it is way cheaper. I have allot of snakes so obviously I need to save space somehow because so far I am only allowed to keep my snakes in my room. My parents thought that would keep my snake numbers down but I had a nice surprise for them. I will soon be the happy owner of a total of 31 snakes.

This is only because I build my own enclosures. I built 2 big 4 story units for my bigger snakes and 1 smaller 4 story unit for my smaller snakes then I also have a few smaller cages here and there but they all fit nicely and that saves allot of my space.

Also I built my big 4 story unit at the price that I could only buy 2 medium sized cages. and the smaller 4 story unit cost me only the glass and a little hard work because it was to old cubbords(I have no idea how to spell that) that my girlfriends dad wanted to throw away and all that was wrong was the paint was peeling off and it started pulling apart. when I showed him what I did with it afterwards he did not recognize it at all.

Sorry for jacking :blush:

To get to your question I say only you can decide how big to build your cages because you know what size they have to be and what rack you going to put them on. You know the average sizes of cages and you know the bare minimum size cages that T's can live in. so work from that and plan ahead and get building.

cascade wrote: Thanks for the replies,

We do have a couple of standard sizes of fish tanks that are readily available, my main issue with this is that it is not really the correct sizes for what I want. ...

... But at the end of the Day, I have budget or a set amount of money that is set aside for my spiders and anything relating to my spiders!

A well thought-out response! It appears that you've considered all or nearly all aspects of the project, and are comfortable with it.

Do us all one favor, if you please. Post photos from time to time as you progress in your project so the rest of us can watch what you're doing. Please merely add them to this thread so we can watch the progression as the project unfolds. And, we most definitely want to see what your setup looks like when it's finished.

We also need comments about what you did wrong and how you corrected the mistakes, or what you would have done better, given another opportunity. (QUOTE: "A good carpenter isn't the one who never makes mistakes. He's the one who knows best how to repair them so no one knows!") Doing this will allow us to invent new, original mistakes instead of wasting time and effort duplicating the ones you've already mastered! :lol:

Best of luck with your project! Two thumbs up!

So Half way there!!

I have not done a special design in 3D or something like that, but This is what I got in mind for My spider units!

The design has changed 7 times in the past couple of months, I'm 97% happy with it now, planning to go head with the first unit and start building it by next weekend, just to see how it turns out, my test run.
I have also brought the height down to 2365mm instead of 2756mm, the reason for this is, if the the day comes that I have to move and the ceilings are lower than 2800mm in the new place, then I basically can't use the cupboards.
Some ceilings are 2800mm some are 2600mm depends on the builder and where you going to move to.

Another thing what I'm planning to do is, build smaller units that can just get bolted to the top of the units, this will allow me to use as much of the wall space, up to the ceilings.

in total, there would be 101 tanks when every thing is built and against the wall, which is a good amount for, but then the issue comes into play of heating the tanks and keeping them warm through winter, as they are moving into the house and so far the house is open plan which makes heating a bit of an issue.
Will cross that bridge when the time is here.

So here are the designs of the units in PDF format.