40 gal breeder vs custom

[Rutabaga]

My plan was to get my son and husband to build me a crossfire viv and custom stand and get it all set up and ready to go by March-ish and then get my first beardie. (still growing my Dubia colony right now)

It seems I am never able to save up the money for the supplies with all these darn bills life keeps throwing at me.

SO....to save money, I was thinking about grabbing up a 40 gallon breeder during one of Petco's $1 per gallon sale and just sitting it on a current table I have. However, it seems to me like a big inconvenience to have to constantly remove the lights and the screen top several times a day to feed and/take out the beardie.

Does anyone have a workable solution to this so I am not constantly moving lights and screen top?

Thanks for your help!!!!

 

[lightheart]

I'm waiting for my husband to build our dragon's permanate enclosue, until then I'm having to remove the UV light daily to clean and gather uneaten crickets, we did make our own top with wire and we made a door in it so luckly for little things like feeding I don't have to disassemble the whole thing all the time. (This is the 2nd top/door we made because the 1st one we did the door was too small to get his cave out and we had to redo it and make the opening bigger) He also made a bracket looking thing that holds the heat light and all I have to do is spin it out of the way but don't really have to fiddle with repositioning it when I put it back together.

One thing I have learned having the not perfect pen for now is little things that I want on the ultimate viv. I do want a top that is hinged so when there are crickets in there they are easy to gather without hopping out and I also want a sliding front so the kids can have better access without having to reach in.

 

[mostlyharmlessnj]

It's not so bad once you get used to it. I literally lift just the front of my screen cover, tilting it, and slide it back a few inches with the lights and all on top of it when I just need to get a hand in there. When I need more room (cleaning and taking my guy out), I only lift it enough to get past the UVB strip (UVB stip is mounted on the inside of the screen) and side it the rest of the way.

Really only when the UVB bulb needs to get replaced so I ever fully remove the top and the lights.

 

[ziggy23]

It might be an eyesore to some, but with my tank I suspended the lights with a combo of ceiling hooks, plant chain and S hooks. The chain was the expensive part, and the rest was a buck or so. I like the chain because I can easily raise and lower the lights to tweek the temps as needed.

 

[Jess]

My lid has hinges in the middle, so my heat lamps are only on the back half of it and I can lift up the front of it. I got it at Petco.