Dubia.com enclosures?

[J4ckdaw-]

I need to upgrade to a larger enclosure, Dubia.com has the cheapest 120 gallon I can find but I’d like to make sure it’s of good quality. What are your thoughts on it?

 

[Axil]

Beebz lives in a 120g from Dubia.com. I'm pretty happy with it. Very easy to put together, very sturdy. I might consider a better insulated enclosure if I had to do it over again. Zen Habitats makes a wood (bamboo?) Panel enclosure that I suspect holds heat a bit better. But I'm sure if I went with another brand I'd have a different set of nitpicks.

I highly recommend glass doors. Plexiglass/acrylic will get all scratched up. When I bought mine from Dubia.com I had to buy the glass version of the doors separately but I think the glass might be standard now. Worth checking

 

[KarrieRee]

Zen Habitats has glass doors you can purchase separately-- I bought them

 

[NickAVD]

On their website it says: "NOW WITH GLASS DOORS!"

 

[xp29]

The Zens are a laminate wood, but will hold heat better. Personally I've settled on the Zen Merridian. I plan on adding in a window in the back panel and that would be near impossible with the pvc's.
The Zens also have a full screen top with support bars underneath. The original is 25 dollars more than the dubia, the Merridian is 50 more. But the glass doors are 100 and have to be bought separately.

 

[ccnmeru]

I need to upgrade to a larger enclosure, Dubia.com has the cheapest 120 gallon I can find but I’d like to make sure it’s of good quality. What are your thoughts on it?

Same!!! I would love if anyone had any reviews. I see some online but I would rather hear from the forum.

 

[KarrieRee]

The Zens are a laminate wood, but will hold heat better. Personally I've settled on the Zen Merridian. I plan on adding in a window in the back panel and that would be near impossible with the pvc's.
The Zens also have a full screen top with support bars underneath. The original is 25 dollars more than the dubia, the Merridian is 50 more. But the glass doors are 100 and have to be bought separately.

The wood is bamboo-- I got the original they had just come out w/ them - I paid $369 for my first one- there are people on the forum that have the dubia.com tanks and some from symtonsbsf as well -- PetSmart sells the Zens too -- but its better just to go thru Zen themselves- they must have changed over to the glass doors now which its gonna make it more for shipping since glass is heavier than the acrylic doors

 

[Axil]

On their website it says: "NOW WITH GLASS DOORS!"

Nice, I thought I'd seen that.

Even better they didn't raise the price. I paid an additional $70 for my glass doors.

Also it looks like they are running thier promotion code HAB20. For $20 off, so if anyone grabs an enclosure there soon make sure and take advantage of that.

The Zens are a laminate wood, but will hold heat better. Personally I've settled on the Zen Merridian. I plan on adding in a window in the back panel and that would be near impossible with the pvc's.
The Zens also have a full screen top with support bars underneath. The original is 25 dollars more than the dubia, the Merridian is 50 more. But the glass doors are 100 and have to be bought separately.

I'm excited to see how your window mod turns out.

On the subject of screen tops the Dubia cage has a full mesh with two support bars that is rated to support 70lbs and I believe them, it's very heavy duty in regards to the mesh.

One issue the Dubia top does have though is the bars are not spaced so you can easily use them to fix a uvb bar to one side of the enclosure.

The mesh is also thick while it's definitely strong the holes are too small for some of the most commonly recommended attachment gear like zip ties.

It also blocks more than the 33% guideline people use for uvb penetration through mesh. So while it tends to be recommended to place uvb bars under mesh in a 120g anyway, I definitely would with the Dubai.com enclosure.

 

[xp29]

The wood is bamboo-- I got the original they had just come out w/ them - I paid $369 for my first one- there are people on the forum that have the dubia.com tanks and some from symtonsbsf as well -- PetSmart sells the Zens too -- but its better just to go thru Zen themselves- they must have changed over to the glass doors now which its gonna make it more for shipping since glass is heavier than the acrylic doors

It is bamboo but it is also liminated like plywood to give it some sturdiness. It 1/4" thick (which will work perfect for me to add the window into)

 

[xp29]

On of the big turn offs to pvc for me is the black habitats. They always look dim and unattractive to me. The black panels just don't reflect light the way white does.

 

[Axil]

On of the big turn offs to pvc for me is the black habitats. They always look dim and unattractive to me. The black panels just don't reflect light the way white does.

This is a good point as well. I had intended to add some sort of background when we purchased the pvc. 6 months later I still have not and the black is indeed very dull and sucks some of the light out of the enclosure.

I think one of the nice poster-style backgrounds would alleviate this issue but when I went down the rabbit hole in trying to figure out how to affix something like that analysis paralysis took over

 

[NickAVD]

It is bamboo but it is also liminated like plywood to give it some sturdiness. It 1/4" thick (which will work perfect for me to add the window into)

Do you think it's laminated? It looks like the wall is glued together from bamboo sticks.

 

[KarrieRee]

Do you think it's laminated? It looks like the wall is glued together from bamboo sticks.

mine are sheets of bamboo -

 

[xp29]

Do you think it's laminated? It looks like the wall is glued together from bamboo sticks.

mine are sheets of bamboo -

Yeah they are for sure laminated, the videos I've been watching say as much and some show the side profile and also the hole for the wiring and i can see the middle media. I did watch one last night that said the panels are sturdier than the original builds so maybe the early ones weren't laminated.

 

[xp29]

This is a good point as well. I had intended to add some sort of background when we purchased the pvc. 6 months later I still have not and the black is indeed very dull and sucks some of the light out of the enclosure.

I think one of the nice poster-style backgrounds would alleviate this issue but when I went down the rabbit hole in trying to figure out how to affix something like that analysis paralysis took over

Double sided tape or velcro might work. Or pick up a birch panel from lowes, cut it to fit and glue the background to that. I would use velcro to hold that in place also.