Planning on building a doublestack crossfire, thoughts?

[Virus]

Alright, currently I have three juveniles sharing a 40 breeder right now. So far they've spent at least the larger portion of their lives together, but I'm not going to risk trouble.

I want to build a crossfire terrarium, though I would like to make them stack. I would have to make two of these, and would like to build a base for both.

I'm trying to figure out tweaks I would need to make to the over all design.

For example, on the issue of lighting, would it work to rig up ceramic heater fixtures? I noticed in another thread there is one installed, however it is protruding through the top, and I don't think that will work with the 'stacking theme'.

Another thing is, what would be a good way to incorporate a stand? Should I make the stand attached to the 'bottom' terrarium, or would I make the stacking feature a means to lock everything in place?

any thoughts or insight is greatly appreciated. I have until the end of the year to get this built, and I prefer to have this done by halfway through December on a late note.

 

[JeffSimpson]

Ideally, I think you want to have three enclosures, if you are going to keep all 3. Even if you attempt to breed them, i don't belive they are kept together 100% of the time, or at least they need to be closely monitored for fighting.

As far how to building the enclosure, you can do absolutely anything you want/need to do. I know the cross fire enclosure gets mentioned a lot, but it's really just a rectangular box. You can make them so they stack, lock together, screw together to make them removable, add a stand, keep them on the floor, whatever. If it were me, questions I would ask myself that would also help us give recommendations:

* How much space do I have to work with, vertically and horizontally?
* Whats the chance that I'll need to move the enclosures?
* If I make a stand, will it serve any other purpose? (i.e. storage)
* Do I have the means to cut / transport large pieces of plywood?
* The enclosures are probably going to be pretty heavy. Whats the chance of kids / dogs / you bumping into them and knocking them over? At a minimum I'd probably have one or two drywall screws through the top/bottom to lock them together, just to be safe.

As for lighting, you can have them inside the enclosure or on the top. As far as "stacking" enclosures with the lights on the top, you'd need to have a section in the middle for the electrical stuff to hide. So from the bottom of the top one, to the top of the bottom one (ha) you would have a gap of say 8-10".