Questions on making own enclosure

[pechadm88]

Hey guys, so I am planning on building an enclosure for my big guy. He is out growing his 40 gallon breeder real quick so I’m gonna make one.

My question is, is a 6foot by 4foot enclosure going to be big enough? Height will be about 2.5-3feet. No top on it as of now.

I have found the plywood I need. Do I need to treat this? I found some polyurethane sealant to keep out moisture and plan on coating all sides of the wood and then airing it out. And then letting it sit for a few days with the lights on it to make sure the fumes are all gone. Is this ok or is it toxic it them? I plan on laying tile on top of it but the side boards will still have it.

Second, why glass should I use? I’m will the acrylic stuff be ok? And how thick should it be?

I plan on screwing the boards together and also applying wood glue but the sealant would cover this so it’s not an issue...well as long as the sealant isn’t an issue to begin with.

Any other ideas would be great! Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[Scion19801]

Sounds like a good size tank. your plan to poly all wood is excellent. Cheapest and easiest route is to use plexiglass or acrylic for your doors. Way easier to mount up versus glass in my opinion. Yeah they may scratch it but it can be easily repolished to clear the scratches up. Why no top? How are you got to setup your lighting? Plus i feel having no top would allow for huge heat loss, but you could be some place where that isnt much of a concern. If you do put on a solid top, just put one vent on each side. One side use a low vent, and high on the other side. This will cause a nice air current to go thru the tank. You'll see what i mean once i get build pics posted on the tank I'm working on currently.