Sinatra got a raise, Zsa Zsa moved out, and Stumpy got an upgrade.

[xp29]

So Christina got me a new Zen Habitat for Christmas We both have been sick since a few days before Christmas so it took me a bit to get everything ready. I needed to get Zsa Zsa out of line of sight with Sinatra. Stumpy has out grown his 40 gallon also, so he needed a new pad.
As anyone that keeps multiple beardies knows 4x2x2 habitats take up a lot of room. The easy answer is up not out. I don't really like the spacers sold by Zen. So I built one. It isn't done yet, I still have to make the cover for the front. But it is usable at this point. In the new habitat I removed the back panel and replaced it with glass. I'm going to use the bamboo panel to make the cover for the front. I picked up a piano hinge today so I can just flip it up to service the lights.
So Zsa Zsa now lives underneath Sinatra (day 1 and we are already seeing improvements in her) Sinatra got the penthouse in the sky (yes I know, "moving on up"..... if you get that your as old as me) and Stumpy got upgraded to a freshly cleaned and sanitized 4x2x2.
Sinatra loves to get as high as he can and seems to be enjoying the new height he gained.
Zsa Zsa calmed down and spent the day gazing out the window.
Stumpy discovered his new cargo net and went crazy for it. He reminds me of Zen, he gets as high up that net as possible and just looks around like he just found the greatest treasure ever.
Christina got more room around the desk she works from.
All in all everyone seems happy
This is the new setup (without the front cover) I'll post a couple pictures with the cover in a few days once it's installed.

 

[xp29]

Can you spot Sinatra in his habitat? I know where to look and it still took me a second lol.

 

[NickAVD]

Wow! You did a great job! It seems to me that your guys are very happy with their new terrariums.
You did the right thing by dividing the visibility zone between Sinatra and Zsa Zsa. Does Lucy live separately from everyone?
If you are going to modify the spacers, I would advise making ventilation holes. On one side - at the bottom (for the inflow of cold air), on the other side - at the top (for the removal of hot air), this is necessary to make constant air movement. Holes only in the central part will not work properly.

 

[xp29]

Wow! You did a great job! It seems to me that your guys are very happy with their new terrariums.
You did the right thing by dividing the visibility zone between Sinatra and Zsa Zsa. Does Lucy live separately from everyone?
If you are going to modify the spacers, I would advise making ventilation holes. On one side - at the bottom (for the inflow of cold air), on the other side - at the top (for the removal of hot air), this is necessary to make constant air movement. Holes only in the central part will not work properly.

Lucy is in the living room. I do that with hatchlings so they are right in the middle of everything happening. It streeses them for a few days but they very quickly get used to all the activity and curiosity takes over. I've found it helps them not be so timid.
The spacer has a couple 2 inch holes on either side and 4 or 5 in the back. It serves as ventilation and a place to route cords. If it becomes to hot with the front cover, I'll add more holes. I can go up to about a 3 inche hole saw if need be.
When Lucy out grows her current habitat I'll probably stack her and Stumpy also.

 

[IAmAMirage]

So Christina got me a new Zen Habitat for Christmas We both have been sick since a few days before Christmas so it took me a bit to get everything ready. I needed to get Zsa Zsa out of line of sight with Sinatra. Stumpy has out grown his 40 gallon also, so he needed a new pad.
As anyone that keeps multiple beardies knows 4x2x2 habitats take up a lot of room. The easy answer is up not out. I don't really like the spacers sold by Zen. So I built one. It isn't done yet, I still have to make the cover for the front. But it is usable at this point. In the new habitat I removed the back panel and replaced it with glass. I'm going to use the bamboo panel to make the cover for the front. I picked up a piano hinge today so I can just flip it up to service the lights.
So Zsa Zsa now lives underneath Sinatra (day 1 and we are already seeing improvements in her) Sinatra got the penthouse in the sky (yes I know, "moving on up"..... if you get that your as old as me) and Stumpy got upgraded to a freshly cleaned and sanitized 4x2x2.
Sinatra loves to get as high as he can and seems to be enjoying the new height he gained.
Zsa Zsa calmed down and spent the day gazing out the window.
Stumpy discovered his new cargo net and went crazy for it. He reminds me of Zen, he gets as high up that net as possible and just looks around like he just found the greatest treasure ever.
Christina got more room around the desk she works from.
All in all everyone seems happy
This is the new setup (without the front cover) I'll post a couple pictures with the cover in a few days once it's installed.
View attachment 95851 View attachment 95852 View attachment 95853 View attachment 95854 View attachment 95855 View attachment 95856 View attachment 95857

Looks great!!! I'm sure they love it!!

Sinatra got the penthouse in the sky (yes I know, "moving on up"..... if you get that your as old as me)

Does that make me an old soul in a young body? Haha @xp29

 

[xp29]

Looks great!!! I'm sure they love it!!

Does that make me an old soul in a young body? Haha @xp29

If you get that quote your watching some OLDDDD reruns

 

[IAmAMirage]

If you get that quote your watching some OLDDDD reruns

Quality time with grandpa is the best
Old reruns and Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Etta James, etc
@xp29

 

[xp29]

Quality time with grandpa is the best
Old reruns and Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Etta James, etc
@xp29

That sounds like a great time I used to watch Star Trek and wrestling with my Papaw. That's some of my best memories

 

[Chris.]

That looks amazing, love it
9 out of 10. One point is missing because of the mess with the cables (big reason I have wooden tanks for mine)

 

[ChileanTaco]

@Chris.
From my experience of now about 1.5 years with a glass enclosure:
The cable mess, yes... In the beginning, honestly, I hated it seeing from how much stuff cables are hanging around. (There are four things on top of his enclosure: basking lamp 1, basking lamp 2, UV, and a CHE for when I was not able to get the 100 W basking bulb but only a weaker one.)
But I think if - hypothetically - I would have to buy a new tank and would have a choice of all tanks available worldwide, I'd go for full glass again. Lamps on top of a (wide-)mesh screen, I'd also do that again. The only change I would make from the current setup is maybe having front doors instead of a lid that opens from the top - but tank opening from the top is no big hassle, and at least has the benefit of I could not break some glass doors and it's less unlikely to accidentally hurt my dragon (tail vs. sliding doors).

 

[Chris.]

Pros and cons to all of those choices. The heat insulation and the ability to easily block all points of view are doing it for me (they are in my office and esspecially in winter I might be on the computer after their lights out time).
But the all glass look is just a bit nicer, I must admit.

 

[ChileanTaco]

@Chris.

Pros and cons to all of those choices. The heat insulation and the ability to easily block all points of view are doing it for me (they are in my office and esspecially in winter I might be on the computer after their lights out time).
But the all glass look is just a bit nicer, I must admit.

We also stay up late (in our office, usually on the computer - we tend to work late hours from home and it can be midnight or after). So the tank is on purpose in a room that's not used/ where no light will be switched on after dinner which is around 6pm. Briefly thought about "office, then he's around all day long" but immediately "oh no, us being up will disturb him".

(The room between kitchen and office and only used for eating and for me using it briefly during day when it sometimes happens that both my husband and me have a telecon at the same time - which will also not happen after dinner.) In a smaller apartment with only 1 room for sleeping and 1 room for anything else I might have chosen the bedroom being his room.
Regarding the glass I like (and Taco, too) that he has a full view around.
The choice, why full glass, was basically:
- the nice windows I want to give him access to
- no ready-made enclosures that size here available, so I looked into the options:
a) repurposing furniture (found nothing I would trust regarding fumes plus what happens when I plant something into that and water the plants... and even generally some furniture that size was hard to find)
b) repurposing used giant fish tank (nothing available despite checking for months while planning getting a beardie)
c) make something on my own: we just moved intercontinental, we didn't have the tools, can't do noisy things (apartment), we would have had to buy all the materials too, so making a complete enclosure would have been expensive
d) getting one made; if that's the case, why not glass and allowing my dragon to look out of the windows... thought it might be crazy expensive, but inquired nevertheless and was surprised the price was clearly in the "affordable" range. Making then the lid myself was ways less tool-demanding than making a complete tank myself.

 

[xp29]

That looks amazing, love it
9 out of 10. One point is missing because of the mess with the cables (big reason I have wooden tanks for mine)

Thank you
Yeah, I've got to rework them for sure. It was getting late so I rushed at the end to get everyone back in their habitats.
I'm hoping to get the cover made for the front this weekend also.
I have noticed one huge benefit though. I'm not having as hard a time keeping my ambient temps high enough in either enclosure now.

 

[xp29]

I like the look of the bamboo in the Zen habitats. I solve the problem of lack of windows by installing my own in Sinatra's I cut the back panel and framed in a window. In Zsa Zsa's I replaced the whole back panel with glass. This allows my guys to still see outside but it also allows me to position everyone so theres no line of site to each other.

 

[ChileanTaco]

@xp29
That's what I had done in case of starting with a piece of furniture like a cabinet: Cutting out the back to make a window.