Morning All on the sunny morning!

I thought I would ask some opinions and thoughts of the forum!?

I want to Build and define my cage sizes.
I want to do away with smaller glass cub tanks, only really want 4 to 5 main sizes of tanks!
I have decided to use plastic containers for the smaller slings, mature males and extra spiders, to save on space.

I'm also busy planning on building a cupboard system, as it looks neat, and it gives more space, in a smaller area!
I'm just stuck on the sizes of the tanks, as once it is built there is no going back, and saying down the line, I should of built it like this and done it like this, so on and so forth! it must be done right the first time!
This is where I'm getting frustrated and a bit unsure that I'm not going to do it right!
I have looked at doing metal shelving, hinged shelving(fixed against the wall) and so far it comes to the fact it got to be able to move and with the less amount of work (drilling and welding) getting the stuff to stay against the wall!

So I have been looking at sizes and been surfing through Google and reading threads, the Americans have more of a set size they use, just that they use gallons, which is still a bit of pain to work out, the reason I ask is I want to use the maximum and the minimum space that I can use for the spiders tanks!
If that makes sense!

So for the arboreal species,
I got two sizes I want to use, first, 220mm long by 125mm wide by 220mm high, these tanks will be from 4cm to 10cm
Then the second tank will be, 250mm squared by 330mm to 450mm high! I think this size will be hundreds for the largest arboreal species!

Small size tanks, 220mm long by 125mm wide by 150mm high, this tank will be used for sling from 5cm up to 10cm in leg span

Medium sized tanks, I want to use will be 250mm wide by 330mm long and 250mm high. these tanks will be used for spiders 10cm up to 20cm

Then the larger tanks will be 330mm squared by 450mm long. And these tanks will be used for spiders from 20cm and up!

For my big arboreal's like Lampropelma, Cyriopagopus, Poecilotheria

I use as a standard 300x300x500mm enclosures

For arborials i use cereal tubs like this






I priced up making my own shelving units and I couldnt BUY the materials for the price that the book shelves from Ikea cost.

Like these from my old spider collection . . . . .












My boys "stole" the shelves for their CD's and computer games so I made these shelves up in an afternoon for my new spider collection and the total cost was £26. There are many more spiders on the shelves now so I need to build a few more soon.

cascade wrote: ... I want to Build and define my cage sizes.
I want to do away with smaller glass cub tanks, only really want 4 to 5 main sizes of tanks!
I have decided to use plastic containers for the smaller slings, mature males and extra spiders, to save on space. ...

... I'm also busy planning on building a cupboard system, as it looks neat, and it gives more space, in a smaller area!
I'm just stuck on the sizes of the tanks, ...

... So I have been looking at sizes and been surfing through Google and reading threads, the Americans have more of a set size they use, just that they use gallons, which is still a bit of pain to work out, the reason I ask is I want to use the maximum and the minimum space that I can use for the spiders tanks! ...

You may do as you wish, but if I were you I'd go to several neighborhood pet shops and measure the commercial tanks/cages that they stock. My guess is that even in S.A. these have been standardized to a few popular dimensions. (Don't worry a lot about the North American market. You're too far away for that to matter.) Then, build your home-brew cages to match.

Also, start looking for warehouses or retail stores that are going out of business or have recently gone out of business. Sooner or later you'll find one with commercial shelving that they'll sell for a fraction of the original price.

(Click the thumbnails for larger versions. Uploaded with ImageShack.us )

But, make sure that the shelving is sturdy enough, wide enough, and long enough to hold your cages with a couple of centimeters of space between each pair of cages.

(Click the thumbnails for larger versions. Uploaded with ImageShack.us )

Why use commercial sized cages? Because when you finally get tired of building dozens or even hundreds of your own cages you're going to have to fit the commercial ones in with them. Making them all of standard sizes makes that chore a lot easier.

(Click the thumbnails for larger versions. Uploaded with ImageShack.us )

Why commercial shelving? It's usually sturdier and safer than what you're likely to throw together. It doesn't take as much work or time to set up. It's self supporting so you don't have to deface walls to employ it. If you buy it used it shouldn't cost significantly more than the materials for your home brew shelves. Are you more interested in building shelves or keeping tarantulas? (Read that to mean that you need to get your priorities straight.)

And, I am fully aware that it doesn't look as pretty as you might want. But (and pay attention here, this is experience speaking!), "pretty" gets really tiresome by about day 3 when you're tripping or snagging yourself on "pretty" every time you need to service 300 cages! Utility has its strong points too.

For pretty, use a standard wooden bookcase from your friendly, neighborhood department store and keep a few tarantulas for show in fancy cages in your front/living room. Everybody will be impressed. :laugh:

And, keep the bulk of your collection in your bedroom or spider room on the not-so-pretty utility shelves in not-so-pretty utility cages. After your guests "Ooooh! and Aaahhh!" over the pretty cages in the front room you take them back to your "working" room and watch the jaw-dropping expressions on their faces as they stagger at the sight of the other 300 tarantulas. At that point they won't even notice the shelving or the cages. Their eyes will either be glazed over, or absolutely riveted on the spiders!

There's something about large, hairy spiders in large numbers that grabs everybody's attention! :woohoo:

Well said Stan.

Unless you have unlimited time, patience, and will power making a whole lot of tanks is a lot of work.

I have been building modular tanks for my T room and after all the bulk initial prep work it still Takes me 3hrs per bank of six to put them together.

3hrs of worksop is all I get a week. (realistically)

Building more than 10 T tanks become monotonous and feels more like work from work than fun.

Sometimes a nice idea is just not that nice in reality. Better to buy not so nice than the hassle of perfect reproduction.


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I was wanting to build tanks out perspex cause ive noticed glass tanks from pet stores crack... and the lids are horrible. But I saw the other day they were housing some fire legs and red knees in nice perspex cases maybe ill be able to ask them where I can get those will be much easier than having to build my own nice perspex tanks.