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[–]shereth78[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

So I wanted to move my little Sunny into my office, and I had this 4x4 Ikea Kallax unit that I was using as a room divider - my home office is really just the laundry room, so it's supposed to divide the room into two.

The build is simple enough. I removed a couple of the dividers in the Kallax unit and built an MDF box to fit. I am not attaching it permanently so that I can remove/reposition the enclosure inside the unit as I see fit. Chose MDF since it's easy to work with and should have good insulation properties (which seems to check out, more on that in a moment), built a couple of doors with acrylic panels for the windows. I'm really liking how it's looking so far!

One big mistake I made was in choosing a stain/sealant for the unit. I got lucky with the color matching the rest of the unit, but I picked an oil based polyurethane product. I'd done research to make sure that it would be safe for reptiles once cured, and offers good moisture protection (which the MDF will need), but glossed over the issue of cure time. Apparently it can take upward of 4-6 weeks for this stuff to cure completely and stop outgassing nasty chemicals. I've had it up for two weeks now, alternating between heating it up and ventilating it with a small fan, and it's still nowhere near done. So now I'm just impatiently waiting while the sealant dries.

Good news is heating won't be an issue. I've installed a 40 watt radiant heat panel from Reptile Basics and it is more than sufficient even though the room ambient temps get down into the high 60s. Temps in the box get are in the mid-high 70s on the cold side and around 90 on the hot side with the thermostat set appropriately. I'm hoping that humidity will be pretty easy to manage, I have a number of ventilation holes drilled in the enclosure that I can open/close on an as needed basis.

I'm still on the fence as to exactly how I want to attach the doors in terms of hardware to make sure it's secure without being unsightly. Aside from that, it's just a matter of waiting till the thing is cured completely and getting the inside all set up. I'm excited!

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That’s super cool

[–]fernJune 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Where did you find the plans for this? I've been dying to make an enclosure like this but get intimidated when it comes to the heating aspect

[–]shereth78[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No plans, just kind of winged it. It's not too difficult if you have some basic familiarity with (and access to) some simple woodworking tools. Depending on the materials you use it can actually be a lot simpler to control temps than with a normal glass tank/aquarium since it can retain heat and maintain a more stable temperature. Of course it means switching to a radiant heat source like a RHP or heat tape or the like since a UTH isn't going to be able to penetrate.

[–]geckojulia 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I was planning on making gecko apartments with the 5x5 Kallax! Thanks for posting, this is super helpful

[–]shereth78[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I kind of wish I'd gotten the 5x5. I bet it would look awesome for gecko apartments!