Suggestions for making external pool

[Neon Aurora]

So I've been thinking a lot about how I'm going to do this. I want to throw some ideas around in this thread.

I have a 6 foot yellow anaconda in a 4 x 2 x 2 enclosure and I'm not happy with it. He wants more water and the water he already has takes up too much space inside. Plus, the humidity is insanely out of control. It's way too wet in there. I want to move his water outside of the enclosure so he has 4 x 2 x 2 of land and then however much water I want to give him.

My original idea was an acrylic tank with some sort of tunnel hooked up to it. I quickly realized how expensive that gets given the amount of space I want, so I'm not really sure I want to do that. I'm not really handy, so I would probably need to buy a premade one. It's a bit much for me.

Second idea was a livestock water tank. Like those big black plastic ones. It's an idea, but it sounds hard to make a secure lid to prevent my anaconda escaping and eating my cats.

Third idea was to use a tank I already have. 31 in (L) x 22 in (W) x 31 in (H). The glass is about 3/8 of an inch thick. I think it would be fine to hold water, although I have never tried it. Because of the glass being so thick, it is HEAVY. I think the only way I could use it is if I found a way to install a tunnel into the side, which would mean cutting a hole in the glass. No idea how I would do that. I could potentially find a local glass cutting place that might be able to do that, but moving it is such a pain. And I suppose I would need to treat it more like an aquarium than a pool. It would need a filtration system, probably a heater, and I would have to clean it like a fish tank. I guess I would have to pick the giant snake poops out manually? Then use a gravel vacuum thing and make sure the filtration is good to keep it clean.

Picture. Ignore the heat tape stuck to the side and stuff. I used it as a temporary holding tank for my snake while I got his new enclosure ready.



That is his home on the bottom. As you can see, the humidity is out of control. The tank is kind of tall. I don't think I would fill it all that way. I would prefer a shorter tank, but don't want to spend $400 when I have a tank already.

Is this a ridiculous idea?

[daisymaisy]

Make something out of wood, including a large pool area? People make fish tanks out sealed plywood so it can be water proofed.

[Noh]

Hmm, I understand you're not handy(neither am I) but maybe you have a friend who is? You could perhaps make a simple wooden box, perhaps with glass on the side to be able to see inside, and a hatch on the top for closing, and put the black water tank inside. Make the wood container just big enough to hold the tank and some space above. Overall that's not hard to make, and a lot cheaper than many of the enclosures you'll see.

Maybe if you have a friend who knows what they're doing, they'll help you! That said, watching youtube videos could potentially be all the help you need for something so simple.

I hope you find a solution you like!

[kudzu]

What are the dimensions of the pool his current enclosure?

[Neon Aurora]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. =)

I've been thinking hard about this and have gone through a lot of options that get crazy complicated or just aren't going to work.

Kudzu, the dimensions of his current pool is something like 23 x 17 x 13 or so. Takes up way too much space in there.

I think I don't really want to cut corners. I want to have a display that I'm going to proud of. So I was thinking I will probably just buy a 24 x 24 x 24 acrylic tank. I do have a friend who is handy, but he is very busy. However, it's not too much trouble for him to cut holes in the acrylic tank and in the side wall of the PVC cage. The rest I can do myself. Just need to silicone a piece of PVC piping in to make a tunnel between the enclosures. I'll get a filtration system and a fish tank heater (that water is going to be ice cold in the winter if it's outside of the heated enclosure) and done! I think it will look awesome to see a beautiful black and yellow snake hanging out in a totally clear acrylic cube.

That should be more than enough space for him. 4 x 2 x 2 of land space (which I will spiff up to give him some ledges and places to hide) and 2 x 2 x 2 of water space. That's 12 square feet of floor space total for a 6 foot snake, not including the space he'll have when I utilize the height of the enclosure. Don't think he can complain. =D

[kudzu]

Sounds like a great idea. He better not complain. That "outdoor" pool will increase the space by 50%. Adding climbing space & you'll get maybe another 25%. Compare all that to enclosure you recently upgraded him from. Wow!

Do it now! Do it now! I want to see it!!

[Neon Aurora]

I'm going to. =D Just got paid, so I'm ready to buy the tank. I just need to talk to my friend and make sure he is absolutely positive that he can cut the tank and PVC wall in the ways I want. Because the tank is going to be close to $400 and I will die if it doesn't work the way I want it to. I'm hoping to have this project complete within the next few weeks. Once I have the tank, I don't think it will take very long to cut the pieces and silicone the PVC tunnel is.

I'm excited to do it. I think it's going to look awesome.

In other news, I was able to confirm that he is indeed male. Not there there was ever much doubt because of his size, but he was sold to me as female. I'm trying to touch him more and one day was able to get ahold of his tail and look at it. I found anal spurs. Definitely male, then.