DIY Vertical Terrarium Conversions

I'm slowly dealing with the annoyances of my pets. I have three not particularly tame (one actually bites, and the other two flee in terror) male crested geckos. They've been in 20 gallon high aquariums with screen lids for a few years. The downsides of this setup are numerous, but the worst is any time I open the cage if startled they rocket to the top and I have to close the lid to keep them in, and wait for them to calm back down before I can do anything. This means I don't feed or clean as often as I should because it's a pain.

A few months ago I thought why not flip the aquariums on their sides and make the top the front. This was partially caused by picking up some Exo-terra terrariums on clearance and loving the front opening aspect, meaning I can leave a heat lamp on the top but still feed or clean. The Kenyan sand boa is so much easier to deal with when I don't have to take off the lamp, pull at the cage locks, then look for the snake. Same with the leopard gecko. So I had the flipping idea and looked around. Plenty of other people had done it, notably dart frog owners and breeders. They'd silicone a small piece of glass to the bottom edge of the new opening, use an aquarium lid hinge to attach it to another piece of glass that acted as a door. the very top would have a custom screen for air exchange. There were even companies that made kits. Kits were about $25 maybe per set of two pieces of glass hinges and a screen. I had to purchase the frame pieces for the screen, and had a glass shop cut the glass (Awesome experience with Ace Glass.) Turns out I had all the other parts. I had some silicone, took apart two aquarium hoods for the hinges, and had just enough screen left to make these small screens.

I used 6 inch tall glass for the bottom and 13 inch for the top, width depends on your specific tank. Of the three tanks I used one was very slightly smaller. I bought unfinished glass (it's cheaper) so did have to sand the edges at home with a sanding sponge. I also bought a glass cutter so might just cut my own glass next time if I can find 1/8" thick, all the local stores sell 3/32" which is just slightly too thin. And at $5.00 or so a piece for the largest pieces I didn't see much point it buying a large piece just to test how bad I am at cutting glass.

Some links I used as inspiration.

• Making PDF Tank vertical tank 3D Background
• 20 gallon vertical conversion live terrarium
• diy 10 gallon vertical vivarium
• 10 gallon vertical dart frog terrarium construction

Note: this conversion only works for animals that do not require UVB, mostly floor or nocturnal dwellers from very heavy rainforests, if your animal requires UVB the top of your cage needs to be mesh to let the light through.