Aquarium to Terrarium Conversion Kit -- 20 Gal High

Last crawled date: 4 years, 4 months ago

When I was ready to finally get an arboreal species of reptile I was pretty disappointed to see how expensive store-bought terrariums are. I found that there exist conversion kits to put a door on an aquarium and convert it into an upright terrarium, which definitely helps save cost, but I felt the price was still steep for what I was getting; plus, the kit I liked best was unavailable. So I designed my own.
" hinge top vX " and " hinge bottom vX " are the parts that attach the the aquarium frame and are stationary.
The files labeled "hinge door" attach to the pane of glass used for the door and are the portion that swivel.
The "latch" is just a little piece that screws to a vent hole and flips down (or up on the bottom hinge) to hold the door closed.
The "small-fan-duct" is to provide some forced air circulation and is designed to house a 40mm fan.
This was designed to be installed in a 20 Gallon high aquarium, though other aquariums with the same width might work. This was also designed for use with standard 3/32" thick glass, which can be found easily (and cheaply) at a hardware store. I'd recommend using silicone adhesive to glue the "hinge door" components to the pane of glass being used for the door, and for gluing in the small pane used at bottom of the terrarium, which holds in the substrate. The "hinge top" and "hinge bottom" components can generally be held in with friction but reinforcing with silicone couldn't hurt. I sized the hinge's holes to use M5x30mm screws as the pivots. They are able to spin freely in the "hinge top" and "hinge bottom" parts and screw into the "hinge door" components.
I'm using this to house a crested gecko, which is a species that lives in a relatively wet environment but needs its enclosure to be able to dry out a bit throughout the day. On their own, the vent holes should be sufficient to allow the critter to breathe but humidity doesn't readily escape, so I added a small fan to pull air from the top of the enclosure and this works quite well.
Parts:
20 Gallon high aquarium
Plain silicone adhesive (no "anti-mold" or other added chemicals). I used "GE silicone 1" all-purpose silicone adhesive.
2 M5 Screws for the pivots of the hinge.
1 (or 2) M3 Screws for the latch(s)
4 M3 Screws for the fan duct (optional)