Thank you! The cage on the side thing happened when my wife pointed out that we would not have room for a bunch of tanks with screen tops. I had to be able to stack them so that I could fit more in the living room! LOL And, they had to be "display quality". With flexwatt under them and the plexi front to control humidity, they are completely stackable. It also works because standard aquariums usally have larger sides than bottoms. (They are tall and skinny) With my teresterial snakes, it makes alot of sense to tip them over to use the larger face as "floor" room. This means you can get the floor space of a 75 gal out of a 55 gal on it's side and take up alot less unused vertical space. The opening on the front was a challange, as you can't screw hindges (or anything else) into the black plastic rim of the aquarium. Also, glue (epoxy, superglue, etc) dosen't stick to this kind of plastic. So I had to "score" the surface of the rim where I used JB Weld to attach the Al L-bracket along the front. I used the same tehnique to attach the clasps.
The door in the front without ventilation on the sides, back, or top allows me to stack them with no problem. It's all sealed aquarium glass, so clean up is a snap. Just remove the carpet, rinse it and the rock, branchs, vine, etc in hot water. Then disinfect them with Nolvasan and allow to dry. Spray the intire interior with Nolvasan and allow to sit for 15 min before wiping it out with a rag.
Obviously this limits the type of substrates you can use to flat materials. Reptile carpet, paper towels, newspaper work fine, bedding and sand don't
Also there can't be a requirement for overhead heat or UVA/B lights. It's great for ground dwelling nocturnal snakes that only need belly heat or leopard geikos, but not sutable for sand boas, arboreal snakes, or basking lizards.
