What do you do with your spare display cabinets?

[oakleybezerk]

Recently my children decided to expand our residential zoo by getting in several rats... needless to say the selection of cages available in South Africa are either too small, too expensive or poor quality imports. So I've taken it upon myself to convert two spare cabs I have into some proper living quarters for these nocturnal critters. I'm about 80% done with the mega and just waiting for the shelves to have access holes cut into them. The double wide will be completed by next week.

I'm thinking of doing an aquarium next...

 

[Wesleypipesyo]

That's ingenious!!! I wonder if I could get one of more ingenious friends to convert one into a fish tank? Any idea what the internal volume is, in gallons?

 

[oakleybezerk]

That's ingenious!!! I wonder if I could get one of more ingenious friends to convert one into a fish tank? Any idea what the internal volume is, in gallons?

A mega will work out to roughly 50 gallons in volume. The guys I had round to look at the cab I'm looking to convert suggested using 50mm (2 inch) thick glass for the build to handle the water head volume and the cabinet itself would need to be reinforced structurally to handle the weight.
I plan on shaving some of the height off so that it'll be easier to access from the top and install a hinge on the lid so that the top lighting can remain in place.

 

[Wesleypipesyo]

That's about 400 pounds of water. Plus glass. You would lose some volume of water to decorations and substrate. That's fairly heavy. I want another fish thank. This might be worth looking into. Good luck. Document the process. I would love to see the final product.

 

[Nortika]

Great ideal, I've seen a few on Craigslist that were used for a snake cage and for plants

 

[cacatman]

Wow! What a great idea! I wish I had "excess" cases to go around like that!!! HA HA HA!

 

[Atticus]

This seems sacrilegious...

 

[cacatman]

This seems sacrilegious...

HA HA HA!! But only if you're a NORMAL collector like the rest of us!!!

 

[Wesleypipesyo]

Great ideal, I've seen a few on Craigslist that were used for a snake cage and for plants

I wish my snake was a tree snake, I would do that now. But stupid corn snakes like to stretch out flat. Bums

 

[SiRacer420]

A fish tank would be bad ass!

I keep LEGO sets and my daughter’s (my old) beanie babies in a spare cabinet in the bedroom.