a turtle tank hack

deirdré has been reading ikeahacker for a while and it suddenly dawned on her that she has an ikea hack in her house.

“we own turtles (red-eared sliders) that at 6 years old are getting quite large, so they need a big tank (custom made, 50 x 70 cm). they also need a special lamp to sunbathe under (as one is doing in the pictures), to help them produce vitamin d and keep their bones and shells healthy, and that has to be suspended over the tank somehow. and we don’t want the tank sitting on the floor.

turtle home - curtains open turtle home - curtains closed turtle lamp

we already had this cheap closet unit (i don’t recall the name) which can be closed with doors or curtains – we used to use these with curtains in our daughter’s room. so i had a curtain made which covers the top part of the closet with all the messy stuff (games, dvds, music) but leaves open the turtles. i screwed the fluorescent lamp into the underside of one of the drawers – there’s enough play in the wiring that you can pull the drawer out.”