Is a second floor vivarium even a good idea?
I've always wanted to house red eye croc skinks and make a killer 4x2x2 bioactive vivarium. But, I rent on the second floor of a garage and would prefer to not cave the roof in. I already have an enclosure (glass 80lb, should've gotten pvc), but want to make sure this isn't crazy before proceeding.
I was thinking of just doing a 1.5 inch filter foam for drainage layer and 3 inch for substrate.
I also wanted roughly 1/4th of it to be a water feature
48'' * 24'' * 3'' * (3/4) * 0.06 (rough cubic inch weight of damp soil) = 150 lb for soil
48'' * 24'' * 4'' * (1/4) * 0.04 (rough cubic inch weight of water) = ~50 lb for water
80 (vivarium) + 150 (soil) + 50 (water) + 50 (extras) = 330 lb
330 lb / (4'*2') = roughly 40 lb per square foot
Are these numbers reasonable? I haven't built a vivarium before and want to know if this is a safe conservative estimate or if I am way undershooting. Any tips to lighten it up more, should I use cocofiber for substrate? Thank you!