Habitat - Indoor :: Basking platform

[spartan]

Ok so I just got logan my 4 year RES a new 55 gal tank. I want to build him a custom basking platform. Now Im not new to building things for my pets. L bulit a custom cage for my berm last year. What I and new to how ever is building something that has to sit on water. now i was thinking about building a box out of woodbut I dont know what type of wood would be best for my project or how the wood will stand up to the water. Any tips or info would help me out alot. Thanks for any input anybody might give.

[BRuTAL_HiTMAN_]

i personally would avoid wood, because it's going to eventually rot in the water. stick with more plastic-like material such as acrylic, egg crate/light diffuser, PVC pipe, etc... if you use wood, i would use a combo of the plastics to cover it and keep it raised above the water, and if you have a return on your filter that splashes the water's surface, then make sure to try to keep the wood away from that area, too.

if you use wood, the goal is to try to keep it as dry as possible you could even considering screwing acrylic over the wood if you like the wood look but want to protect it from water

[steve]

A simple and nice basking area would be some cork bark and some plexiglas around the top lip of the tank. You can use wood to make a brace on top of the plexiglas.

[spartan]

thanks for the input. I think im gonna go with the corkbark of egg crate instead of the wood.

[spartan]

Ok so untill I can get to the store to get what I need to make my platform will a milk crate work?

[BRuTAL_HiTMAN_]

should do fine, wash it up a bit before dropping it in the water