# large vivarium sliding glass door questions



## Carolina Vivariums (Oct 27, 2016)

hi all, I am building a large vivarium there will be a piece of glass as the bottom to hold the soil in then the sliding track will be on the glass and then there will be the two large sliding doors in the track on the glass. my question is if the two doors are 1/4' think does the bottom piece need to be 1/2" think to hold them up or can the bottom piece be 1/4" and have the tracks hanging off a little? this might be a dumb question but any advice would be great i cant seem to find what im looking for searching through the forum!


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## Justin Vining (Dec 30, 2016)

It would be better to have full support under the glass doors.


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## bsr8129 (Sep 23, 2010)

How large are we talking? most likely 1/4 bottom piece will work. also why are you going 1/4 for the sliding doors? usually thinner will work, but I guess it depends on how big the piece of glass is.


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## TheForSaken (Nov 21, 2016)

You could go with the 1/4" glass for the bottom. 
What I did was I placed a 7/8th x 7/8th outside corner trim onto the upright glass. Then I placed my sliding glass trim on that.
Hope this helps if not I can take a picture later.


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

Could you not just do 2 pieces of vertical glass to balance it out? That way it could be as wide as you want it to be. Seems like you might want to put some ventilation in under those doors, too, since you are building from scratch.

Mark


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## Bighurt (Jun 18, 2011)

Assuming you are using plastic bypass track. the support for the bottom channel needs to be the full width of the track itself.

As mentioned supporting it on an L channel or even a piece of 1/4" glass laid flat on top of the bottom glass is sufficient. The glass laying flat would only need to be the width of the track which for 1/4" by pass track is about 13/16".

How big is this vivarium. I find doors over 30" square in 1/4" glass become a little heavy for the standard bypass track.

I too like the vent below the door. My big vivarium is made of wood with glass doors. The bottom track sits on a steel shelf standard painted black and is fitted with open cell foam to keep bugs inside. I'll have to admit this viv has yet to be planted so I can't speak to how well it works. It was my way to imitate the Sherman vent without using glass. It looks good though.


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## Carolina Vivariums (Oct 27, 2016)

The vivarium is 4ft long by 36 in high so I chose 1/4" for the sliding glass since they will be big panes and need to be stronger! I am trying to decide between aluminum and plastic tracks right now! The bottom piece of glass with be 48" long and 5" high and needs to support two 1/4" sheets of glass that are gonna be 26"x31". The backs and sides are wood so I can drill all the ventilation into the wood as well as the fans will be on it. So I could silicon a flat piece of glass on top of the bottom glass to support the the track completely? I'm probably gonna go with aluminum tracks they are a lot more expensive but I'm gonna need to strength


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## Bighurt (Jun 18, 2011)

The vertical 1/4 glass below the doors is plenty to support the weight of those doors in either plastic or aluminum track. However you may decide to set the 1/4 vertical piece back a bit so that the flat glass on top in the shape of a T. Then the vertical glass is supporting the whole weight and not just the front edge of the horizontal pane and counting on the sheer strength of silicone to keep the horizontal piece flat.

I use wood below my doors that is the substrate dam. Although I wish I had a bit of glass as I kinda like seeing the living edge of the substrate.

I use MDO vs standard ply and even that is cheaper than glass so I try and only use glass where I need glass. I may just scrap this one and build a new one cause I would like a little more glass ceiling and the integrated false bottom isn't what I wanted.

In any case when you say aluminum do you mean the track with rails and wheels or aluminum extrusion. I know there is aluminum extrusion with shoes as well.

I think once you get beyond 6 sq ft of door you need something better than a beveled glass edge to aid in sliding. If you can find a shoe'd vs that would work otherwise I'm not sure the wheeled version would be all that resistant to FF's. or small hoppers.


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

Jeremy hit all the stuff I would have said. Sounds like you have enough ventilation options, so below the doors won't be necessary. I would emphasize what Jeremy said about offsetting the bottom vertical glass. I think you want it to align with the middle of the two doors so that you don't set up a balance problem that could eventually lead to tilt in the bottom track. This could be pretty bleak, so find someway to stabilize that bottom track so that it stays horizontal. Looking forward to seeing the build 

Mark



Bighurt said:


> The vertical 1/4 glass below the doors is plenty to support the weight of those doors in either plastic or aluminum track. However you may decide to set the 1/4 vertical piece back a bit so that the flat glass on top in the shape of a T. Then the vertical glass is supporting the whole weight and not just the front edge of the horizontal pane and counting on the sheer strength of silicone to keep the horizontal piece flat.
> 
> I use wood below my doors that is the substrate dam. Although I wish I had a bit of glass as I kinda like seeing the living edge of the substrate.
> 
> ...


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## Carolina Vivariums (Oct 27, 2016)

I any glass for the bottom cause it's a piece of funiture I'm converting and it would be hard to match the finish If I added a piece of wood for the substrate dam! The aluminum track I was talking about the ones with track and wheels! From outwater! So the rails are one inch in width if I used 1/2" glass would that keep me from having to make the T for the dam or should I just us 1/4" and add a piece on top to make the T? Thanks for all the advice! If you have pics of your setups I would love to see them!


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## Bighurt (Jun 18, 2011)

If you can get 1/2" scrap cut to size may as well use it but in my experience most glass places have to order it...which gets spendy. I'd have to see a full display shot. But in cases where match stain...it may look fine black. Not sure what you use to seal the wood but most epoxies can be tinted.



Carolina Vivariums said:


> If you have pics of your setups I would love to see them!


Me too! I'm away from home on a public machine...no pics just words. Give me 50 weeks...lol


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