Preventing cats from knocking over terrariums
 

I’m putting together a terrarium setup mostly for pleurothalids, along with some other low light/high humidity plants in a 55 gallon aquarium. My wife is concerned that one (or all?) of our 4 cats will knock it over. Does anyone have any ideas to prevent this from happening? I was thinking of fabricating a lip out of angle iron that the tank sets into on top of the stand I built, and anchoring the stand to the wall. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

A 55 gallon tank is pretty heavy all by itself. If the stand is strong and stable, I can’t see cats knocking it over.

Anchoring the stand to the wall isn't a bad idea... I anchor bookcases and other top-heavy things, but where I live, earthquakes are always a possibility. Don't know about your location. But that terrarium is definitely something you don't want crashing down. Cats not likely to be that strong, but nature?

Ray, my biggest concern is how narrow the tank is, it’s about 48” x 13” wide, and 21” tall. With the stand I’ve built it will be 53” tall at the top - and at least three of the cats have a demonstrated ability to jump that high. Empty, it’s probably 35-40lbs. I’m thinking loaded the way I’ve planned it, it’ll run around 125lbs.

Roberta, I’m all too aware of what earthquakes can do, I remember being in the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. We do have some seismic activity in the Reno/Sparks area, but we don’t tend to have the intense earthquakes like you get in CA. Ours tend to run 2-3 on the Richter scale for a big one here.


It sounds like I’m on the right track, I’ll attach a cleat to the wall into a stud to give me some peace of mind.