Preventing cats from knocking over terrariums

[Johndeaux22]

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.

[Ray]

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.

[Roberta]

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?

[Johndeaux22]

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.