Howdy everybody This is my first post here, been looking around this page and lot's of others trying to find a awnser on my question. Im building a huge terrarium into my apartment, with a 550 L or 145 Gal pond with a waterfall in the cornor (still working on the waterfall) I have orderd a mister/rain feeding line in cobber from a friend, with 10 out out's for misters covering half of the ground area. Mainly above the pond, to minimise the ground media will get to soaked in water. The mister setup is gonna hang something like this, but it's gonna be very flexible with the placing of the 10 misters. Specialy so they don't spray water on my light, witch is gonna be caged in so no animal can get in contackt with it. The volume of the terrarium is 10 cubic meters, sorry I don't have that in cubic ft. but it's a nice size IMO and atm I only have a Bufo marinus. I have been thinking alot about keeping yemen chameleons when I get done with the project, but I installed the pond to keep Jap. Koi's in the water area and there is a small 90 L pond in the other corner, so about ½ the ground area is water and it's from 30 - 45 cm / 14-18 inches deep. So this is not intentionel build to keeping chameleons, so I wonder if the big water areas is a problem or would it be okay if theres root's and branches in the water. Will they be able to crawl up or would they most likely drown? I have very limited ekspiriance with chamelions, worked in a petshop in the reptile basment with general care for the animals and guideing the customers with animal care. As a privat person I have had reptiles for many years and had the interres in this since I was a kid, so I have keept iguana's, frogs and toads at home. As I have a few books and most impotant Internet, im not worryed about keeping chameleons. I just need to this before I start studying the animal anymore, getting really hooked and maybe ending up finding out that the water is a problem. Besides it would be really unfortunet to drown your pets, not just because privat breed chameleons are really ekspencive here, but it would deffently be a ekspencive storry. Would it be okay to keep 1 male and 2 females in that area, I know it's not a social animal and they in nature only "hook up" for mateing, but it's also alot of room for 2 yemens. Keep it real! Pali :twisted:
Hi Pali, I don't believe that a veiled chameleon would do as well in that environment as it would in a arboreal screen cage set up. What about one of the water loving reptiles, like a green basilisk? They climb, swim, run.. and are certainly beautiful. You would still have to install UVB lights and a basking light, but they would flourish in that type of cage. Heika
I agree Pali that you would be better with some water dwelling lizards for that set up. Water dragons are cool (I have some!!), bakilisks (green or brown) and of course sailfins too. It looks great - I just don't think it is ideal for a chameleon
All right thanx for the replys, too bad about the chameleons. Would they drown in the pond or what is it about the enviroment thats wrong? Remember the setup is no where near done and there will be lots of liveing plants and branches/vines in there when it's done and a full controllable RH. Water Dragons are nice indeed, but I belive they would **** the liveing crap out of my pond and Koi's. My ekspiriance is they are really happy about getting rid of last nights dinner in the water, to handle all that poo id need a f******* big Bio filter or changeing water all the time and that make it really hard to get a good water flora up running in the pond. Koi's need clean/good enviroment water! Basilisk........ hmmm I never had them at home.... could be I have more pic's of my progress with the cage, but I guess this is not the "right" place for posting my cage pics. So let me know if I should start another new topic in another sub forum, but for now I'll just post em here as I guess it got a bit with the cage enviroment to do and if it is posible to build it so I could keep chameleons in there. Maybe a "invincible" nylon net over the big pond could do it (if needed), with out messing up the natural look too much as I want it to look as natural as posible. Everything is or will be painted/coated with natural liquid rubber, the ground area is devided into a dry and a wet area. A rubber folia for outdoor ponds have been placed in the bottom and up the sides, this will keep water from soaking into the concreat walls and floor. Greetings Pali
It looks like one great project, Pali. I think that you would run into the poo problem with most chams, too. It seems that most (or all?) lizards like to poo in water, and that may be a problem with keeping them in your setup. I am not sure if a chameleon can swim or not? Heika
Mine can. Ages ago when he was about 6 months I was giving him a shower and didn't notice that for some reason the water wasn't going down the plug-hole very fast (something must of been blocking it) but anyway the bath was slowly filling up and then my cham just sort of walked down his tree and then kind of plopped into the shallow water. It was just deep enough for him to stand up but he didn't, he just kind of "swam" back to the plant pot and climbed back up. He hasn't really had that many showers since then as it really scared me. But I don't know if the water had of been deep whether he would of done the same.
@Heika & Phill thanx for the info, just to make shure im not buying any animals before im 100% shure of my cage will be a good housing place. The exhaust for the cage I got yesterday, it's a big part of the clima controll and will cool the light and move hot air out or where it's needed. The mister setup will be conected to the same controll box and several heat and RH sencors will be connected and placed in the cage, this way the exhaust will be controlled by the same. Slowing down during rain so the RH will rais and speed up if the RH gets to high, but at first the hot air will be pulled out of the room and some used to heat the window. Heating elements will enshure the ground heat, along with the 250 W MH light and 160 Watt UVB spot will give a great heat spot for any animal. The 250 watt light will be enclosed in a air cooled lighthood, this will prevent any burns if the animals should get in contact with it. Keep it green Pali
My custom made controll box arived, so now I can get on with the project tho I still need a few things. I still don't have the pump and feeding line for the rain/mister setup, the aircooled light hood should arive next week and exhaust pipes have not yet been ordered. Everything will be conected and controlled by this box The Digi timer will turn on and off as programed, I got a "cheap" one with a week program (I could get a season one) but I'll just manual controll the season in the cage. When lights are on the exhaust will turn on and cool down the light hood, the hot air will get devided up in a main pipe and a small pipe for heating up the window. The main pipe will then have a split where either the hot air will return into the cage at ground lvl or it will go out the cage, thru a long exhaust pipe to the outdoors. Depending on the temp in the cage the room temp sensor will open or close the exhaust pipe, this will save energy and money on the ground heaters. The hygrostat will activate the mister setup if the RH get to low, the puls and break timer will make shure the mister only run a short time and that there will be a break from last run to the next. In the mean time the Exhaust fan will stop while the mist is on, that will help to get the RH up faster and keep the needed time for misting at a minimum. Controll box 450 $ in parts ( I had a friend who is a electrician build this, he's also gonna do the main hook up of the power. DO NOT DO THIS YOURSELF, unless your 100% shure about what you are doing) Mister setup 333 $ Aircooled Light hoods 83 $ All the **** I got a little by little, deco, the pond and stuff like that 800+ $ and I still got a long way to go before im done with this. Greetings Pali
And he's back again with his crazy projects :shock: Yeah it's been months without any words from me at all, im a buissy man and this is a slow progressing project, but it's slowly getting there. I was working far from where I live and there where no time, now I quit that job and got a new one 10 min drive from here instead of 2 hours drive to work and 2 hours home again. I removed all the soil in the rear end and placed 2x 100 L containers coated with 1 mm gardenpond foil, one will house some plants after I filled it with coco fibers I belive I'll be useing. The other will house a bucket floor filter, a lit will be made and the hoses coverd up as a vines or something. filled the surounding empty spaces with hydroton clay pepples, this way I don't need as much concreat mix and it will be "easy" to break down with a big sledgehammer if ever needed. I mixed up the fist mix of concreat and molded the ground up first, a thick layer of gray concreat as a basis and then when it's dryed up and hopefully not cracked up. I'll apply a 2nd layer of colord concreat, so the rocks will get a more natural look. But the color pigments for the concreat is not cheap, besides there is no need to color the whole mix as it only the surface you can see anyway. This is still far from done and it will still take alot of time untill im finnished, just updating my progress as it do happen and I did not forget about this thread either. 8) Have a great day Pali
Heika I shure will mate, it's just a matter of finding time for working on the cage. Got a new aquatank this week too, but that was a "impulse" buy on a trip to the petshop looking for a camel spider. LOL They had a rare Cichlid that me and my brother have been looking for in years since my brothers breading couples died, well the 2 males both jumped out of the tank as they jump alot above the water surface. Well there we where and they had this neoLamprologus boulengeri cichlid, we just had to buy it as my brother would not leave the store without them. So I had to buy a tank and the fish coz my brother didn't have any money with him, so that way I ended up with a small 112L lake tankaniya tank and I will get a 560 L tank from my brother sometime this month. That way we will be able to bread this fish together in my aparatment as I got lot's of room, thats gonna be fun too I bet and my brother is more or less a cichkid ekspert so I trust he will be able to help me with any problems I might have. YAY Pali
I have done some more work on the fake rocks, tested the coloring pigments im useing to color the concreat rocks when they are dryed. So I painted the first layed and to my surprise it colored way more then I had ekspected, so im glad I did this and got to know that I got to be carefull applying the colors. Then I applyed a 2nd layer where it was needed and finished the waterfall, so now it just have to dry and the coloring is not 100% done yet. It's getting somewhere now and this cage is starting to look like somthing, but there are still alot of work left but everyone should be able to see this project is staring to get somewhere. Base Coating (Red/Orange) 2nd Coating (Sand) I don't know how many coatings I will apply, its my first time makeing a fake rock this size and it's a bit different then for a small terrarium I must say. Any sugestions and coments are very welcome, but id like to keep the rocks in a red to grayish color and maybe a faint staint of yellowish grains. Im useing oxid pigments, it's prety cheap and non toxic to the animals when it's dry. Only negative side is it really limits your choice of colors, but I can easy live with it for this rocks as this is the colors I want em. Stay happy Palindrome
Wow, it is coming right along, Pali. One question for you.. with all the rock work, it looks like you are limiting your ability to plant it heavily. Or, am I not seeing all of the areas where you plan to put plants in? Also, what is that twisty stick off to the side there? It looks perfect for a chameleon enclosure. Heika
@Randy yes it's build into my apartment, I have checked with my lanlord and everything is build so it can be removed with a big hammer. My lanlord is old and I have a deal with him that he let me buy the apartment when he retire in a few years, eitherway I have paper work done so aslong I pay my rent I can't get evicted and I got rights to rebuild the bilding as I pleace. @Heika it's still not done yet but I got the last supplys home for it, now it's just a matter of finding time to get the last work done. The wall's are not done yet and the back ground you see it a great media for Epiphyte Plants like Orchids or Bromeliads, soo when the walls are done they will be base for moss, orchids and diffrent bromelias. But at first im gonna keep it more dry area, the exhaust and all need to be done before I can do a rainforest in there or my apatment will be to humid and stuff will rot. Pali
