Advice please for first chameleon

[CC's Baby]

Use organic soil, and put a layer of gravel/rocks on top so the cham can't ingest the dirt. I'm using pothos, schefflera (umbrella tree), and probably maranta (prayer plant), possibly fittonia. I think UVB helps plants, but it's not full spectrum 6500k.

That is a great idea! So yes, I am back to needing to know for sure what lighting for all 3 needs now? Would like to get a tube housing that holds the UVB for both the cham and the plants and then determine what is the best watt halogen bulb or other bulb for the dome light or basking area.

 

[ds15]

Wait until I talk to Todd, I will let you know what he says or if I think you should call him as well.

 

[CC's Baby]

Wait until I talk to Todd, I will let you know what he says or if I think you should call him as well.

Super. Thanks so much!

 

[Thehippie]

yes 18x1x36 is big enough make sure u have a LOT of sticks, jacksons like to climb like all chameleons

no the enclosure kits aren't very good, I cant say this very well as I haven't bought one but I don't think they come with everything needed I would just buy everything separate as per your chams needs I personally have 2 thermometers, one at the top and one at the bottom, and yes one hydrometer.

don't make anything in your cage permanent, it helps a lot to just take everything out and hose everything down

linear uvb 5.0 no compact, white heat bulb depending on where u llive you determine the wattage

gut load, that's feeding the bugs nutritional foods to keep them around longer and give your cham some extra nutrition and buy bulk online

I supplement flukers calcium with d3 and multivitamin every other week and flukers calcium no d3 every day, you can make your own gutload or buy some cricket crack or repashy online.

sorry I'm a little late in responding but hopefully this helps you, I had a jacksons for good amount of time, he was a rescue

 

[ds15]

yes 18x1x36 is big enough make sure u have a LOT of sticks, jacksons like to climb like all chameleons

no the enclosure kits aren't very good, I cant say this very well as I haven't bought one but I don't think they come with everything needed I would just buy everything separate as per your chams needs I personally have 2 thermometers, one at the top and one at the bottom, and yes one hydrometer.

don't make anything in your cage permanent, it helps a lot to just take everything out and hose everything down

linear uvb 5.0 no compact, white heat bulb depending on where u llive you determine the wattage

gut load, that's feeding the bugs nutritional foods to keep them around longer and give your cham some extra nutrition and buy bulk online

I supplement flukers calcium with d3 and multivitamin every other week and flukers calcium no d3 every day, you can make your own gutload or buy some cricket crack or repashy online.

sorry I'm a little late in responding but hopefully this helps you, I had a jacksons for good amount of time, he was a rescue

Yes it helps a lot thank you for your input.

 

[ds15]

Super. Thanks so much!

Talked to Todd last night about lighting and he gave me lots of other great advice too. Too much to post here, I would recommend giving him a call. He is extremely willing to help and answer any questions, and will give you advice based in your plans or current setup.

I would also recommend writing down any questions you have beforehand and keeping notes while you are talking with him.

 

[celeste_knitter]

There are some great combo lights for uvb & 6500k plant bulbs. Depending on you cage size & plant mix you might need more plant lighting than you think. There are led plant options too. In my long running thread there are a lot of plant lighting discussions, especially on LED

 

[CC's Baby]

There are some great combo lights for uvb & 6500k plant bulbs. Depending on you cage size & plant mix you might need more plant lighting than you think. There are led plant options too. In my long running thread there are a lot of plant lighting discussions, especially on LED

 

[CC's Baby]

Thanks Celeste -- Yes, I have determined that I am going to get a 8" dome basking flood lamp -- then a double 24" fixture for the T5 6" UVB bulb and the 6500 watt daylight bulb. Just price shopping on those right now. But I think it will work for me on a 2x2x4 setup. Excited about this! Keep the information coming because I am like a sponge right now

 

[dshuld]

I have planted fish tanks so I know at least a little about lighting.

Nice to see a fellow planted tank person here, finally!! . You run dirted or no?

 

[ds15]

Nice to see a fellow planted tank person here, finally!! . You run dirted or no?

Not yet. Haven't taken the plunge lol. Then in my main tank, my fish started destroying my plants

 

[dshuld]

Not yet. Haven't taken the plunge lol. Then in my main tank, my fish started destroying my plants

Gotcha, my first was fert balls in plain gravel. All of them after were dirted and capped with either black diamond or safe t sorb. Since you have an idea on planted tanks, let me finish painting these walls requick then I'll try to go into the "technical stuff" you didn't understand in Lola's thread a little more. With the exception of uvb here, there's not much difference between the two in a way.

 

[ds15]

Gotcha, my first was fert balls in plain gravel. All of them after were dirted and capped with either black diamond or safe t sorb. Since you have an idea on planted tanks, let me finish painting these walls requick then I'll try to go into the "technical stuff" you didn't understand in Lola's thread a little more. With the exception of uvb here, there's not much difference between the two in a way.

I haven't got into high tech yet. Pretty low PAR lights and easy plants. I was thinking about getting more into it, then I wanted a chameleon! Haha.

 

[dshuld]

I haven't got into high tech yet. Pretty low PAR lights and easy plants. I was thinking about getting more into it, then I wanted a chameleon! Haha.

I ran my 55's, 75's low tech low-medium to high-medium., my 20L was high-medium/ high-high depedning on where I had the planted plus on it. Before I got into chams I did change one of my 75's to high tech high light and ran it that way for 6 or so months. Now I stare at my empty tanks thinking I may set them back up one day lol.

Anyways, what in Lola's thread didn't you understand and I'll try to explain that first?

 

[ds15]

I ran my 55's, 75's low tech low-medium to high-medium., my 20L was high-medium/ high-high depedning on where I had the planted plus on it. Before I got into chams I did change one of my 75's to high tech high light and ran it that way for 6 or so months. Now I stare at my empty tanks thinking I may set them back up one day lol.

Anyways, what in Lola's thread didn't you understand and I'll try to explain that first?

After looking at it, some of the stuff was posted by another member about his DIY build, post #62. You don't have to go through all that.

How does CRI factor into plant lighting? I know from aquatic plants that they like red and blue light for photosynthesis, correct? Is that what CRI is? Never heard that referenced before.

Also, I have seen the PAR rating for the LED plant lights, for example the JD 40W, is a few thousand PAR. When high light for an aquarium is only 80ish. Why the difference, assuming I am looking at it correctly?

 

[dshuld]

After looking at it, some of the stuff was posted by another member about his DIY build, post #62. You don't have to go through all that.

How does CRI factor into plant lighting? I know from aquatic plants that they like red and blue light for photosynthesis, correct? Is that what CRI is? Never heard that referenced before.

Also, I have seen the PAR rating for the LED plant lights, for example the JD 40W, is a few thousand PAR. When high light for an aquarium is only 80ish. Why the difference, assuming I am looking at it correctly?

Cri - color rendering idex - is basically a scale of how "true" to natural light that bulb/ led will make colors appear to our eyes. Typically a higher cri is going to have higher strength waves on the red end of the spectrum. The stronger reds is a bonus on higher cri but for me personally, 80 cri is usually the most "appealing" rendering of what I'm looking at. Kind of an eye of the beholder type thing.

Where the reds really come in to play is for flowering plants. Plants need both ends but easiest way to think about it, blue ends strong point is vegetative growth, red ends strong point is flowering in terrestrial plants. All plants need both ends to varying degrees but that is an easy way to think about it. In our tanks red waves don't travel as far and are used differently. Take some of the ludwigia species for example. In the emersed form several have flowers and look like weeds lol. Submersed form no flowers but we use the red waves to bring on varying shades of color on the same plant. Ludwigia senegalensis is a great example for this. Depending on how the spd between the bubs is manipulated you'll see brilliant yellows, oranges and reds. Glandulosa can get some really deep reds with adding in more red spectrum too.

Terrestrial par if I recall correctly is ~ 1600 in direct open sun while in shaded areas is ~ 90. In our tanks were trying to mimic the reduced light effect of a lake or river. Though, I did pull some beautiful red val from weeki watchi river several years ago which is spring fed and clear water for several miles lol. It had been nibbled on by a manatee and was floatiing so I scooped it up as I paddled haha.

Here are some citizen spd charts to give you a visual on the stronger reds in higher cri. Look at the 4000k line from about 630 over towards the 700's

 

[ds15]

Question about gut loading: I been researching keeping feeder insect alive long term and possibly breeding. I see it recommended to gut load about 24-48 hrs before feeding them to your cham, but I would like to know if you guys separate the "chosen ones" into another gut loading-specific bin or do you gut load the whole colony then pick out the feeders?

Maybe to further clarify, should I plan on feeding the colony fruit/veggies and other food to keep them alive, then gut load the "chosen ones", or do you feed a consistent diet of gut load to the whole colony?

This way I save money on gut loading supplement. I have watched countless videos and read tons of articles about this but for some reason I could not find the answer to this specific question. Thanks!

 

[ds15]

Cri - color rendering idex - is basically a scale of how "true" to natural light that bulb/ led will make colors appear to our eyes. Typically a higher cri is going to have higher strength waves on the red end of the spectrum. The stronger reds is a bonus on higher cri but for me personally, 80 cri is usually the most "appealing" rendering of what I'm looking at. Kind of an eye of the beholder type thing.

Where the reds really come in to play is for flowering plants. Plants need both ends but easiest way to think about it, blue ends strong point is vegetative growth, red ends strong point is flowering in terrestrial plants. All plants need both ends to varying degrees but that is an easy way to think about it. In our tanks red waves don't travel as far and are used differently. Take some of the ludwigia species for example. In the emersed form several have flowers and look like weeds lol. Submersed form no flowers but we use the red waves to bring on varying shades of color on the same plant. Ludwigia senegalensis is a great example for this. Depending on how the spd between the bubs is manipulated you'll see brilliant yellows, oranges and reds. Glandulosa can get some really deep reds with adding in more red spectrum too.

Terrestrial par if I recall correctly is ~ 1600 in direct open sun while in shaded areas is ~ 90. In our tanks were trying to mimic the reduced light effect of a lake or river. Though, I did pull some beautiful red val from weeki watchi river several years ago which is spring fed and clear water for several miles lol. It had been nibbled on by a manatee and was floatiing so I scooped it up as I paddled haha.

Here are some citizen spd charts to give you a visual on the stronger reds in higher cri. Look at the 4000k line from about 630 over towards the 700's

View attachment 220630View attachment 220631

I collected some ludwigia from a friend's pond. It was really dark red because it grew in the shallow water by the bank. When I put it in my tank, only the upper 1/4 of the plant had reddish leaves, all the rest were green. Pretty cool to see how it responded to change in environment. Anyway I love talking fish tanks but I'll steer this thread back on topic so we don't bore everybody else lol.

 

[dshuld]

Question about gut loading: I been researching keeping feeder insect alive long term and possibly breeding. I see it recommended to gut load about 24-48 hrs before feeding them to your cham, but I would like to know if you guys separate the "chosen ones" into another gut loading-specific bin or do you gut load the whole colony then pick out the feeders?

Maybe to further clarify, should I plan on feeding the colony fruit/veggies and other food to keep them alive, then gut load the "chosen ones", or do you feed a consistent diet of gut load to the whole colony?

This way I save money on gut loading supplement. I have watched countless videos and read tons of articles about this but for some reason I could not find the answer to this specific question. Thanks!

I feed my my colonies as a whole the same stuff my seperated bugs get personally. I figure that way should the "chosen ones" not eat at all during the time before they are fed off they've gotten good nutrition bwfore hand.

 

[dshuld]

I collected some ludwigia from a friend's pond. It was really dark red because it grew in the shallow water by the bank. When I put it in my tank, only the upper 1/4 of the plant had reddish leaves, all the rest were green. Pretty cool to see how it responded to change in environment. Anyway I love talking fish tanks but I'll steer this thread back on topic so we don't bore everybody else lol.

Lol sorry, it was way past my bed time when I typed that out . Basically what I was driving at though is where we target red spectrums for flowering in terrestrial plants, we use the same reds to "stress" the plants in tanks into color shifts. I read a study by I believe it was UF a while back that gave an estimate of what a bunch of everyday plants light needs were. I found it while looking into hibiscus specifically as I wanted them permanently in Lola's cage. From what I recall it showed needing 45% or so on the 660nm wave length for flower production. If I can find it again I'll link it as it had a lot of good info for our plant selections.