Exo-Terra Monsoon

[exasperatus2002]

DO NOT buy the monsoon...it is garbarge

I concur, I have one and it's been replaced under warranty twice now in the past year. I should have paid extra for a must king!

 

[MelissaB]

That's fair. I see lots of reviews raving about how quiet the pump itself is. Not to mention this will only be going off every few hours for only a short time…so not an issue for me.

Also, the fact that you say it's right next to your computer gives me confidence that it won't overspray with the mist and is very well built

It is pretty good with the overspray, but I do have 3 sides covered on both of my cages to keep the humidity up. I really like them, and more importantly so do my chameleons. They'll either wait for their shower, or notice that it came on and get underneath it. It's very cool to watch.

 

[jcarlsen]

It is pretty good with the overspray, but I do have 3 sides covered on both of my cages to keep the humidity up. I really like them, and more importantly so do my chameleons. They'll either wait for their shower, or notice that it came on and get underneath it. It's very cool to watch.

What do you use for side covering, btw? I don't even have a cham yet, but I'm thinking way ahead to it's adult cage. I'm wondering whether or not to get the keeper or breeder series from Dragonstrand.

 

[antalaotra]

I've had 3 Monsoon systems, each one has broken in less then 6 months, they are not worth the money and very cheaply made! Save yourself the money and go with a mist king, it is more money initially but it will last a long, long time!!!!

 

[MelissaB]

What do you use for side covering, btw? I don't even have a cham yet, but I'm thinking way ahead to it's adult cage. I'm wondering whether or not to get the keeper or breeder series from Dragonstrand.

On one cage I have plastic panels, called coroplast from HomeDepot that I cut to size. On the other I have a clear shower curtain cut to size and held taut to the cage with a super strong velcro. Both work really well.
Make sure you have a plan for drainage, it'll save you a headache later on. I have a water tray from LLLReptile under one cage and a washing machine drainage pan under the other. I like the LLLReptile tray better, but they both work well. I have a fitting with a hose on each and drain the water into a 5 gallon bucket.

The Dragonstrand cages look really nice. If I was getting one, it'd probably be the breeder series cage. I like how it looks and that it has the solid sides.

 

[ridgebax1]

I've been curious about getting an aquazamp eventually. I really like the idea of the rain dome, but what about the noise?

I've only seen two videos of it working on youtube and it sounds horrifyingly loud and annoying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWJSfCoS0f8&channel=sericinda

This noise went away fairly quickly. I think that it is just gets quieter as the air is removed from the system as it would reoccur if the reservoir happened to run dry while I was at work. I used the shrink plastic that was made for window insulation. I put it on up to 3 sides of my enclosures.

 

[jcarlsen]

On one cage I have plastic panels, called coroplast from HomeDepot that I cut to size. On the other I have a clear shower curtain cut to size and held taut to the cage with a super strong velcro. Both work really well.
Make sure you have a plan for drainage, it'll save you a headache later on. I have a water tray from LLLReptile under one cage and a washing machine drainage pan under the other. I like the LLLReptile tray better, but they both work well. I have a fitting with a hose on each and drain the water into a 5 gallon bucket.

The Dragonstrand cages look really nice. If I was getting one, it'd probably be the breeder series cage. I like how it looks and that it has the solid sides.

Yeah, drainage is gonna be a thing for sure with me, at least in the adult cage. I was thinking of ordering a drainage tray from DragonStrand as well, and I was going to drill a small hole and run some tubing from it back into the reservoir to hopefully save some water.

 

[MelissaB]

Yeah, drainage is gonna be a thing for sure with me, at least in the adult cage. I was thinking of ordering a drainage tray from DragonStrand as well, and I was going to drill a small hole and run some tubing from it back into the reservoir to hopefully save some water.

Oooh, you don't want to reuse the water for your misting system. It'll have anything (bug parts, feces, anything that was in the soil, etc) in the water from dripping down and into your drainage tray. You definitely don't want your chameleon to drink it. I use it to water the plants outside.
The Dragonstrand trays look great, they'd make figuring out your drainage system easy.

 

[jcarlsen]

Oooh, you don't want to reuse the water for your misting system. It'll have anything (bug parts, feces, anything that was in the soil, etc) in the water from dripping down and into your drainage tray. You definitely don't want your chameleon to drink it. I use it to water the plants outside.
The Dragonstrand trays look great, they'd make figuring out your drainage system easy.

Thanks for the heads up! I also don't want to clog the misting system with the bug parts either.


This is the modification to the dragonstrand drainage tray I was talking about as well…looks very easy to do: https://www.chameleonforums.com/cage-drainage-system-61692/

Unfortunately, it looks as if they're draining back into the reservoir, but I've got two 5 gallon buckets that I hardly use that I can drain excess water into

 

[MelissaB]

You're welcome. They might have more than one cage set up for drainage and have 2 hoses for that reason. You're also right that the runoff water would probably clog your mistheads, too. The first couple times that I empty the bucket after adding a new plant, the water is brown, like compost tea.