Going all out on enclosure.

[Funnah]

So this will be my first cham. I wanted to get some advice from you guys on what I am in the process of buying him.

I am having a custom bio self sustaining madagascar ecosystem built in a 4'x3'x2' acrylic vivarium. I just want to know if i am overdoing it. I am going to copy paste the email on all it will entail. Let me know if i should request more things before i sign off on the build.

So, what I have for you right now is an estimate for a 4'x3'x2 enclosure with a 2'x3'x2' stand of wood construction. It also includes the following:
- MistKing misting system with reservoir, tubing, 2 nozzles pre-installed for you, heater, and timer
- Integrated Air Cycling System with fan included using our exclusive design
- Stand with 2 front-opening doors, soft-close hinges, 2 knobs, heavy duty casters (with stops and that won't leave marks on your floor, so you can easily move it and position it into place, then keep it there), and finish/color tbd
- Drainage system in base of vivarium with drainage reservoir in stand
- LED lighting with day and night cycles with remote control
- Combination basking/UVB bulb with screen and timer
- Analog ZooMed temp/humidity gauge
- Lanscape package with background, branches, plants, and substrate
- All wood exposed to interior vivarium (back and base) coated with waterproof epoxy
- Double front-opening doors (instead of the single sliding door of the glass enclosure you were considering) with hasp and lock for security
- Custom built wooden hood to match stand (estimated at 8" high)


Thanks for the help

Best

 

[Goose502]

If your dimensions are length x width x height, then you need different dimensions. The enclosure should be much taller, unless you’re keeping a ground dwelling species. The lighting requirements are VERY specific. I recommend consulting Todd from lightyourreptiles.com for this. Also, I personally avoid anything from zoomed. I wouldn’t trust my temp/humidity to their cheap gauges. I have 4 digital temp probs in my enclosure, all leading to a computer. This creates a truly automated enclosure.

 

[random user name]

If your dimensions are length x width x height, then you need different dimensions. The enclosure should be much taller, unless you’re keeping a ground dwelling species. The lighting requirements are VERY specific. I recommend consulting Todd from lightyourreptiles.com for this. Also, I personally avoid anything from zoomed. I wouldn’t trust my temp/humidity to their cheap gauges. I have 4 digital temp probs in my enclosure, all leading to a computer. This creates a truly automated enclosure.

Is it connected to a Raspberry Pi computer or an actual desktop?

Automation of things with computers is amazing. I have a friend who's into brewing beers and he hooked up some gauges, a fridge and some heat lamps to a raspberry pi computer to have a self brewing system. Just fan girling over your last sentence. Any info you can provide would be much appreciated as I want to eventually automate everything I can for my Panther Chameleon

 

[Goose502]

Is it connected to a Raspberry Pi computer or an actual desktop?

Automation of things with computers is amazing. I have a friend who's into brewing beers and he hooked up some gauges, a fridge and some heat lamps to a raspberry pi computer to have a self brewing system. Just fan girling over your last sentence. Any info you can provide would be much appreciated as I want to eventually automate everything I can for my Panther Chameleon

The raspberry pi thing is awesome. If I could code, I would totally use that. I bought a a herpkeeper from digital aquatics. They specialize in automation of reef tanks, so I figured their foray into reptiles would be pretty nice. I have to say I have very little negative to say about the system, outside of the price. The head unit is tiny, the control modules and monitoring gauges are a little clunky.

 

[Funnah]

My bad it’s 4’ H 3’ W 2’D

I was going to buy #176 from deep tiles but it was 1700 just for shipping it

 

[Funnah]

I want to give him the absolute best bio sustaining viv I can and I only found 2 places that would do it for me. I’m dropping 3-4000 on it

 

[Goose502]

My bad it’s 4’ H 3’ W 2’D

I was going to buy #176 from deep tiles but it was 1700 just for shipping it

Oh, ok that’s sounds great! I have a very large build looming in my head for the future. It will be very complex and expensive. I would imagine if I had it built for me though it would be thousands.

 

[Goose502]

I want to give him the absolute best bio sustaining viv I can and I only found 2 places that would do it for me. I’m dropping 3-4000 on it

Who is the builder? For that price I would demand extremely high quality instruments and lighting.

 

[Funnah]

Www.biovivara.com

 

[Funnah]

My phone autocorrected last message. I was going to get one from www.ddreptiles.co.uk but shipping was outrageous. Here is a pic of his.

 

[Goose502]

My phone autocorrected last message. I was going to get one from www.ddreptiles.co.uk but shipping was outrageous. Here is a pic of his.

I wouldn’t recommend that enclosure(176). For the price, it’s way too small. The pond is asking for problems, especially in such a small enclosure. There’s absolutely no need for the night lighting(I’m sure he’s charging for that), and the UVB situation doesn’t sound good. It’s beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but overpriced and not designed for a panther chameleon. Look through all the custom built enclosures on this forum. Only a few are more attractive, but most all of them provide better design for husbandry.

 

[Funnah]

I’m not going won’t that one anyway. The one from biovivara will do anything I ask of them. And it will be all an all natural bio ecosystem

 

[Funnah]

Unless you guys know of somewhere that I haven’t found that builds high end custom ones.

 

[Goose502]

Www.biovivara.com

Those look like biopod enclosures. Very nice cages.

 

[Funnah]

If your dimensions are length x width x height, then you need different dimensions. The enclosure should be much taller, unless you’re keeping a ground dwelling species. The lighting requirements are VERY specific. I recommend consulting Todd from lightyourreptiles.com for this. Also, I personally avoid anything from zoomed. I wouldn’t trust my temp/humidity to their cheap gauges. I have 4 digital temp probs in my enclosure, all leading to a computer. This creates a truly automated enclosure.

I will tell them to incorporate something along that nature, what’s the difference when I’m this far in cash wise

 

[Funnah]

Now I have to find the perfect little guy to go along with this masterpiece