Mucky_Waters
New Member
Scooter4n saw a picture of my chameleon enclosure in the gallery and sent me a private message commenting on it and asked "can you please tell us about it with more details??". So, rather than just reply privately to (him?) I thought it would be better to reply by way of a thread in the enclosure forum.
So here goes....
My chameleon enclosure started as a sort of aquarium/terrarium thingy. It was designed with a removable, formed cement and foam solid land mass area, like a little island, that has hollowed out formed areas for placing 4" plant pots. The idea is that it would be easy to change plants, simply pull out the old pot and place in a new one.
The island also has a built in water line that feeds a small pool at the top, so that water can be pumped up to the top pool to create a little waterfall.. The original design had a small submersible pump located in the aquarium itself, this has since been replaced with a external Fluval type filter with a built in pump. This Fluval filter system is rated for a 100 gallon aquarium and is overkill for the small amount of water I have in my system (less than 10 gallons), but the extra circulation and filtering capacity insures that the water stays as clean as possible and maintenance is reduced. This is what the original terrarium looked like Terrarium Tank
When considering using this for a chameleon enclosure two things were obvious. (A): it needed more room with climbing and basking area for a chameleon, and (B): it would never be suitable for a female chameleon as there is no significant dirt area for a female to use when she became gravid. To take care of (A) I developed the top cage area that sits on top of the aquarium/terrarium tank.
The top lid of the top cage area is removable and has built in UV light and basking spot lights. The back board is waterproof plastic and holds two hanging, removable plant pots. To take care of (B) I simply got a male chameleon.
The whole thing was designed to be easily disassembled into smaller units for moving and easy cleaning.
The most significant departure I see from traditional chameleon enclosures is the water area in the bottom of the tank. In most case you don't want to have standing water in the bottom for fear of mold or bacterial growth, but in this case the water is constantly being circulated and filtered. The Fluval filter is nitrifying bacteria, bio-filter and mechanical filter commonly used in aquarium systems and, as mentioned earlier, it is more than adequate for the small amount of water it is filtering.
There is really very little open water area for my chameleon to fall into, and that open water has pothos vines growing throughout it and usually some water hyacinth growing in it, so there is almost no chance of drowning, especially now that he is adult size. The plant root systems growing in the water also help to purify the water by assimilating the nutrient byproducts of the bio-filtration process.
I have one goldfish living in the water area and a seldom seen small firebellied toad that spends most of his time hiding in the upper pool area concealed by the thick vegetation. They have all been living together in relative harmony for over a year now, so I guess the system works.
This is the picture from the gallery of what the finished terrarium/chameleon enclosure looks like now Click Here
So here goes....
My chameleon enclosure started as a sort of aquarium/terrarium thingy. It was designed with a removable, formed cement and foam solid land mass area, like a little island, that has hollowed out formed areas for placing 4" plant pots. The idea is that it would be easy to change plants, simply pull out the old pot and place in a new one.
The island also has a built in water line that feeds a small pool at the top, so that water can be pumped up to the top pool to create a little waterfall.. The original design had a small submersible pump located in the aquarium itself, this has since been replaced with a external Fluval type filter with a built in pump. This Fluval filter system is rated for a 100 gallon aquarium and is overkill for the small amount of water I have in my system (less than 10 gallons), but the extra circulation and filtering capacity insures that the water stays as clean as possible and maintenance is reduced. This is what the original terrarium looked like Terrarium Tank
When considering using this for a chameleon enclosure two things were obvious. (A): it needed more room with climbing and basking area for a chameleon, and (B): it would never be suitable for a female chameleon as there is no significant dirt area for a female to use when she became gravid. To take care of (A) I developed the top cage area that sits on top of the aquarium/terrarium tank.
The top lid of the top cage area is removable and has built in UV light and basking spot lights. The back board is waterproof plastic and holds two hanging, removable plant pots. To take care of (B) I simply got a male chameleon.
The whole thing was designed to be easily disassembled into smaller units for moving and easy cleaning.
The most significant departure I see from traditional chameleon enclosures is the water area in the bottom of the tank. In most case you don't want to have standing water in the bottom for fear of mold or bacterial growth, but in this case the water is constantly being circulated and filtered. The Fluval filter is nitrifying bacteria, bio-filter and mechanical filter commonly used in aquarium systems and, as mentioned earlier, it is more than adequate for the small amount of water it is filtering.
There is really very little open water area for my chameleon to fall into, and that open water has pothos vines growing throughout it and usually some water hyacinth growing in it, so there is almost no chance of drowning, especially now that he is adult size. The plant root systems growing in the water also help to purify the water by assimilating the nutrient byproducts of the bio-filtration process.
I have one goldfish living in the water area and a seldom seen small firebellied toad that spends most of his time hiding in the upper pool area concealed by the thick vegetation. They have all been living together in relative harmony for over a year now, so I guess the system works.
This is the picture from the gallery of what the finished terrarium/chameleon enclosure looks like now Click Here
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