Setting up new habitat - a few questions

[Bonginator]

I am getting a 3-4 month old panther male and setting up a 16 x 16 x 30 temporary cage for him. I will upgrade to 2x2x48 when he is older. And a bit bigger.

I have a few questions:

1. I have a 50 watt daytime Exo terra blue heat lamp. How far above the cage should this be typically?

2. I have a pothos and some small width 6' reptivines. How far from the ceiling of the cage should I run the vines and plant tops to start tho first time before measuring temp?

3. Do I also need to get a nighttime red heat lamp if our house temps usually go down to 55-60 at night?

4. I am ordering either an aquazamp or mistking rain dome and extra misters. Do I need the misters if I have the rain dome or is that overkill? (We live in CO where it is very dry.)

5. Can you use aquazamp misters/rain dome on a mistking system and visa versa?

Note: I ordered a t5ho setup with and Arcadia 6% lamp so I have a UVB light as well.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[JPawHD]

Congrats on getting a panther chameleon! I would put the heat lamp about 4 inches or so above the cage just so the screen doesn't get to hot. Baby chameleons will climb on the top off the cages sometimes and you don't want him to get any burns. The plants can go anywhere really but I would probably put my pothos like 6 inches or more from the top. Don't put it right underneath the heat lamp either. I would put the vines about 4-6 inches under the heat lamp for the basking area. You want to make the cage so that the temperatures drop throughout the cage so the chameleon can have different temperature zones. For the vines you want to give the chameleon lots of options to climb and hide. So be creative and have fun with it You do not want to heat your chameleon at night! Chameleons can with stand 50 degrees at night at the lowest. Chameleons need complete darkness at night to sleep and let there metabolism function correctly. For the aquazamp and mist king either or both are great! Chameleons are kind of hard lizards for drinking so providing him with a lot options during the day is great! I'm not completely sure about question 5.
Hope this helps and have fun with creating you're chameleons new home!

 

[DeremensisBlue]

The only things not compatible between Mist King and Aqua Zamp are the screen wedges. All other fittings or nozzles or RainDome are based on industry standard 1/4" tubing so you are able to interchange.
Bill

 

[Bonginator]

Has anyone tried the mist king rain dome? Likes or dislikes as compared to Aquazamp's low profile dome?

 

[APailthorp]

I have the MistKing "rain dome". For $17.50 it is just what it looks like, three T junctions and a mist head with some bits of tubing. I added an old large plastic tupperware bowl over it to direct mist downward to the screen so it all drips through (and none of it drifts to moisten the lamps).

It works fine, just as I'd like. I think the components are more flexible than the $40 plastic bowl with two mounted mist heads from AquaZamp. For example, I'm going to add an additional T to mine so I can make it flow through and route a full loop back to the "zip drip" pressure relief valve.

Another way to go would be to just drill a hole in a plastic bowl, then mount a mist head inside and put the inverted bowl on the top screen. I may do that later.

But the totally fabricated AquaZamp box is a nicer looking package than my MistKing "rain dome" and inverted plastic bowl.

 

[Bonginator]

I have the MistKing "rain dome". For $17.50 it is just what it looks like, three T junctions and a mist head with some bits of tubing. I added an old large plastic tupperware bowl over it to direct mist downward to the screen so it all drips through (and none of it drifts to moisten the lamps).

It works fine, just as I'd like. I think the components are more flexible than the $40 plastic bowl with two mounted mist heads from AquaZamp. For example, I'm going to add an additional T to mine so I can make it flow through and route a full loop back to the "zip drip" pressure relief valve.

Another way to go would be to just drill a hole in a plastic bowl, then mount a mist head inside and put the inverted bowl on the top screen. I may do that later.

But the totally fabricated AquaZamp box is a nicer looking package than my MistKing "rain dome" and inverted plastic bowl.

Thanks. I was thinking of the bowl idea too and the flexibility of it. I appreciate the input!