too much water in the tank...suggestions?

whitespyder

whitespyder

New Member
im having a problem with water accumulating in my chams cage. shes in a 38 gallon vertical Reptarium which is lined with a SofTray cage liner and i have some substrate at the bottom covered with fiberglass window screening so that some moisture can be caught for humidity and she wont be able to access it. theres also a small tupperware to collect water underneath her dripper and a lay bin which takes up nearly half the bottom. i mist frequently and all that water is making mud in her lay bin. do you guys have any suggestions on how to collect the water since its being sprayed throughout the whole cage in this type of tank without me having to suspend the entire cage on top of a water collecting tray?

heres a pic of the bottom of her enclosure so you have a better idea.
IMG_0971.jpg


thanks guys :)
 
I have a PVC bottom on my cages and set them on top of some blocks on the table. I drilled some holes in the center of the PVC. My plants sit in the center and weight it down slightly. This makes the water drain out. I put some cheap $3 trays under the cage to catch the water. I mist on a timer 4 times a day and this system works great for me. It alows the cage to dry out a little between mistings and especially at night when it should be dry to avoid mold growth. I would be careful with all that moisture you have in there for mold or bacteria.
 
thanks for the suggestion. its a good idea but my only problem is that i dont want to poke holes through the cage's liner and mesh and suspend it. im thinking of either switching the two tupperwares inside so that the larger tupperware is collecting the water and the smaller is the temporary laybin. (she has a 5 gallon bucket that ill transport her to once i see signs of digging)
also how do you prevent your plants inside your cage from getting over watered? i think ill end up killing any plant inside this cage lol
 
A couple of ideas...if you are hand spraying, why not put something like a flexible cutting board or lid over the laying bin while you do it? Just remove it when you are finished. It will keep the bulk of the water out of it anyway. As for overwatering plants, use a faster draining potting mix with lots of drain holes in the bottom. Frequent spraying isn't really the problem, it is saturated soil. Make your soil mix with a lot more perlite or pumice and put some pebbles in the bottom of the pot to aid drainage. You can cover the perlite on the soil surface with river stones or windowscreen to keep the cham from picking it up on its tongue. A small fan set down low to blow across the cage bottom will help dry it out too.
 
thank you, ill keep that in mind when i add potted plants :) ill also try the fan idea out since i have a small one (and i wont be needing it since its getting colder where i live lol)
 
ive been getting into the habit of cover her laybin. i was worried that she would hide and then not drink after seeing my hand enter the cage to place a cover, but if i sneak it she doesnt seem to be bothered :)

i also turned her laying bin into a water catching receptacle which is working out nicely and i added a new smaller laybin for digging.
 
Hi whitespyder,

here are few few added ideas...

first off, edit your "details" in the "user CP" to add where you live.
this way someone like me can know where you live and understand what the humidity is like in your area...see how to the right of my post it says I live in the NYC area?
people here will know that my humidity is quite low in the winter months, but in the summer I have tons of humidity even with an AC running almost all day.

so where do you live? what is the humidity like in your home right now (not your cage, your home)?

next, mist only 2 or 3 times per day and give plenty of time to let your cage dry out between mistings. ( I wait 2 to 4 hours between mistings)
if your humidity inside the cage is between 40%-60% I can't see you misting any more then 3 times per day....use about 5 to 8 ounces of water directed at the plant leaves and the back of the cage....everything doesn't have to get wet, just the leaves and the back of the cage.
hang a large beach towel on the back of the cage to catch any extra water and it will help your humidity levels stay high.

you seem to be using a dripper. that's good if you are.
how many times are you running a dripper, and for how long does it drip?
if you are dripping about 40 to 80 ounces of water per each time you "drip", then you can cut back on your misting by one time.
so if you are misting 4 times a day and you are using a dripper with 50 ounces of water each time, 2 times per day, that is way over doing it unless your humidity is bellow 40% in the cage between mistings/drippings.
cut back on one dripping or 2 mistings and you'll have a ton less water in the cage and less disinfecting/cleaning to do each week...that includes that substrate you are using on the bottom of the cage that you will have to replace.

personaly, if I were you, I would only mist 2 or 3 times per day (due to the humidity in the cage) and drip once per day (about 20-40 ounces of water) per day, unless you have a cham that needs alot of humidity/water intake (example: a quad). (sorry, I think you have a panther but I forgot.)

with out knowing where you live and what your humidity levels are in the cage when the cage is "dry" (between mistings/drippings, it's hard to say for sure what you need to do.
yet a better way to help your cham have added humidity is to get rid of that substrate and buy a cool mist humidifier that will add humidity to your room and not cause health problems from mold and bacterial growth inside your cage like the substrate is doing for you now.

again, some quick questions that need a reply:
1) where do you live again?
2) what is the humidity in your cage before you mist/drip?
3) how many times per day are you misting? how much water each time you mist?
4) how many times do you drip? how much water each time?
5) what kind of cham do you have again?

Harry
 
You might want to take out that substrate from the bottom of the cage i had to let you know before people bash you in the head for having it. Chances are she wont lay in that small tupperware you have set up for her, so try and set up her live plants and give it a go with a bigger laying container. I would also get a PVC bottom for the cage and drill a couple holes in the PVC and a couple more in the liner. I know you said that you did not want to cut into the liner. But if you do it you will be happy in the long run. Your time is worth more than a $20 liner. Thats the way I think of it. :p The liner will also help you with leading all the excess water into one place, whether it be a bucket or a tupperware or anything to collect water. You would also need to place the cage on eather bricks or some wood. :D I hope I was of some sort of help to you.

-Clemonde
 
I would take everything out of the bottom except the dripper catch bowl. Plant a real plant in a pot. Get a pot that is a lot larger than the plant... like a shallow 12" terracotta pot. There will be enough room for her to snoop around in the soil to signal you that she is ready to lay. You will also know when she is ready because her belly will look like she has a sack of marbles hidden in her belly. ;)

The live plant will provide humidity and something she can chew on and eat if she likes. Use organic orchid potting soil and if there are any big clumps remove them so she doesn't eat them. Also mix some sand into the soil so it drains the water better. I would use a ficus.
 
This is the drainage I had set up on my reptarium....

IMG_6078RS.jpg


IMG_6073RS.jpg


IMG_6072RS.jpg


You cut a hole in the center of your plastic tray and glue the funnel to it....
 
Not sure where you live or what the temp is, but I'd be careful with the substrate. In the temps I'm in (warmer climate) I'd get rid of the substrate because of possibility of bacteria and mold. I like your cage set up though. How difficult would it be to raise it so you could catch fallen water and dispose of it?
 
warpdrive said:
1) where do you live again?
2) what is the humidity in your cage before you mist/drip?
3) how many times per day are you misting? how much water each time you mist?
4) how many times do you drip? how much water each time?
5) what kind of cham do you have again?
Click to expand...

thanks harry, thats alot of good advice!
i have a female veiled chameleon, about 6 months old. i live in new jersey and the humidity in the cage before i mist and drip is usually 50-55. i mist at least 2 times a day using 20-25 ounces in total and i leave her dripper on in between mistings since shes been stimulated to drink by the misting. it drips about 16 ounces and i have a container directly underneath to collect the unused water. after i mist the humidity gets up to 60 but i havent really seen it get past that ever. i do use towels on two sides of the tank so i dont soak my wall. i aim the mister at the leaves but the water gets concentrated and it drips on the bottom. i use both the mister and dripper for her to drink and im worried that shes not drinking enough because her urates are small (but white) and shes a bit slow when licking water droplets, usually missing them.


clemonde,
yeah i guess ill have to drill some holes, ill only be using these mesh cages for chams anyway and if i ever want another liner i can make an easy one with some old unused pool liner. i figure i can add a plant in the middle to weigh the liner and mesh down (as MNChams has suggested) and have a tray underneath to collect the water. hopefully my cham will appreciate all this renovating to her cage!

summoner12,
thanks, i just bought a small pothos yesterday and was wondering what a safe soil would be to re-pot it in. i have a medium size ficus for her to sit on whenever i clean her cage and hopefully someday i can make a cage large enough that would fit the ficus inside :)
 
oh wow, thats a great idea! thanks for posting those pictures :)


philanddeb818,
im going to get rid of the substrate and add a plant inside the cage for humidity. im in NJ and its getting cooler now and also less humid. im definately going to raise the tank up and set a tray underneath to catch excess water :)
 
hi again whitespyder,

adding a few large plants like a large ficus or two and pothos will help your humidity a little. you can hang the pothos from the top too to add some great hanging vines as it grows.

I'm from Brooklyn btw, and your humidity is already starting to drop outside alot over the past few days. when you get rid of the substrate you will find that even with the plants your humidity will drop alot in the next few months. I highly beg you to get a cool-mist room humidifier...PM me for more info if needed for what to buy and other usefull info on how to care for the humidifier.

you do not need to mist with that much water each time.
try only 10 ounces and you'll be fine.
she's not gona drink from the bottom of the cage, so just enough to more then soak the leaves and stems of the plants is all that's needed since you use a dripper.
your dripper amount is perfect, so don't change that unless you see a change in her urates...her urates sound great. they will not be large like some other reptiles all the time and they shrink alot as they dry out.

I'm kinda wondering what you use for a thermometer and hygrometer?
I use this...
http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...a-digital-thermometer--hygrometer-with-probe/

I also use a spare cheap analog garbage too in different spots then just my basking area (temp probe) and midway up the back (humidity probe) to see the temps at the bottom and humidity at the very top, as they will be different.

a drain in the bottom of the cage is great, but also adding hight to the cage will make her feel more happy and secure.
you are on your way to having a wonderful pet inclosure, so keep asking questions and PM me anytime.

btw, you can use any organic soil to repot the pothos, I use mirical grow organic as that was all I found.

Harry
 
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