Matt Vanilla Gorilla
Chameleon Enthusiast
I would take a large soda bottle and cut it do that you have a cone. Slide the opening over the pole with the cone facing down.
Kind of like the drawing.
Ugh stupid mistake! Need ideas please!
- Thread starter jamest0o0
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Mawtyplant
Chameleon Enthusiast
just.. remove the pole and fix your lightening system to the ceiling with rope?
opheliaeatsbugs
Avid Member
Great ideas! I thought of the disk idea, too.
Jimbo the man
New Member
tell him No
jamest0o0
Chameleon Enthusiast
@Mawtyplant that's what I was thinking too, just removing the top and hang my lighting somehow. I took the top and light off for the night. Unfortunately I think I may just go back to using cages. I'm getting a tegu in the coming months and I think everything would just be more secure and organized If i lined up the cages. If so going to either build something or get the large clearsided atrium(which looks nicest imo)... I'll save the free ranges for a future parsonii lol.
Brokaylacham
Established Member
I agree with the pvc pipe idea.
Striders_mom
Member
I gotta say, I went the large clear side atrium/ramen noodle route, and I am LOVING it!! (went bioactive with custom substrate tray & walls, heavily planted) Love what you did with this, though! Now that my guy has such fancy digs, he wants out ALL the time
...I think he's hunting for a girl! I may just have to borrow your ideas here and make a free range playground for him
Striders_mom
Member
I'm not handy, so Bill and his team at DragonStrand built one for me. I ordered it with the easy drip drainage tray (the external drainage tray might not be as advisable after doing more research about bio-activity, but am working around it by capturing the drain water and putting it back into the viv by hand so as not to lose the good nutrients in that water). That is why I had to drill holes into it. It is 6' deep, with a small ledge/lip around the top. I did only a minimal drainage layer due to the outer drainage tray and to maximize the soil depth.
Sorry, don't know how useful the pic is, but it is the only one I took. I'm thrilled with how it has turned out though!!
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jamest0o0
Chameleon Enthusiast
Looks very nice you should get a picture of your full cage sometime you get the chance! And yeah as for the drainage I have a valve glued into the bottom of my stands that I can use to manually drain whenever. I also used some wider holed vinyl screen instead of landscaping cloth to allow the roots to grow into the drainage layer. Similar to hydroponics.
Your substrate is 6 feet deep?!?!?! Or did I read that wrong lol
Your substrate is 6 feet deep?!?!?! Or did I read that wrong lol
Classy
Member
Classy
Member
This is really random, but what substrate did you use james and striders?
Striders_mom
Member
Haha, nope, that's me completely...I'm in denial that I need reading glasses and couldn't see that I typed a ' instead of a " !! It is 6 inches deep. Here's a pic of the front...
I chose the screen barrier as well so that the roots and microfauna could pass through. Amazing the things that I was able to research - I've never done anything like this before. It was super interesting to research and then to pulll it all together. The viv was completed two weeks ago and things seem like they're nice and stable (though it looks like I'm losing my salaginella (sp?)), and Strider sure seems happy!
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Striders_mom
Member
For my substrate, I used a mix of various things - Reptisoil, NEHerps abg type mix, Organic indoor potting soil, and the magic ingredient...organic worm castings (I think I did 6 parts reptisoil, 6 parts potting, 4 parts NEHerps, 4 parts worm castings). I put this together after a lot of research on bio-active soil mixes and listening to a great podcast that Bill Strand (from Dragon Strand) does, where he did two 1 hour interviews with the bio-active "guru" John Courteney-Smith. Highly recommend listening to his podcasts if you're thinking of going bio...saved me some heartache! Anyway, so far, so good!
Striders_mom
Member
This is really random, but what substrate did you use?
Sorry, I don't think I did the reply thing correctly - but I did answer your question re: substrate, it just appeared separately...
jamest0o0
Chameleon Enthusiast
Love it! thanks for posting! I Use sunshine mix #4 covered with a thin layer of topsoil. I like the topsoil because it seems to add a lot of life and the chams can eat it if they like. What did you use for your background? Sounds like we followed the same guidelines from the bioactive podcast. Did you buy the book on wild re creation?
jamest0o0
Chameleon Enthusiast
@Classy If you use substrate just remember to minimize chunks of stuff (bark, stones, etc). eating some soil isn't the problem, the problem is when a large chunk of something creates a blockage. I also use a think layer of leaf litter(small oak leaves, with large magnolia and almond on top). It breaks down and the critters in the soil thrive off of it.
Striders_mom
Member
Ooooh, I haven't heard of the sunshine mix! Maybe I can't get that up here in Canada. Yes, I did buy the book, but never did get through it (crazy life of mine, at the moment), so was so thrilled when Bill Strand did the podcasts with the author, John Courteney-Smith.
As for my background, I found a post here on the forums that laid out how to make a custom background well, and followed that. I essentially used "egg crate" light diffuser as the foundation, which I pinned to the dragon ledges (by clipping out a hole in the egg crate for the ledge to come through, then using a small piece of the crate to slide through that gap and essentially pin it in place - fit perfectly). I used zip ties that I worked through the egg crate and ledges to secure the pots, roots and branches in place.
It took forever for me to find the Great Stuff Pond & Stone, but bought 10 cans of that, and sprayed the background & many of the pots and centrepiece. I let it cure, then it took 3 days to cut the foam cells all open!! Then, working in section, I smeared silicone over the foam and pressed my background mixture into it. There was a lot of patchwork to do in the days following (I was worried any unsiliconed sections where the foam had been sliced open might be a breeding ground). I probably went through 10-12 bottles of silicone.
Up in Canada the only black silicone I could find was the SCS1200 online, I bought 6 thinking that was enough. When I realized I'd be going through much more than that I popped to our hardware store in desperation and bought GE silicone type 1 in clear. I called the manufacturer to make sure the two were mixable (they were), then tried to use them in equal proportion on each section, so it kind of watered down the black. I really needn't have bothered, as you can't discern the sections where I was forced to used only clear from any of the others. Perhaps because I was pressing so much soil in, not sure. It took a number of days to cure....wow, silicone is smelly stuff!! Thank goodness I have a garage.
Sounds like you have a bio set up already! I'm so excited to have gone this route. Have you already created your backgrounds? Which method did/will you use? Also, I'd love to ask you, should I be concerned about the pearlite in my topsoil? I'd read other comments saying perlite was a bad thing, but here it was in my organic topsoil. I've covered everything with blanket moss and stones, so am not terribly worried, just wondering if I should be more cautious that I'm being already.
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