[da_mink]

Originally Posted by Eternal Acacia

Picked up a ceramic heater, temp now sits at ~92 under the lamp, ~83 under the ceramic, then 75 in the cool/water portion of the cage, turned down my fogger some too as the extra heat has helped the overall humidity stay steady at 80% with less fog.

You wanna get me a pic of the lighting/heat scheme.

Also what size tank?

[Eternal Acacia]

Well he didn't eat at all yesterday and now he's demolishing crickets like it's his business, so I'd assume he's happy with the temperature increase. Lighting, though, is a concern, seeing that I only have one day light, but my room gets fairly bright during the day time. Here is the basic set up.

Heat lamp right side, ceramic lamp center forward, and the daytime light to the left. The fogger leads down through the plants in the middle so that area gets quite humid with the ceramic there now. 40 gal tank too, fyi.


Mother****er is smart, I put 2 live plants in there along with the fake ones and he loves those *****es, hides in them all day. I made a nice hide for him with some philodendron over his water bowl and he sits under there all the time now.

[da_mink]

What wattage is the heat lamp?
Only thing I can say to do is ditch the light light and replace it with a t5 UV5 bulb setup. Home depot has cheap 36" ones that you could run across the back.

Other then adding a bit more Cyprus mulch to the bottom 2" is what I always had in the basilisk tank in my moms old classroom. And letting the plants grow a bit more so he has more cover on the right side. I have to say it looks good

[rdm3000]

I miss having a variety of "lizards" growing up. I couldnt do it now though that slight odor that comes from the cages would be to much for me.

[da_mink]

Originally Posted by rdm3000

I miss having a variety of "lizards" growing up. I couldnt do it now though that slight odor that comes from the cages would be to much for me.

Sterile cages are smell less
But really, most geckos have no smell when kept properly.

Crickets on the other hand you might wanna keep in a different room.

[Eternal Acacia]

Yeah, I only keep 50 or so crickets at a time but they ****in stink when they die. Twice a week I clean out the dead to keep the smell down. I keep them out of my room now.

If anything my room feels more damp and the smell of the ganj I smoke lingers longer because of the increased humidity, but it's not bad or unbearable at all. The slight bad odor in my room wass fixed when I took the crickets out of it.

[da_mink]

Originally Posted by Eternal Acacia

Yeah, I only keep 50 or so crickets at a time but they ****in stink when they die. Twice a week I clean out the dead to keep the smell down. I keep them out of my room now.

If anything my room feels more damp and the smell of the ganj I smoke lingers longer because of the increased humidity, but it's not bad or unbearable at all. The slight bad odor in my room wass fixed when I took the crickets out of it.

Ya, I keep mine in the bathroom at my building and run a squirrel fan in and out 24/7

That happens, it weighs down.

[ChristopherThe Great]

My water dragon. He is a ****ing beast, got a 75G tank in the mail on its way here for him, can't wait until the tank gets here and I can set it up right.

[Eternal Acacia]

I was gonna order a 75 gal but I'm just gonna start fabricating his next enclosure now so that 8-10 months down the line when he's too big for the 40, it'll be ready and badass. I'm thinking 48''x18''x24'', all of the foliage will be real not plastic, multi level waterfall into a lagoon (gonna work the fogger into the lagoon so it bubbles and fogs), some rock climbing walls/hides, and a big network of climbing branches up higher in the tank.

[pbmink]

Go higher And deeper

48x24x36-48

The depth will get cut into real quick when you build your background and the height is a nice bonus and in my opinion a necessary one.

[Eternal Acacia]

Yeah that's a good point, I wasn't really taking into consideration the size of all the **** I'm gonna be making for it. Height will definitely be a bonus seeing as this guy is always chilling on the plants near the top of the tank or up on the branches.

Re-doing my substrate/draining system tomorrow when I add a bunch of new plants, hopefully this will take care of my moisture issues.

[ChristopherThe Great]

It would be nice to make one so it would be exactly what you wanted. I'm gonna set up the 75 when it gets here and if that doesn't work out in the long run then I might look into building one.

[Eternal Acacia]

Mink, I replaced all of substrate today with the hydroballs/cypress on top, and he won't stop eating the cypress mulch. I've seen him do it at least 4 times, they were all the size of the smallest crickets you can get at a store, but I read that it's really not good for them at all. I'm a little worried, but I'd love to hear from someone with more experience.

[kfresh]

did you get shavings or chips?

[ChristopherThe Great]

Anyone have experience with the monsoon mist system? I'm thinking of getting it, but they are fairly expensive so I don't want to waste my money if it sucks.

[Eternal Acacia]

http://www.petco.com/product/6347/Zo...FelaMgodLloAYg

That's what I used.

[pbmink]

Check nurseries/big hydro stores around your area EA, they should have organic Cyprus mulch without the super wavy zoomed tax

Originally Posted by ChristopherThe Great

Anyone have experience with the monsoon mist system? I'm thinking of getting it, but they are fairly expensive so I don't want to waste my money if it sucks.

If you're going to spend the money go mist king.
The owner really cares about sourcing top quality parts and having wonderfully functioning products.

In my opinion it's well worth the cost. I have 16 mist king systems running I want to say. All flawless.

The problems I've heard with monsoons is the timer going out. Not just from one person but many. When I look at it combined with the limited amount of pressure they use and the lack of a fine mist/fog almost the 100 is better spent on other systems.

Which brings me to another point, exo-terra and zoomed make GARBAGE. Excluding exo-terra tanks as they're really made by Hagen it's parent company, but even then you can find better euro style tank manufactures for cheaper.

[Eternal Acacia]

Yeah, found some much better cypress mulch at the nursery down the street, didn't want to completely redo the substrate again so I removed as much of the zoomed as I could by hand and replaced it with the new stuff, much better.

Also reading that keeping air circulation going is key to preventing mold in high humidity tanks, so I'm gonna go get a low power computer fan than I can place on different corners of the screen to keep air moving properly.

[pbmink]

Buy a 12v and use three.

Outs in the back corner. Put an in along TE front glass to prevent it fogging up.

[Eternal Acacia]

Sounds like a plan, stan. He really won't stop running into the glass all the time so I'm gonna have to go pick up some bark climbing walls to put on the side for him so he stops hurting his nose. It's only a minor discoloration now, but I've read it can get severe quickly if left untreated, so I'd rather not have that happen.

Also, how much should I attempt to hold the him? Literature says that basilisks are more skittish than water dragons and take longer to tame. I've held him maybe twice, outside of when I grab him to clean the tank out, and while I don't expect him to come when his name is called by any means, I don't want him to be skittish all of his life.

[pbmink]

Cork bark?
If so just build a bloody background already. You'll both like it and they're easy

And wait a month then start holding him a few times a week for 5/10 minutes. Make sure to grab him right behind the jaws from the top it'll save you a lot of pain and trouble and eventually be an accepted activity for him.

It'll never be a species to really hold, I'd suggest just training it to be picked up without a huge fuss and trained to take bugs from your hand. Outside it's cage will make it get super flighty and stressed.