sweet concept Magic. ive always wanted to do something like this but have failed to have the time and investment capital.
would you like to elaborate on what your plans are for the lighting? i see three possible configurations.
1) personally when ive envisioned doing something like this i wanted to put the basking bulb on a track. have it start on one side of the cage about a foot from the top have it dimmed in the morning and as it moves along the track increase in intensity until it reaches the basking spot where it would remain at full intensity until later in the day when it would make its wayback down to the other side (or the original position)
2) either that or the more easily accomplished (because the track with a dimming effect sounds a bit complicated) 2-3 separate basking fixtures. one dimmer in the morning for the first couple of hours, then alternate over to the brighter basking bulb for the majority of then day, and then down to another dimmer one in the evening a couple hours before lights out.
i think this would promote a lot more activity.
3) you could always just put one fixed basking bulb on a timed dimmer.
sounds like you plan on dimming, or shutting off the basking bulb during "rain storms" how did you plan on simulating the rain? flushing the the top with water and having pinholes for it to leak through? or something more along the lines of the "Aquazamp Raindome"?
i think the lightning effect would be cool to incorporate and the sound of the thunder shouldnt hurt unless its overly bass-y since they dont hear sound they feel it. i just wouldnt leave the noise and lighting effects on by default, id put it on a separate switch so when you want to show it off you can.
in theory the cricket thing sounds good and hopefully it works, it just might be hard to convince a bug to do what you want it to... even with the appropriate stimuli.
what were your plans for ventilation? im assuming the enclosure is going to be glass since you mentioned this endeavor is primarily for aesthetic purposes. were you planning on just venting the top and bottom so the heat from the light gives a chimney effect? or were you going to put a small fan in there hooked up to a humidistat or hygrometer? since you said you wanted to make things complicated for yourself you should probably do that, especially since youll be able to chose a specific humidity you want rather than relying on the convection of a basking bulb.
is that enough for now? or should i keep going? ill keep going
so since you wanted this to be natural looking and simulate a natural environment im assuming you plan on using some sort of substrate? and live plants?
you want to make it even more complicated? i can help you do that. do you know anything about hydroponics? how about aeroponics?
i can draw something up for you to give you a basic idea of what im talking about if you care.
essentially this sounds ideal because you can keep the roots of whatever plants youll be using hidden (no ugly pots) underneath the tray where the water from "raining" him will be collected (and subsequently drained, im assuming you put this into consideration). you can just keep pillow moss or something in your rain collection tray with your other plants protruding up out.
the way areoponics works is you have drum with baskets that hold the roots. inside the drum you have misting heads that spray the roots (that just hang there) with a nutrient solution that is pumped out of a reservoir below. to where the nutrient solution drains back to be recycled.
am i getting a little too intense with this? hahaha, my bad. this is just the plans i have in my head for an ideal enclosure.
you should post some blueprints XD
sry for interrogating you, i just want to do something like that eventually.
