Cham Condo Done

[Wykd]

I am done tweaking on it, I have replaced 2-3 of the plants I had and trimmed up the umbrella in the middle. I think it will do ok a for a 1.5 ambilobe.

Nice temperature variations in the different areas ranging:

• basking area ranges from 90 - 80
• wet side top area - 76-78
• middle range 75-73
• lower half 73- 68

My humidity ranges between 50-70 depending on when last misted
I took the false bottom out and will just clean the bottom vs do a substrate. I did put in some Spanish moss to cover the top soil and hung some around in various locations.

Plants:

• Umbrella Tree for center piece
• pothos hanging in mid rear corner
• croton in lower rear corner
• bromilade mid front corner
• various fake leaves/vines

Branches:

• Bamboo
• fake cork bend a branch
• fake rubber vines

Gear/Lights

• Repti sun 5.0
• 50w basking light
• 6500k cfl plant light
• Mistking misting sytem
• diy dripper

2x2x4 enclosure *modded with acrylic back and lower sides. and vinyl tile on back wall, bottom of tank sealed and was using a false bottom. Bottom of tank painted w/epoxy tan to match room and was going to hide false bottom*
bottom drain into 5 gal bucket that i will be changing out for a ac condensation pump soon and plumbed to drain outside.

 

[maxttu]

It looks great! That'll be one happy clam, errrr, I mean cham!

 

[Wykd]

thanks I hope he likes it. I have redone the inside like 4 times and finally just gotta step back and let it be. lol

Will see how it goes, I am just going to stop tinkering with it and will save ideas and lessons learned for another build which will surely come sooner than needed.

 

[carol5208]

looks nice! Be careful if youfree range feeders that he does not get a mouthful of moss to go along with it! Me personally I would not use that.

 

[Rango05]

looks great i gota start on one of these soon...ugh

 

[Wykd]

He is going to be hand & cup fed. He has a crooked tongue toss I am told.

I will think about what you said though. It is glued down & i combed thru it all prior to hanging it to get loose small pieces out. Did see a few other ppl on here using the spanish moss in cham enclosures which is what gave me the idea. But is a concern to consider, thanks!

looks nice! Be careful if youfree range feeders that he does not get a mouthful of moss to go along with it! Me personally I would not use that.

 

[carol5208]

He is going to be hand & cup fed. He has a crooked tongue toss I am told.

I will think about what you said though. It is glued down & i combed thru it all prior to hanging it to get loose small pieces out. Did see a few other ppl on here using the spanish moss in cham enclosures which is what gave me the idea. But is a concern to consider, thanks!

it is just a thought. The reason I said this is cause there was someone on here a ways back whose cham shot at a cricket that was sitting on the moss and got moss in its mouth and choked on it. I don't think it died but gave the people a scare.

 

[Wykd]

Oh no you post did not fall on deaf ears... I am not married to the moss by any measures.

I will look around this weekend for something else to cover the topsoil. I wanted coconut mat but could not find any then couldn't find any river rock that was large enuff to be swallowed either.

Thanks!

 

[carol5208]

did you try home depot? They sell small bags of large river rock. That is where I get mine from. I am glad you have such a great attitude. Like I said it is just something to consider. It might never happen...but then again it might

 

[Stoneleon]

very nice set up I dig the umbrella in the middle where did you get it and how much did it cost you??

 

[Wykd]

Home Depot of all places it was 4ft @ 14.95 or something.

I had to trim it back alot though, which is no problem. This way i can let it fill out as I want it to. It did not come in that planter though.

very nice set up I dig the umbrella in the middle where did you get it and how much did it cost you??

 

[Wykd]

Well I know I said I was done but....

Carol's comment on the moss kept playing over and over in the back of my head last night.

So this morning I decided it had to come out and I also decided I did want to use my false bottom idea so, off to the nursery I went and bought a 2x2 square of coconut liner and came back home and made some changes.

It has to be stable so no stress to the cham. It needed to be sealed to keep feeders from down below. Most importantly it had to be removable, so it can be cleaned and or replaced as needed and allow access to the bottom.

I had my false bottom already trimmed and cut to fit in the tank and around the planters I have. So I cut it in half so that it can be slid in around the plants and on top of the pvc spacer/risers I made. I then placed the bottom on top of my coconut liner and with a sharpie outlined the bottom onto my material and around 2 planter openings. I will start with 2 openings and see how it goes from there.

I noticed that it has raised my humidity a few points higher on avg today across the board. almost a full 20 points (18) than running it w/o the liner for he last 3 days. I will watch it some more and if the numbers stay that high I will cut back on my misting some. from 3 5minute sessions and do 4 2.5 minute sessions maybe... will have to see. I was running 50-70% humidity and now at 68-89% at driest and wettest times of day.

 

[Stoneleon]

Very clean set up, I never fully understood the point of a false bottom? Is it to help with drainage, or is it just for that natural look? I was also wondering how the umbrella does indoors?

 

[Wykd]

Well the false bottom for my purposes is for looks, I wanted to hide the drain and cage floor and have the plants look a little more pat of the environment and not just sitting in the cage, if that makes sense?

It does nothing for my drainage other than hide the white bottom and drainage system I put in it, and if I didn't have the lower part of the cage sealed with acrylic I would not of done the bottom this way.

False bottom's are beneficial in glass enclosures where you do not have a drainage drilled. You could put in a pump to extract water out, hide heaters if needed, etc... but no value add in a screened cage for a cham other than appearance.

I hate the dripping sound of water from misted leaves/dripper hitting the bottom. I do not know if you can tell or not but that cage is sitting beside my desk, and when I am working the last thing I wanted was the sound of drip drip drip drip drip drip drip for 10 hours straight.

The way I have done it though I could remove the bottom and just you the coconut liner it I chose to, and not have that dripping sound. Which could happen in the future we will see.

As for the plant it should do fine in there we will see. I had to do a bunch of trimming and hope I didnt over trim it.

I think it looks nicer than w/o is all.
Before:

After:

 

[Stoneleon]

okay that makes sense I totally get what you mean by making the plants look apart of the environment, I also like the idea of using that coconut liner to keep up humidity. how is your drainage system set up, ive been looking into different systems but im not sure how i am going to approach the drainage problem yet

 

[Wykd]

As of this minute it just drains into a 5 gal bucket. I drilled a hole in the center and went to lowes and bought a cheap plastic drain and 4inch pvc pipe, and installed it. I then took out my wifes hair dryer and heated that white pvc bottom sheet and created a slight bow/concave in it with some weights. A any 5-50lb item would do I guess. I then siliconed the pvc plastic into the bottom of the cage and the drain itself.

That causes the water to run down to the center drain and into the 5gal bucket. Overkill maybe but I dont like leaks.

I am building another 2x2x4 this week and will be doing the same thing but I will run pvc pipe from it to the other cages bucket. So both tanks will dump into 1 bucket and in that bucket will be a pump and float switch which will pump the water out and into the septic tank.

Oh on the note of the coconut liner it has been doing great job of helping the humidity. I had to cut my mistings back from 3 longer sessions to 4 shorter sessions to keep the humidity from staying in the hi 80's all the time.

 

[Stoneleon]

that sparked some ideas with the drainage system thank you i am going to have 2 cages as well and i love the idea of have one drain bucket

I am from socal so maintaining humidity is pretty hard with screen cages especially in the really dry summer months once again thank you helping with my brainstorming process :]]