how to: plant trees without flooding!

[phase]

hi.. i am posting this to help others.. i have had this setup for 3 days and it has been working great. great drainage system and never flooding.

what you will need:
- 7"deep tray that has the right dementions to fit inside enclosure
- kitchen sink drain
- tailpiece (pipe that connect to drain)
- 5g bucket (for water collection)
- plants or trees
- soil
- silicone caulk
- mixed rocks
- flat rocks
- mesh screen

here is the process-

first you start by cutting a round hole in the middle of the tray to fit the drain.
the drain should look like this-

place the drain in from the top and tighten the ring from other side. i used alot of silicone in this area to enshure that it will not leak. like so- (i painted my drain black )

then once the silicone dries then you add the drain pipe. like so-

you can add feet or whatever to raise the tray. also i had a glass bottom cage which i had cut a hole into so i can slide the drain pipe in. this hole is directly under a 5 gallon bucket. like so-

then once you get the tray set up, you will need to cover the bottom of the tray with mesh. on top of that mesh, will go about a 2inch layer of rocks. on top of these rocks you can plant the plants that you have picked.

after you have planted the plants, then all you do is find some thin rocks and cover the whole top of the dirt. (so the cham doesnt get to the dirt) like so-

i drew this ugly picture in mspaint-

if there is a gap between the tray and walls of enclosure, you will need to make some kind of water deflector. (i used foam and tape) like so-

then after everything is done you can test your drain system. (soak all the soil untill it starts dripping into the 5g bucket) you need to check how wet the soil is and make shure it doesnt flood. then you are DONE!

hope that this will help people that dont like having pots inside their enclosures.. please ask questions if you need help

 

[heartben]

awesome tutorial, I have been debating doing almost the exact same type of drain/plant system almost exactly.

The problem I cant figure out - how do you clean it? do you just like.. wipe the top rocks off or take it all apart every month or what?

It looks like it works wonderfully, I would consider pursing the same design still if I knew what the cleaning process was going to be like. Come to think of it, I'm still not exactly sure how anyone cleans their cage so if anyone reads this and wants to reply with your schedule and stuff.

 

[phase]

the tray can easily be removed.(kinda heavy, but it slides out) i still dont have my cham but the cleaning process would be to take the top layer of rocks and wash them. the rest of the tank just cleans out with some 2%bleach solution. (make shure there is no hint of bleach left after cleaning!)