Misting...going for the upgrade, have drainage questions

[Ceycham]

So Norman is being a problematic fellow with his hydration, and my next intervention is to upgrade his misting system to the MistKing, as the one I have only mists for 45 seconds at a time. Now I'm aware I'm going to have to up my drainage game with the increased water output, and was hoping those of you who do this several minutes at a time misting thing could give me an idea how much water i'm going to be dealing with at the end of the day.

It would help me plan if you could post how often and how much you're misting, and how quickly your reservoir is depleted please!

thanks in advance!

 

[haydenm14]

hi so i dont have a big misting system either so im wondering if i upgrade what i could do as well. One thing i can suggest that i was thinking of is if u have a plastic, wood, or tempered glass bottom you can cut out a little hole to put pvc piping to a bucket. and the only other thing you would have to do is angle the enclosure towards thats hole.

 

[kami baby]

I have been auto misting My Cham for a while now (I have a monsoon). I’ve seen that people have a tray on the bottom of their cage. But i just have water absorbing reptile carpet at the bottom of my cage. It really helps! Oh and I mist my Cham for 30 secs every hour

 

[Ceycham]

hi so i dont have a big misting system either so im wondering if i upgrade what i could do as well. One thing i can suggest that i was thinking of is if u have a plastic, wood, or tempered glass bottom you can cut out a little hole to put pvc piping to a bucket. and the only other thing you would have to do is angle the enclosure towards thats hole.

Hi, yes, that's likely what I will do, but the question is more to get an idea how much drainage and how big a reservoir I'm going to want.

 

[haydenm14]

i think a 5 gallon bucket is more than enough.

 

[kami baby]

So if your misting your Cham for mins at a time, your going to get quite a bit of water. I don’t have a presise measurement.

 

[haydenm14]

I have been auto misting My Cham for a while now (I have a monsoon). I’ve seen that people have a tray on the bottom of their cage. But i just have water absorbing reptile carpet at the bottom of my cage. It really helps! Oh and I mist my Cham for 30 secs every hour

how long have you used the reptile carpet? i was told not to due to it being an easy breeding ground for bacteria

 

[kami baby]

Yes, The bacteria grows very slowly so it came in a pack (the carpet). And I change it about 2 times a month. And it’s pretty easy to change. I have a female so i just remove her laying bin and her plants and if i don’t it grows moldy

 

[haydenm14]

oh alright well i cant do that as easily haha my cage is half glass so reaching down to bottom to pull it out is difficult.

 

[kami baby]

Oh yeah. I just have a screen cage. I have never thought about glass.​

 

[haydenm14]

i got the enclosure because i knew humidity is a killer to keep up with screen. its nice though because it has the top and half of each short side is screen.

 

[kami baby]

Yeah humidity is sooo hard to keep at a curtain level because of the air flow and that’s what I was thinking about getting or switching it out for glass. But I’ve read stories about glass and they say it’s just plain useless

 

[haydenm14]

the best thing that you could do instead of buying a new enclosure is to just get plastic or glass sheets and put it on a couple sides. wood with a background on it could even work well.

 

[kami baby]

Ok I’ll have to try that!! Thank you!!!

 

[Ceycham]

i think a 5 gallon bucket is more than enough.

How long do you suppose it would last? A day, a week, a couple days? I really appreciate all the responses, but I need more precise info lol. I have no clue how much the mist king uses in water, and I want my reservoir to be big enough, but not so big that there's standing water for days. Plus I'd like to be able to decide how long the mist cycles should be. i'm hoping someone or several members will post what their reservoir is, how much they mist, and how often they have to refill the reservoir.

 

[kami baby]

probaly a few weeks at a time I’m thinking

 

[haydenm14]

sorry for the late reply but i think u could get like a month at a time with it because lots of the water will evaporate rather than be drained out. the cycles i can not help with because i do not own a mistking sadly

 

[Tattersb]

@Ceycham I use a CliMist, which for all intents and purposes is the same as a MistKing. I use a food-grade five gallon bucket (recommended by the manufacturer) and misting my guys 3-5 minutes every three hours for a twelve hour cycle uses about five gallons a week. I bump up the misting in the winter because of the drier conditions in my area. They need to be misted at least that long to stimulate them to drink and clean their eyes. Misting for seconds every hour is basically useless. My enclosures are heavily planted so a lot of the moisture is absorbed by the plants. I've seen a lot of people use puppy pads for overflow. Also, the amount of misting you need is going to depend on your species. My montanes have supplemental misting/fogging in addition to the CliMist. Hope that helps!

 

[Mawtyplant]

What about, adding a fogger at night?

 

[Matthew43s]

If you want take a look at my thread “enclosures ideas that may help you”

For this system to work you need to buy a stand that will allow water to pass through, preferably plastic or some sort of shop metal shelving, so that the water will pass through. Take a look at mine and see if it’s something you like, it works very well no leaks or water getting where I don’t want it to, so far! Keeps all the feeders in as well. Let me know if you have questions