My Cage/ Mister scheme

[Laragail]

I've been looking through other posts and articles for ideas- and here's what i'm thinking.

i'm going to build my cham a big cage for when he is an adult- So I'm thinking I could make the whole frame out of PVC -- and run one piece of pvc with holes in it across the top.

Then I should be able to stick a pump in a bucket of water and run tubing from the pump to the pvc pipe? Except i don't know how I will get it to come out in a "mist" rather then just a "drip".... any thoughts?

For drainage, I'm thinking about building like a plastic box (no "lid" of course) that will fit right in the bottom. I could drill a hole in the bottom of the "box" and run tubing out of the hole into a bucket. Then when I want to drain it- i could set the bucket below the cage- and gravity will do the rest.

kind of like this-

any advice/ input?

thanks

 

[Jordan]

The diagram that you showed is not something I would think that you would need in a chameleon enclosure. The type of plants I would suspect those to be used on would be cash crops. A misting system could be dangerous when you are using HID (high intensity discharge) lighting. Additionally the flowers on some of these plants would be extremely susceptable to molding even in grow rooms with excellent ventalation. This forces alot of growers into hydroponics, some what intensive manual labor or nifty tricks like the one your diagram shows.

With substandard lighting that you find in alot of chameleon cages the plan you show would probably go unused as least as far as it's potential is concerned. I utilize my misting system to water my plants. I have filled the bottom of my pots with an inch or so of rocks so that excess water can drain off quickly. This will allow your plant to have a constant supply of water, soil is moist but never soaked. I do have one plant (a pothos) and due to it's location I do still manually water it.

Now with holes just drilled into the pvc piping you would more then likely just get straight streams of water flowing down. With an "L" or a "T" pvc piece you maybe able to manipulate a nozzle like the one in the link shows.

Possible misting nozzle

Now you would probably have to find something that is brass that will fit the opening of the PVC piece and the thread of the nozzle. If you search on the net for "Patio Misting Systems" you maybe able to find something that is workable or some wondering around Home Depot.

The one thing that I would have a problem figuring out about this is how to pump the water into the PVC. Now I have seen quite a few misting systems that did utilize PVC but all where directly hooked to a water tap. Now a heavy duty waterfall pump may work (?), perhaps a sump pump (?). Maybe someone else would have more knowledge in this area, well probably alot of people with more knowledge in the area then me. Above all I would make a price list. If it ultimately goes over the price of a run of the mill misting system I would probably buy the misting system. These are tried and true in most cases.

Keep in mind alot of the misting pumps you will see can only run for 5 minutes. Now alot of people would say to stay away from them. I have seen quite a few people that will run these pumps for 4 minutes, let them stay off for 1 minute and run for another 4 minutes. Kind of a pain to program but I would still label these as an option. Just my opinion though.

 

[Laragail]

Thanks for the advice.

I'll let everyone know what i come up with for the mist system. The nozzles are a good idea- i think i will try that out.

By the way--- The diagram i posted was just an example, I'm not actually planning on growing any plants in there (except maybe some pothos)

Picture the bucket with the plant in it as the cage---
The other bucket is the drainage.

I know i tend to speak nonsense

I'll post some pictures when its constructed-- hopefully that will clarify things