Time to upgrade

[Jevin]

They aren't exoterra vines, the flukers I've had issues with breaking apart so I decided to get some custom made. Although they are similar in appearance to the exoterra vines they aren't the exoterra vines. The vines are hopefully going to be temporary and replaced with branches in future. Also regrettably I have to rush certain steps as I don't have space and a family that isn't the most understanding that to do things properly sometimes takes time.

 

[Jevin]

Well I actually only liked one configuration of the plants, so this will be pretty much how it looks, just missing the two large Pothos. Also tested the upper drainage and the substrate drainage, both work perfectly.

 

[Jevin]

Well I was working a night shift at work, just got home and decided to try to sex some isopods. I will admit that I'm new to sexing isopds, but I believe I have a female carrying her brood in this picture. I was gentle with my new pet! This one has a yellow belly that seems to have sperical shapes in it, while the rest have white bellies. I also may have already fallen in love with my dairy cow isopods and just love to watch them roam around at night with a red led headlamp. Soon they'll be in the enclosure and rarely seen hopefully, so I'm enjoying viewing them while it's easy.

 

[Jevin]

Up and at em, unfortunately I have to replace one of my MistKing nozzles as the plastic had failed. Today is repotting the plants that need to be. Also dry fit the MistKing system in last night so it's just a matter of mounting when the time comes.

 

[Jevin]

Well I decided to tackle one of the 4 year old pothos and while being impressive in size, four years in the same pot with ideal growing conditions has left me with this. It's sitting beside it's original pot, so I guess it's time to split it.

 

[Jevin]

I repotted some of the plants and placed them in. Really starting to come together, hopefully I can get it up and starting to cycle tonight. I still have to add the two pitcher plants, the bromeliad, a spider plant, the other Pothos, the begonia rex and a few rooted Pothos clippings. Also realized that the one white variegated Pothos is almost completely white due to it's growing conditions. I'm off to obtain some more RO water, I should have an RO filter by mid week.

 

[Sonny13]

Getting really excited about the end result

 

[Jevin]

Well the enclosure is complete mostly, the isopods and springtails are in as well as 6 Morio worms. All except the pitcher plants and the second Pothos are in. I'll post pictures of the complete build tomorrow, now just to let it cycle for about a month.

 

[Jevin]

I'm actually really excited now, the new enclosure almost hit 100% humidity prior to the lights turning on and with the lights on hovers around 50-60% with the mister going off to maintain it. Everything is planted now except for the pitcher plants.

 

[Sonny13]

Just amazing......what a beautiful end result

 

[Jevin]

Everything is now planted, just have to let it cycle now. The drainage systems works perfectly and the enclosure doesn't leak. Honestly for being freshly planted, I'm happy with the result. Just have to wait for some plants to grow in and find a piece of Velcro to mount the MistKing control panel.

 

[The Wild One]

Wow that’s beautiful which lucky Cham is going in?

 

[Jevin]

Everything is now planted, just have to let it cycle now. The drainage systems works perfectly and the enclosure doesn't leak. Honestly for being freshly planted, I'm happy with the result. Just have to wait for some plants to grow in and find a piece of Velcro to mount the MistKing control panel. Also on a side note, the humidity fluxes from 55% to 70% during the day. View attachment 307609View attachment 307610View attachment 307611

 

[Jevin]

This guy right here.

My second chameleon, Chandler Bing who is around 5 years old now, I've owned him for 4 years and never got a hatch date, but he was just starting to develop colors when I got him. I decided he should at least get to see his new enclosure. He's got a temporary setup for a month right now hidden in the room to the left of his new enclosure, but hooked up to the timers and misting system of the new enclosure. I'm currently running 6 nozzles on my MistKing. I've also decided to do a bit of a sneaky setup on the MistKing and utilize the hygrometer control panel I have in conjunction with the timer control panel it came with. My plan is to set a certain humidity max for the enclosure during the night time and during the day time to utilize the hygrometer control to supply power to the timer control panel which will be setup with different misting sessions. I will might have to switch which controls which, but I think the batteries in the control panels last long enough to make it doable. The end should be a MistKing system that goes off just before lights on to simulate a dew and then goes off at certain periods of the day if needed. First I'll monitor the daily humidity the enclosure attains however before I figure out how to hook it up to make it work.

 

[Beman]

It came out beautiful!

 

[Jevin]

These guys are finally through quarantine so time to add them to the enclosure. So far the CUC is dairy cow isopods, tropical springtails, red wrigglers and Morio worms.

 

[Jevin]

So quick update, yesterday my RO filter arrived. Got it all setup but also the new enclosure maintains humidity really well. The misting system still runs, but way less frequently than the old enclosure. I have also decided to utilize a dripper to ensure that a source of water is available. I have yet to go through 5 gallons of water when the old enclosure would go through 5 gallons every two days. I might plan on setting up an air movement system so I can provide like a seasonal variance of heavier rains, and dryer conditions, but so far the enclosure seems to be maintaining well. Also by fluke, the amount of tubing included with the RO filter as well as the location of it was perfect. I can run filtered water directly from the RO filter to the enclosure, so no watering can for me.

 

[Jevin]

Also just realized that the positioning of the heatlamp being centred helps create a chimney effect in the enclosure.

 

[Jevin]

I discovered yesterday that I can attach a MistKing nozzle directly to the RO filter and it produces enough pressure to run it, comes in handy when I have to manually mist the enclosure.

 

[Jevin]

Quick update.

Well it's almost cycled for a month now. So close to being able to let Chandler move in.

The springtails have definitely established themselves and is may have acquired a few millipedes and a single centipede that won't cause an issue with the bioactive setup or Chandler and help with population control. I realize I've gone a bit overboard with the CUC but my hope is to ensure that it doesn't crash, so far it's been alright. The only reason I added a centipede was to deal with a mite outbreak. I last saw an isopod about a week ago, and that was after adding the centipede to the mix, the millipedes I added because they are another detrivore, but Chandler should ignore them because they are worm like and millipedes tend to taste bitter. At most it will be a one and done with the millipedes.

I've made sure everything I've added won't be detrimental to the setup or Chandler, hence why I only added one very young centipede that should prey on the mites that got in with one of the starter cultures. Mites are gone now so the centipede should go after young isopods and springtails now. Humidity is really stable and a lot less water is used and due to the setup of the drainage system, the soil should be kept in the ideal range for my isopods and springtails.

I also started up a colony of white dwarf isopods, dairy cow isopods and springtails in another enclosure so I can regularly inoculate Chandler's enclosure with more isopods and springtails. So far it seems stable though.

Also I will be selling off the excess of the colony I started today once it gets established as a starter culture for a tropical setup. I will probably start local through Kijiji, and if it picks up enough start to do national. I think international would require a permit though.

I most definitely have gone a little overboard in creating the ecosystem in the enclosure. I am almost certain that some of the CUC have decided to eat a plant that was in poor health. I am slowly losing my bromeliad and expected as such as it did not fair to well during the heatwave. I planted it in hopes it would recover but also that it would provide an abundance of food for my CUC if it didn't pull through, which seems to be the case.

Honestly really happy with the results so far, just wish I would see the isopods more frequently. Also in starting a isopod colony, I will have four different bloodlines of dairy cow isopods in the bioactive setup if the initial starter culture has established itself.