tips on drainage please

[The3rdMan]

How do people avoid over-watering their plants? Any drainage tips out there that people have come up with? I was thinking about possibly covering the plants soil with some sort of safe plastic and draining the water towards a sponge or shallow reservoir........?

Also, totally unrelated but I have my new panther in a temporary travel reptarium until he gets bigger - do I have to worry about the UVB not penetrating since it is rather thicker than normal screen enclosures. Asked the kind people at Screameleons where I bought him and they were unsure.

 

[eisentrauti]

Hi,

with something like this: http://www.chamaeleon-terraristik.de/assets/images/cAbfluss.jpg

Regards
Benny

 

[phanx]

dont ur plant pots have holes at the bottom of them? shouldnt the excess water fall out if the plant does get over-watered? or maybe u can try not spraying in the plants pot?

 

[eisentrauti]

But when he put the plants into the soil of the tank it's impossible to avoid over-watering this way.
Now a question: Why do you spray so much when you have a pardalis in the tank ? They really don't as need as much water as the montane species.

 

[The3rdMan]

Its the drip thats the problem not the misting. I have the drip on the leaves so he can drink off it but the water ends up in the pot.

 

[phanx]

i think if u most correctly u dont even need to have a constant drip to the point where u over-water ur plants

 

[eisentrauti]

That's the point. How long does the dripper work at one day?

 

[The3rdMan]

well only half a cup a day for now - but I have been reading completely different opinions on how long to drip and how much to mist.....I will have one person one day tell me an hour a day - another one does a cup - another one has it going eight hours a day. Its all over the place but really I prefer to have something going all day that I can circulate and filter like I have in my dart tank, but Im not sure that realistic. It would be nice to have something set up that gives him access whenever he wants but that doesnt end up flooding my plants.

 

[chequepoint]

A mod should probably move this over to equipment... BUT
3rdMan, a full picture and description of your setup would be the best place to start. There are some troubling things in what you've posted so far, but I don't want to jump to conclusions.
Where to start..
1)I'm assuming there is no substrate in your cage, if there is, remove it as it is unnecessary and a giant health risk to your cham on a number of levels. Bare Bottom is the way to go.
2)I'm also assuming that it is a screen cage.

Any kind of recirculating water feature is a bad idea. It breeds bacteria that can be very harmful to your cham. Most aquarium type filters actually depend on generating bacteria and will only make the situation worse.

Your plants should be in pots, the bottom of the pot should be filled with large gravel for drainage. Then add the plant and the soil. The top of the soil should be covered with more large gravel so that no soil is available to the chameleon.

The pots should be elevated slightly off the floor of the cage, either with some kind of feet, or I actually use cookie cooling racks. This will provide adequate drainage for your plants, and allow you to water as much as you want.

Your cage should be elevated on some kind of stand, the floor of the cage should have some kind of drain in the center of it, the weight of the plant over it will make the water flow towards it. You'll have to DIY the drainage system to get the water to go where you want it to go, mine goes into a 5 gallon bucket.

To automate the dripper, and the misting, you'll have to spend some money. You can use an automated misting system to both mist the enclosure, and fill a dripper with a little DIY skills. Essentially in addition to mounting your regular misting nozzles, you mount a 120degree high flow nozzle in the lid of your misting container, and whenever your misting system goes off, your dripper will also fill with water and continue to drip long after the misting session is over.

Something similar to this could also be achieved with an aqua-lifter aquarium pump on some kind of timer.

Obviously the chameleon will benefit from having clean water available at all times, but it isn't practical. Using one of the systems I've described you could offer water for around 20-30 minutes at a time, 3 times a day and be perfectly fine.

 

[The3rdMan]

My plants are in a pot for my panther - carpets actually utilize and plant eggs in soil or so I was told by the breeder selling him. The pot is not elevated but on a dish - hence the over-watering. But the bottom is bare aside from pot for plant. Will create an external drainage system. The panther is in a reptarium for now as a subadult, as recommended by virtually everyone, until he is larger and can go into his 4 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet screen cage.

and more people are stop asking for advice because of beginnings like this:

"There are some troubling things in what you've posted so far, but I don't want to jump to conclusions."

Totally unnecessary and I pretty much wont be asking for advice here anymore

 

[chequepoint]

My plants are in a pot for my panther - carpets actually utilize and plant eggs in soil or so I was told by the breeder selling him. The pot is not elevated but on a dish - hence the over-watering. But the bottom is bare aside from pot for plant. Will create an external drainage system. The panther is in a reptarium for now as a subadult, as recommended by virtually everyone, until he is larger and can go into his 4 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet screen cage.

and more people are stop asking for advice because of beginnings like this:

"There are some troubling things in what you've posted so far, but I don't want to jump to conclusions."

Totally unnecessary and I pretty much wont be asking for advice here anymore

As I re-read, the more troubling things were posted by another member, so I was mistaken. Either way, why would you be personally offended by something I (Some jerk on a computer) had to say, and hold a whole forum responsible for it? Did I hurt your feelings? I took the time to be helpful. I'll continue to do so.

My current favorite solution for reptarium drainage is a rubbermaid or sterelite storage container, the 41gallon underbed fits perfectly under a 65 gallon reptarium. Drill holes in the lid and set the reptarium on top. The water drains into the container below, problem solved.

Most people recommend you go with a 10.0 Zoomed Linear bulb on reptarium due to the increased density of the screen, the 10.0 will penetrate better than the 5.0.

Remember, I'm just some guy on the internet. I can't hurt you. My words mean nothing. Toughen up. All I meant is if you ask a question, without providing a complete picture, assumptions have to be made.

 

[The3rdMan]

... have dealt with characters WAAAY more douchey than in chat forums. Its not just you - many times when I read answers to advice there always seems to be a slight accusatory suggestion that the requestor of the advice is doing something horrible. People are asking questions because they don't know and that tone is not very productive.....

 

[panthercham]

I had the same problem at first with my little dripper as 1 of my chams prefers it over misting. I got around the problem by having 2 pothos plants which I rotate weekly to make sure they dont get too much water and stay wet. I also cover the top if the pot and the soil with river rocks. It doesnt stop the water going in but sure does stop my cham from enjoying geting his feet muddy

I went to Home Depot and got a saucer (water catcher) to put under the plant to catch the water and just before bed time it gets emptied by just lifting up the pot plant and draining it down a sink. I also try and keep his basking light directly over the plant to help with drying it out a bit. I like Pothos as they are tough as old boots and are hardy When 1 starts to look a bit overwhelmed I stick it outside it the sun and bring the other one into the cage.

I have the dripper on a slow drip most of the day so that at any time there is a wet leaf or 2 and then on the bottom of the cage have kitchen paper towel to soak up any drips. It seems to work well.....

When you use a dripper you will always have to empty the pot at the end of the day as water does build up...

Please dont stop asking for advice here....when I first started with chams I had no idea what I was doing and broke every rule in the book. I was very lucky to have tough and very forgiving chams that survived me until I knew what I was doing. Everybody starts as a beginner

 

[alhickabee]

Remember we'll all here because of our love of chams. Everyone here wants to (should atleast) help in whatever way to insure the health and safety every chameleon. Seems too me that chequepoint was just trying to play devil's advocate and make sure that all your set-up was up to par. I didn't find anything in his post that seemed accusatory or "mean". He's just looking out for your chameleon. Unfortunately there's a lot of bad information out there in regards to the care of these guys. Just chill out a bit, there's a lot of good information around here and a wealth of knowledge from a lot of the senior members.

As far as a dripper set-up here's what I used: (everything minus timer and heater found at Homedepot)
Rubbermaid tub
aquarium heater
fountain pump (make sure you get one strong enough to pump the water up high enough)
1/2" tubing (connects to pump)
1/2" to 1/4" reducer (look around the fittings section at homedepot sometimes they have one or you can get a few different brass pieces that screw together)
zip-ties
1/4" tubing
1/4" T-barbs (found by sprinkler heads at HD)
1/4" adjustable dripper head (found by sprinkler heads at HD)
Brinks 6 on/off setting timer (found at Walmart)

I have 8 dripper heads and it basically rains in the cage 4 times a day for 30-40 minutes each session. For drainage I used a 3 1/2" to 2 1/2" pvc reducer with a 2 3/8" pipe going into a rubbermaid tub. Depending on you cage bottom you are going to need to figure out a way to direct water towards the drain. I used tile since I have a wood cage with a plywood floor. Good luck man!