Water and Drainage

[elefntkpr]

My wife just got our first chameleon two weeks ago. We had a bearded dragon until old age found him but it was an entirely different habitat so I've been fartin' around in the enclosure section here. There is sooo much information it's just incredible. I love the internet.
Our infant veiled is in one of those glass starter kit cages but I'm finishing up a new screen enclosure I've been building. In reading through this site I noticed thread after thread regarding drainage setups. How much moisture is necessary for these reptiles? My initial searches on the net showed many people using a fog mister to distribute dripping moisture on the leaves. Here on this site I've seen everything from simulated rain to advanced misting systems. Is that much water necessary or are some of these more aggresive watering systems only necessary in extra dry situations?
I'm going to incorporate drainage in my enclosure mainly because it's so simple to do but also just in case.
Great forum by the way with alot of experienced members. Looking forward to getting into this like the focused nerd I can be.

John

 

[sandrachameleon]

Congrats on the new chameleon family member.

Providing sufficient water is important. I do this with drippers filled 2 - 3 times a day. Thats several litres a day. They dont drink all this, of course. But sometimes it takes them awhile (whether dripping or misting) to get interested in drinking, so ensuring its available for a span of time is important. Humidity is also important - how often you have to mist to maintain appropriate levels will depend on the ambient/relative humidity in your area. But to answer the question, yes, You'll need the drainage system or some other method of collecting that unused water.

There are quite a few link regarding water/drainage within this blog entry, some you may not yet have seen:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/92-hydration-importance.html

 

[jadeaudio]

Drainage setup is very very simple if you get a metal wire rack. Get one from lowes. I huge one for multiple cages costs like $80 with 5 shelves or a small one for a single cage with a 3 to 4 racks is only around $35. Well worth the money because then you simply puts some holes on the bottom of the cage and on a rack underneath the cage you put a plastic rubbermaid bin that you can snag at Target or Walmart for $5. You definitely need drainage because you do not want water to build up bacteria in your cage.

 

[elefntkpr]

Ahh, I see. Perfect! I'll definitely take that to heart and many thanks for the link, that's just what I needed.

 

[elefntkpr]

No definitely not. Now that I know that water in excess of what I was planning on is necessary, I will definitely incorporate drainage into my terrarium.

Thanks for the idea, I'll go check that out!

Drainage setup is very very simple if you get a metal wire rack. Get one from lowes. I huge one for multiple cages costs like $80 with 5 shelves or a small one for a single cage with a 3 to 4 racks is only around $35. Well worth the money because then you simply puts some holes on the bottom of the cage and on a rack underneath the cage you put a plastic rubbermaid bin that you can snag at Target or Walmart for $5. You definitely need drainage because you do not want water to build up bacteria in your cage.

 

[summoner12]

You might have come across my crazy misting system. Mine is built the way it is just to be a bit over the top, but it also provides very clean water. The main reason for RO is to get rid of the hard water deposits left by tap water. Tap water will end up clogging anything you use to provide water for your chams. be it a dripper with a small orifice or a misting nozzle. The clogging issue was my main drive for going to RO. The other half of that story is that I am a total dork and like to play with electronics... My system is accessible from my phone and allows me to monitor when my system is on and the current temp and humidity at home... I can also turn on any of the four misting sectors of the system. I currently have 10 adult chams and two babies.... I don't consume more than maybe 3-4 gallons a day of water... but the ability to control and monitor my system does ease my mind when at work with the heat wave we've been having.

OH and as far as drainage... My current system is to catch the water with modified shower curtains directing the water to buckets and manually dumping the water every other day. This will be automated shortly. Just need to get some items together and will start a thread on the little project. The main reason for this is just in case the misting system goes crazy, I can get rid of the water without flooding the place.

 

[elefntkpr]

Alright see?...my wife is totally reading this post. She has begun the tilted head looks because of the effort I've been putting into this enclosure. I just spent two days constructing a realistic rock backdrop (Phase one, two and three of my attempts ended in some sort of embarrasment but phase four was the winner looking nothing like a fiber-lite cow turd). I laughed and laughed when I read your post because instead of wondering "what kind of life does this guy have?" I was actually jealous as hell the entire time. That's an awesome setup you have. My neighbor has gotten into salt water tanks and his is "wired in" to the net just like yours. He can control and monitor everything online remotely and again I secretly hated him the whole time I congratulated him on his setup. He also has the RO setup so I have access to all the fresh water I want.
What's truly shocking to me from this post is just how ignorant I was regarding the water needs of this animal until now. I went through all the trouble of molding a recession into my rock wall to hold water for a fogger. Now that I've done some more homework, it appears I have a nice planter in the rock wall instead.
One question, how often did you have to pump up the garden sprayer? I am going on vacation in December for a week and I'm just curious what my chameleon sitter is going to be in for. I almost forgot, I was also wondering what the misting radius was? My enclosure is 2' by 2' by 3' or there abouts and I want to make sure it stays inside the enclosure and not on my drywall or I'll never hear the end of it. heh

Thanks for the great information, justification of my nerdness and the laugh.

John

You might have come across my crazy misting system. Mine is built the way it is just to be a bit over the top, but it also provides very clean water. The main reason for RO is to get rid of the hard water deposits left by tap water. Tap water will end up clogging anything you use to provide water for your chams. be it a dripper with a small orifice or a misting nozzle. The clogging issue was my main drive for going to RO. The other half of that story is that I am a total dork and like to play with electronics... My system is accessible from my phone and allows me to monitor when my system is on and the current temp and humidity at home... I can also turn on any of the four misting sectors of the system. I currently have 10 adult chams and two babies.... I don't consume more than maybe 3-4 gallons a day of water... but the ability to control and monitor my system does ease my mind when at work with the heat wave we've been having.

OH and as far as drainage... My current system is to catch the water with modified shower curtains directing the water to buckets and manually dumping the water every other day. This will be automated shortly. Just need to get some items together and will start a thread on the little project. The main reason for this is just in case the misting system goes crazy, I can get rid of the water without flooding the place.

 

[summoner12]

The DIY setup kinda takes some getting used to... ya see... the more water you have... the more often you need to pump. The less water, the less pumping..... but will require more refilling depending on the amount of misting you do. This is because with more water the less volume of space for air meaning it need to be pumped more often because the handle has a pressure valve that will pop open if you continue pumping till your arms are as big as Popeye. But with less water the 'airtank' is larger, more volume and more 'storage' for pressure and the less often you'll need to pump. I honestly have not run mine in a long time since I built it in order to do the write-up. The little bit that I did use DIY mister though, it worked well and I think I went about a week without filling it up with water and just gave it a few pumps each morning till i heard the pressure valve bleed off some air. For the guy or gal who likes to build something just to do it and has some money laying around and has small water needs, it is a great system. If you plan to expand you collection I recommend the Mist King system. But, by all means, build the DIY for a rainy day for when you need a remote misting system for outdoors use or if for some reason you misting pump took a crap, you have something for backup.

As for nozzle spray.. depends on the nozzle. I use the metal wire racks... and I hang a shower curtain down the back so no water hits the walls. Now depending on nozzle and pressure, you mist will spray outside of the cage. At full pressure (125psi) from a Mist King system, the mist is so fine it just blows around inside and outside of the cage. I dialed my pump down to 90psi but still get the mist blowing around. I barrowed a cage from Dave Weldon and he told me I couldn't put any holes in the cage for nozzles... So I came up with a solution...

 

[Montium]

The DIY setup kinda takes some getting used to... ya see... the more water you have... the more often you need to pump. The less water, the less pumping..... but will require more refilling depending on the amount of misting you do. This is because with more water the less volume of space for air meaning it need to be pumped more often because the handle has a pressure valve that will pop open if you continue pumping till your arms are as big as Popeye. But with less water the 'airtank' is larger, more volume and more 'storage' for pressure and the less often you'll need to pump. I honestly have not run mine in a long time since I built it in order to do the write-up. The little bit that I did use DIY mister though, it worked well and I think I went about a week without filling it up with water and just gave it a few pumps each morning till i heard the pressure valve bleed off some air. For the guy or gal who likes to build something just to do it and has some money laying around and has small water needs, it is a great system. If you plan to expand you collection I recommend the Mist King system. But, by all means, build the DIY for a rainy day for when you need a remote misting system for outdoors use or if for some reason you misting pump took a crap, you have something for backup.

As for nozzle spray.. depends on the nozzle. I use the mettle wire racks... and I hang a shower curtain down the back so no water hits the walls. Now depending on nozzle and pressure, you mist will spray outside of the cage. At full pressure (125psi) from a Mist King system, the mist is so fine it just blows around inside and outside of the cage. I dialed my pump down to 90psi but still get the mist blowing around. I barrowed a cage from Dave Weldon and he told me I couldn't put any holes in the cage for nozzles... So I came up with a solution...

LOL damn him, LOL It however looks like you came up with a great idea, how do you like it so far over a regular nozzle placement?

 

[elefntkpr]

Effective summoner12, very effective. Many thanks for all the information and ideas.

 

[summoner12]

LOL damn him, LOL It however looks like you came up with a great idea, how do you like it so far over a regular nozzle placement?

Well... the mist from this sort of device creates more of a rain effect... or a super dripper effect. The fine mist from the nozzle will at first go right through the screen. Water then builds up on the screen, catching more mist, creating water droplets and then falling once too large to cling onto the screen. It also creates a local mist rather than soaking the entire cage.

I like it for when I tub babies or can't put a hole through a cage that doesn't belong to me. I think Dave Weldon does something like this.... misting above the cage to create water droplets on the top of the screen. He has a picture of his veiled drinking from the top of the cage.