water plants anyone?

juice28

New Member
so i ve been doing some research on plants that like heavy amounts of water..not like lily's that grow in ponds but something like a cat-tail or something that basically lives in saturated ground snd is cham safe...any ideas?
 
If you plant a ficus or schefflera in good organic soil with some sand mixed in, you'll get good drainage and won't have issues with the plant getting root rot. The sand helps the water to flow through the dirt and not 'flood' or collect inside of the soil/pot.

Most of my plants, you poor a cup of water into the pot you'll get just as much out of the bottom of that plant within a few seconds. The plants do just fine because they get watered so often they don't need a water retaining media. Just don't stop watering.... then you'll have plants that are very crispy..... :eek:;)
 
Well im wanting to make so far it's just an idea...buut im attempting to design a complete enclosure, fully planted and living floor to ceiling...more like an exhibit than a cage/tank so to speak but...gotta get the ground right....can't put anything anything on top of a weak foundationya know lol. But with a misting/rain system, having plants that like a good bit of water would be needed.
 
Are you talking about doing a vivarium? Fully planted (not in pots)? Is this going to be in a screen enclosure, or something like an exo-terra? If a glass enclosure with front sliders, you will not need or want to mist as heavily as a screen enclosure.

You will want a drainage layer of some sort. The very bottom level should have around 1.5-2" of Hydroton/Lava Rock. This stuff absorbs water. On top of that you will want your fine mesh (weed block from hardware stores works great). You place this on top of the Hydroton/Lava rock (I prefer hydroton).

Then you place your soil on top of the mesh. The mesh prevents dirt from getting to the Hydroton. Joshs frogs has good info on this.

http://www.joshsfrogs.com/substrate...trates/abg-atlanta-botanical-gardens-mix.html

You won't need the other top layers persay, that is more dart-frog/pygmy cham oriented.

As far as plants to use I am not sure, but like I said earlier, if you are going this route and are using a glass enclosure, you won't want to mist nearly as much.
 
No problem. You will definitely want to do the layers. But you don't necessarily need the top ones. Mainly Hydroton --> Mesh --> soil
 
Ok thanks for that info. I think it would be ver good looking and very natural for the Chan also
 
How is the baby doing these days?
Still showing signs of possible edema?

As for a full of vivarium- sounds great! Plexi glass is a great item to use for the walls, maybe a full on screen front and top?
Im curious to hear more on this, I always like others point of views on enclosures as well as their creative ideas
 
How is the baby doing these days?
Still showing signs of possible edema?

As for a full of vivarium- sounds great! Plexi glass is a great item to use for the walls, maybe a full on screen front and top?
Im curious to hear more on this, I always like others point of views on enclosures as well as their creative ideas

sorry about the late reply olivia, yes shes doing good still a bit but its going down i posted some recent pics on the water causing edema thread :) she hasent slowed down with eating and drinking at all...shes a fat lil thing now lol.. i cant even chill with her cage door open cuz she very curious and always all of ther cage and will climb out lol and shes too small for me to notice if im not literally watching her cage lol
 
No problem. You will definitely want to do the layers. But you don't necessarily need the top ones. Mainly Hydroton --> Mesh --> soil
grat info..if possible id like to do screem mainly due to the fact that i have all the stuff for a scren cage already and i dont really want to break donw my 2.2.4 cage and replace it with another tank.. im running out of room and i have a mister.. just havent set it up im good with hand spraying for me, i only have one big cage so far so the mistking on all 3 would be to much.. fine for the big one but too much for the smaller ones cuz theyd all be on the same timer just 3 nozzles..one for each cage but running it long enough for the big cage would be too long for the small one..IMO
 
so i ve been doing some research on plants that like heavy amounts of water..not like lily's that grow in ponds but something like a cat-tail or something that basically lives in saturated ground snd is cham safe...any ideas?

If you plant a ficus or schefflera in good organic soil with some sand mixed in, you'll get good drainage and won't have issues with the plant getting root rot. The sand helps the water to flow through the dirt and not 'flood' or collect inside of the soil/pot.

Most of my plants, you poor a cup of water into the pot you'll get just as much out of the bottom of that plant within a few seconds. The plants do just fine because they get watered so often they don't need a water retaining media. Just don't stop watering.... then you'll have plants that are very crispy..... :eek:;)

Well im wanting to make so far it's just an idea...buut im attempting to design a complete enclosure, fully planted and living floor to ceiling...more like an exhibit than a cage/tank so to speak but...gotta get the ground right....can't put anything anything on top of a weak foundationya know lol. But with a misting/rain system, having plants that like a good bit of water would be needed.

Are you talking about doing a vivarium? Fully planted (not in pots)? Is this going to be in a screen enclosure, or something like an exo-terra? If a glass enclosure with front sliders, you will not need or want to mist as heavily as a screen enclosure.

You will want a drainage layer of some sort. The very bottom level should have around 1.5-2" of Hydroton/Lava Rock. This stuff absorbs water. On top of that you will want your fine mesh (weed block from hardware stores works great). You place this on top of the Hydroton/Lava rock (I prefer hydroton).

Then you place your soil on top of the mesh. The mesh prevents dirt from getting to the Hydroton. Joshs frogs has good info on this.

http://www.joshsfrogs.com/substrate...trates/abg-atlanta-botanical-gardens-mix.html

You won't need the other top layers persay, that is more dart-frog/pygmy cham oriented.

As far as plants to use I am not sure, but like I said earlier, if you are going this route and are using a glass enclosure, you won't want to mist nearly as much.

No problem. You will definitely want to do the layers. But you don't necessarily need the top ones. Mainly Hydroton --> Mesh --> soil

Juice - I've battled the same problem for a long time, but have found a fantastic solution to drainage. Growstones! Growstones are a newer product that have proven to be more effective than Hydroton^^. There are some videos on youtube to show the comparison.

Here's a link to the product: http://www.growstone.com/

On their website they will tell you where you can buy them. I took Happy Frog potting soil, and mixed it 50/50 with the smaller growstones. My plants are not only surviving, but thriving! The growstones are made from ground up glass (silica - same as sand), which is then added to a foaming agent, so they are very light and have a similar structure to the Lava Rock that Seiryu mentioned above. They also provide silica, which will make your plants stronger.

I recomend this 100%. It's a perfect solution to overwatering. Take a look at this link below of the vivarium that I built. As you can see, I have 8 misting nozzles in each 24x24x48 side of the cage. Lots of water runs through it, but the soil doesn't get soggy at all!


https://www.chameleonforums.com/finished-beauty-115910/

Good luck!
 
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