swampy terranium.

Hello all. This is currently my first time posting and I have run into. Slight issue. I currently use a monsoon for my two cwd's not even a year old yet. Will be in July. I am in the process of finding someone to or building my own enclosure (if you know anyone in the NOVA are who can build one for me fairly cheap please let me know!). Currently I have them in 40g's tanks and part of the screen is covered. Though I've run into the humidity dropping significantly just after the mister goes off so I have it running every 30 minutes to a hour. The tank stays in the 40 to 60 humidity range and peaks at 80 for about 5 minutes after the mister stops. I am using coconut fiber, eco earth, and reptibark as the substrate and was thinking about going to eco earth/sand/moss. Any suggestions to help keep the humidity up without needing the mister to run nearly as much such as water heaters/bubblers(or whatever theyre called) etc? Help greatly appreciated!

I'm guessing a screen lid on the 40g. It has way to much ventilation, if I have to use a tank for anytime with a screen lid I generally cover about 3/4s of it. (I generally use plexiglass or saran wrap)

Your basically going to have to either seal the screen lid, minus some air holes. Or, construct a lid that fits the cage and holds humidity at a higher level. There''s this tape at Lowes that most people use for snake racks called, heating and ventilation tape, silver with a paper backing. It withstands up to ,i believe, 200 degrees, high humidity, and its super sticky. Ultimately, your on the right track with building your own cage, but the tape should deffinitely hold you over for a while. And as deedle said, saran wrap will work also. Bigger water dish could also help.

Ive got about a 1gallon dish on the cool side (which is where I have the lower humidity at the moment) ill definatly check out that tape! Thanks guys!

I'm not sure what a CWD is... However another option may be to make a humidity retreat/hide. Take an appropriately sized plastic container with lid, cut a hole in the side to allow the CWD to enter/exit. Fill the container with moistened sphagnum moss.

CWD = crocodile water dragon
CWD = caiman winged dragon
CWD = central west didgeridoo
CWD = chinese water dragon

Chinese Water dragons lol. Sorry for the confusion.

Darn-it! I was hoping we finally got a caiman winged dragon breeder in VA!   

Aww lol! Ive never even heard of them! Though I can garuntee once my dragons come of age, you'll see some C.B.Bs. i had a hard time finding a breeder lol.

I would create a false bottom using at least an inch and a half of river rock. Cover that with a barrier and put your substrate one top. I would also put a 2" PVC pipes in each of the back corners with hole drilled in the bottom, accessing your reservoir so water and air can breath. Put some heat tape on the bottom and it will evaporate your well. I've done this in some terrariums and it has worked great. The best possible thing to use for this is an under gravel filter system for an aquarium. It will suspend the river rock, add extra room for the well which increase the water reserve, and already has the rear pipes installed.

If this doesn't make sense, I can provide some pictures or links, but most can be found in google. Sorry if I'm not very clear, phones about to die!

That is actually a fantastic idea! Im revamping their tank tomorrow to get all their water out of the tank. Would you be able to pm me some pictures and some links to the type of filter you are talking about?

Here's a link to the one I am currently using for a ten gallon. I just remove the carbon filters. For higher humidity, I recommend drilling multiple holes up and down the tube to allow more evaporation to escape.

http://m.petco.com/product/7168/Petco-Undergravel-Filters.aspx#

I looked at Petco earlier today and couldnt find that type of filter. I did check online prior to going in. I ended up doing what you suggested with the pvc piping. Put river rock on the bottom, tried to get it as flat as possible. Wasnt sure what to use as the barrier so I ended up grabbing some plastic mesh stuff at lowes. Similar to pond liner, but left a little gap so water could flow underneath to create the reservoir and took two 8onch long pvc pipes 2inch in dia and stuck them upright with holes to allow water in them. So far the humidity is holding well as I also replaced the substrate using ecoearth again (i love it. Petsmart had a deal on 3 bricks for 5 bucks plus my gf's 15% discountvfor being an employee haha), added a thin layer of moss. I moved them into a 55g that I picked up off craigslist and unfortunatly still using a screen top but im going to cover majority of it using saran wrap. My only concerned is I have heat lamps resting on the screen as of now. If I were to put those on top of the saran wrap will it end up melting through it, increase heat significantly, or what would the effects be? Im hesitant to do that as i am sure it'd melt the wrap away and probably be very unsafe for my reptiles.

I use Glad Press n Seal, it seems to work better than Saran Wrap. Don't put it under the area with the heat lamps.

Ok. How bout uvb? Will it block the uvb coming through like glass or no? Otherwise I can only cover about 1/4th of the screen.

I don't think UVB will get through very well as it's translucent.

Thats what I had thought.