Chinese water dragon terrarium question.

rubiks14 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 03:42 AM

Hello all! This is my first post here

. I have been looking around for a good forum about building terrariums and vivariums and was happy to find this place. For the past few hours I have been looking around and I really like what I see here. Anyway, I am planning on building a terrarium for a cwd soon and had a question about the bottom. My idea was to make to build the terrarium out of plywood. I also wanted to make a fb and have a pond in there. Being mad out of plywood I wasn't sure how to go about doing that. I had the idea to put linoleum tile along all the areas that would be submersed in water. I was then going silicone some gravel and sand to the linoleum to give it a natural look. My question is, would that be a good way of doing things? If anybody has any other suggestions about other ways to do it, they would be much appreciated. Sorry for the long post. Thanks in advance.

froggsong · #2 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 04:40 AM

That might work, but then again, it might leak at the seams of the linoleum. You have to be 100% sure that the silicone is covering the entire surface if you do it that way. For my frog/toad tank, I covered the inside surfaces of the pressboard I used (what I had on hand to experiment with), and it is still doing fine. The best way is to use 2 part epoxy paint for potable water tanks. Just paint the entire inside with how ever many coats it is that you need (don't remember off the top of my head how many it is), and it makes it entirely waterproof. It is the epoxy paint that they use on the inside of water towers that hold drinking water reserves, so it is completely safe. There are a few colors that are safe and the steps to do it on this page: GARF'S REEF AQUARIUM CONSTRUCTION - 140 GALLON AQUARIUM, as you can see from that page, they also use it for reef aquariums.
I may decide to go with the epoxy paint myself now that I am working and can better afford it, but if not, I have been planning to line the bottom of the inside with plexiglass, making the entire bottom up to the top of the plexi waterproof. Then, in order to protect the rest of the wood from the high humidity that the CWD needs (that's what I'm building for too, my project is just on hold for the time being), I am going to have polystyrene foam, GS foam, and silicone covering the entire inside surface of the wood. I'm toying with the idea of priming the wood with original Kilz before putting the plexi in and adding the foam and whatnot, but I'm not sure yet. I'm not 100% sure of the safety of using it, even though it will be entirely covered by foam and silicone and will not come in contact with the water table. Anyway! You can also cover the entire inside of the tank with plexi (even the thin stuff is going to start getting expensive with the dimensions you are going to need). Probably the easiest, most cost effective way is covering the inside with the epoxy paint. There is actually a build thread where someone used the epoxy paint for her CWD tank, here's a link: LOOK!! Custom CWD Build Alost Complete:. You can check her member gallery to see pics of the tank.

Hope this helps!

islandvivs · #3 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 05:27 AM

Btw for the water area you can make the bottom 6-8 inches raised and then cut a rectangular peice out and use pond liner in that hole to make a pond. Thats what i did and it works great. Personally, i dont know if ill do a false bottom per se for a CWD viv. The paint i used for one of my tanks was the water based varathane. It works great and is non toxic.

froggsong · #4 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 05:39 AM

I totally forgot about the pond liner. You can also cover the entire inside with the pond liner in order to protect the wood from the high humidity.

rubiks14 · #5 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 09:38 PM

Thank you both for the replies. I hope to put that information to good use.

froggsong · #6 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 10:16 PM

Good luck, keep us updated, ok?

rubiks14 · #7 (**permalink**) 10-14-2008, 12:23 PM

Sadly, I don't have enough space for a water dragon tank in my house. I have decided instead to go with a bearded dragon. This is my first lizard and a bearded dragon will be easier to take care of anyway. I have drawn some of the plans for what the terrarium I am building will look like. I will post the plans when I get them finished. Hopefully a couple weeks after I start working I will be able to start building.