Help planning a rainforest vivarium

[ray23]

Hi all, firstly I hope this is in the right section.
I am posting this thread in hope that someone with experience might be able to correct me in any areas of my build that will need altering, so I'll start with a bit of a description of what I have in mind.
Basically I will be building a rainforest vivarium over the next couple months (hope to be starting in a few weeks) to house a pair of angle headed dragons. I have a 900x600x600 reptile one glass enclosure to work with.
At this stage, I am looking to have a planted background (with small pots incorporated into it for the plants to grow in), a waterfall into a 'pond' area around 1/2 to 3/4 of the bottom. I am also wanting to incorporate a rain system aswell for extra humidity and to help water the plants. I have seen expanda foam backgrounds covered with fern root mulch that is stuck there with silicone, is this going to get wrecked with the dragons climbing on it? I would like to try and avoid repair jobs in the future lol.

As far as plants go at this stage I am thinking of using some sort of fern, bromelaids, umbrella plant and a ficus (pumila?) Also in terms of 'feeding' the plants, are you able to use some sort of fertilizer or something? Is this needed for them to flourish?

anyway I am trying to keep this short, so I think I have got everything else minus the plants situation worked out. If anyone has any helpful comments on what I could change or things to keep in mind when building, it would be very much appreciated because I want to get it right the first time .

cheers

[beckdg]

go sparingly on fertilizers IF ANY.

do a search on this site for the "binder method". it will hold up to your dragon better than silicone imo.

[boabab95]

yeah, i wouldn't use ferts if there will be inhabitants.


1 question-
when you say 900X600X600 what's that measured in? if it's cm, that nearly 30 FEETX20'X20'!!! just wondering...

[ray23]

oh sorry, no that's millimetres. Being a carpenter it is just habit to use millimetres. So it will be 90cmhx60dx60w.

oh and thanks for the quick replies

[boabab95]

oh ok, that makes more sense. although!... a 30'X20'X20' would be AWESOME!!!!

[ray23]

I just remembered I have some more questions that need answering.
For drainage of the potted plants, I was going to run some sort of funnel that was properly fixed in place at the bottom of the pot and connect that to a tube that ran back into the main water body. Then obviously that would be filtered, and pumped back through the waterfall and/or when the rain system was activated. ( I hope this is making sense so far) This is idea No.1

No.2 Would be just poking holes in the bottom of the pots (where the expanda foam has covered) and basically letting the excess water run down the face of the background. Now surely this wouldn't damage the background over time? I don't imagine that there would be much water draining out the pots anyway.

Question No.2 - I intend to have a waterfall at pretty much the top of the enclosure(so it is going to drop from that height right down to the bottom of the enclosure into the main water body), so you're talking about 900mm high. I am wondering if anyone knows of what sort of pump I might need to get the water up there or if you can point me in the right direction as to what specifications I might need to make the waterfall a success.

I think that's it now, once again thanks for any help

Cheers

[beckdg]

poking holes SHOULD be fine. depends on how well the pots are suspended.
i would not try a funnel.

what you need is a fountain pump that'll pump at least 100 lph at the head height of your output imho. make sure it's adjustable.

[ray23]

ok thanks. yeah the pots are just going to be 'built in' to the background with expanda foam holding them in place

[imamerican95]

visit my youtube page. it will answer all your questions with my videos.
YouTube - ImAmerican95's Channel