Enclosure construction (Image heavy)

[Banzi]

Building my chinese water dragon enclosure. (Sorry it’s long winded)

Around 3 months ago we bought our first Water dragon, having only owned skinks before I thought I‘d better do a little research on water dragon care and stumbled upon two of the best herp sites on the net, Tricia’s and HC network. After reading some of the threads it became very apparent my existing setup was inadequate for housing dragons and made a lot of adjustments quickly to correct the situation. Within the first week I had improved the humidity, had better control of the temperature, added 18” to the height of the enclosure, moved the basking areas and gave the dragon somewhere to climb, increased the volume of water available and now Mushu seems very relaxed in his new home.

A very important lesson learned: ALWAYS research before you purchase. Not only will you understand more about your pet’s needs, habits etc but you will also avoid any unnecessary stress to the animal if everything is ready before you bring him/her home.

Having finally got Mushu settled I wanted to know more, what else could I do to improve his/her environment? Knowing Mushu will eventually out grow his current home I started looking at other enclosures available on the market. This time I will be prepared and everything will be ready for when he/she needs to move!
After checking out all of the commercially available enclosures I’ve decided to build my own and thanks to the help from HC network forum I have a great resource centre to help me with my latest project.
My first quandary was size, not only how big it needed to be but also how big was my partner going to allow! After drawing several plans and making a scale model my partner gave me planning permission for an 8’ x 6’ x 2.5’. Wow, that was easier than I thought it would be. So off to B&Q to buy the wood before she changes her mind. 

Construction .

The enclosure is made of 18mm exterior plywood on 3 sides with a false bottom for a water tank / pump and false ceiling to house the electrical equipment.


The back & false bottom has been added now but forgot to take a picture.

Now the framework is complete it was time for another trip to B&Q to buy the polystyrene (1 sheet 8' x 4' x 4" and 1 sheet 8' x 4' x 2") for the fake wall and start carving




Once I had finished carving and gluing the polystyrene with PVA it was time to fill any gaps with expanding foam


All carved and ready, I brushed on its first coat of thin grout. At this point I decided the enclosure should contain a mixture of artificial and real plants to help with the humidity so added a few plant pots and set them with layers of expanding foam.

[Banzi]

After carving the expanding foam I added another layer of waterproof tile grout

The hoses in the picture are drip feeders for the live plants, another three coats of grout were added (35 kg was used in total) and here is the finished result ready for painting / sealing.

After adding a base coat of water based acrylic paint I used a mixture of the following colors: Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Vermillion, Sap Green, Deep green, Black & White. Always working Dark to light.
(if you are not happy with the results you can always paint over it and start again)

I still need to seal it all with epoxy but have added the plants to ensure I am happy with the effect. Now for the tree

The tree consists if 4 meters of 40mm plastic pipe along with various elbows / junctions, my first attempt (above) was not good but after adding a few more junctions and fixing small off cuts in strategic places it started to look more like the real thing. I was a little concerned about using solvent adhesive on the pipes so all pieces were held in place with news paper & PVA glue.


Once dried the whole thing was covered with 3 layers of plaster of Paris bandages and left to dry. Next I added 3 thin coats of tile grout mixed with PVA glue and left it set for 48 hours and finally painted it using water based acrylic
(Again this still needs to be sealed with epoxy resin but will do that when I do the rocks)


So here is where I’m up to

Still a lot to do:
1. Fit false ceiling
2. Seal enclosure with 3 coats of water based polyurethane varnish
3. Seal all joints with aquarium sealer
4. Line base with heavy duty pond liner
5. Seal rocks & trees with epoxy resin
6. Install lights & dimmer switch to simulate dawn & dusk
7. Install UV & Basking lamps
8. Install waterfall & misting system
9. Install fans in ceiling & thermostat
10. Install temperature sensors to monitor 6 locations
11. Install humidity sensor
12. Fit doors
Will update the thread as I progress, I hope people find this helpful.

[HABU]

completely amazing work! i'm stunned. the cincinnati zoo may be calling, wanting to recruit you! better than i could ever dream of doing.(no duct tape) whoa!!

[Tops]

agreed very impressive work
Didnt show you that on Blue peter did they!

[sparkle]

I have a water dragon and that looks like an amazing project... id love to try something like that for him when he gets older well done

[DeanThorpe]

That is sweet mate.

[HABU]

da bomb!!

[rubb3r]

Thats amazing! wish i could do something like that.

[baby05x]

wow
so when are you coming to do mine?

[Crownan]

Wow, amazing, one of the best I've seen!

You must be well proud and your WDs are SO lucky!