Reet... Well Giles is going to be renting my spare room soon and he fancies the idea of a CWD and i've always wanted one or two.

I've enough room in the smaller spare room to build a 5(l)x6(h)x2 / 2.5(d) viv for a pair.

questions.................

1 - best way to heat something that size?

• would an AHS heater do the trick with a couple of low wattage bulbs for light.
• Would it need a few spot lights if an AHS isn't suitable or just the one for a basking area and 'sod' the rest of the viv cos there'll be a large area for a big enough area for a hot, cool, warm and bit too cool area
• combine the first 2 but use a ceramic with a couple of low wattage bulbs

2 - water area?

• The idea swimming round my grey matter is a fish tank with a filter rather than mess around changing every couple of days. If i / we dropped a heater in there and went tropical, would the dragons eat them?

3 - melamine

I'm considering using my wardrobe that i build myself out of contiboard and getting myself a normal wardrobe.

• would covering in pond liner / visqueen be good enough to protect it from the humidity.

4 - wood

• just to clarify.... no issue with using any old tree branch, including something from the pine family, if its been boiled and baked and blah blah but if from the pine family then it'll need a reet good varnishing to seal it?

probably more to come but can't think of them

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nobody has a CWD then.. weird.

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alrite mate,

will answer best i can,

1) in my viv 6x6x2 (lxhxd) i use one 250w heater postioned just off center. this keeps ambient temp of 25C throughout including night time.

i then have 1 100w halogen basking bulb at the basking spot reaching 33C. because the viv is so large if they are too hot they can bask further away etc.

2) you need something to be able to change it easily enough, i was think gthe same thing as you but with my cwds they ONLY poo in there water and after 2 days it can get pretty dirty, i just have an airstone on a little air punp to craete the effect of moving water, it also helps keep the water abit clean somehow i found.

can only imagine it would be a pain in the back side having to clena the fish tank every couple of days especially with fish in.

yes they would eat the fish if you had some.

i used a big plastic tidy box, fitted a tap to one end and sunk it into the floor with a door on the front on the viv so you can empty it easily.

3) not sure about melamine, but i wanted it 100% waterproof so used oak ply and varnished it with about 4/5 coats, i lined the bottom with thick polythene sheet, this has worked well so far, its easy to wipe down when you clean it.

4) personally i would risk pine at all, i did use branches from a tree in the garden my dad chopped down but made sure they were properly sterilised etc before putting them in.

hope that helps, let me know if you need anymore info,

heres a couple of mine taken recently:

note: the basking light is now covered

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1.1.0 Chinese Water Dragons (Physignathus Cocincinus) - Ryu & Maylin (RIP Tian)
1.0.0 Moroccan Uromastyx (Uromastyx acanthinurus nigriventris)- dib dab
1.0.0 White Lined Gecko (Gecko vittatus)
1.0.0 Royal Python (Python regius)

31 CWD babys!! - PM me if intrested!

well my viv is approx 5 ft high and 4ft wide and 2 ft deep. i have a two basking lamps, a 60w one at eye level and one 60w towards the bottom (where they have a pool and some privacy) i have a ceramic heater set in the middle of the viv on the left for nigh time heat. my viv is marine ply on the back sealed with varnish and contiboard very well sealed. i have two large ventsone at top right and one at bottom left. in the bottom i used a huge deep plastic tray as its completely watertight and have half filled it with soil 8 inches deep and have a gardeners gravel tray in the other half.this is filled with water and has a fogger in too.

i thought about the idea of using a filter and a tank but after talking to the terrapin guys in shelled about what the best type is i decided against it. with two cwds pooing in the water you need an external filter rated for at least twice the capacity of the tank you will be using or the nitrates will build up to a toxic level. or something like that! anyway i didnt go ahead as my budget would have been screwed by adding an external filter at a cost of £70ish. but if you have one lying around then it may be worth trying it. aslo, my cwds are more than happy with the tray they have.they can completelty submerge and its bigger than both of them. i have a pipe that i use to drain it every day or so and then just refill it. heres some pics of when it was first done. its been tweaked alot since then but the basic layout is still the same.

cheers people.. i read the replies the other day but didn't have chance to reply.

For the water i've got some Contico's which are almost 3ft long so i'll probably use one of those for the pool rather than the fish tank idea. As ideas go its nice but crap as far as practicality goes..

The wood is still under debate as of whether to use the wood i've got or start from scratch. All depends on available funds at the outlay and if i want to demolish the wardrobe or not. I do fancy doing a proper rock wall as well but thats just an idea. If we do then that'll cover most of the contiboard anyway.

I've just bought a 750watt AHS heater off Jones285 for a decent price. As its not an upgrade viv there'll be enough time to make sure them temps are right. As it'll be something like 6x6x2 or 5x6x2 or swap the 2 for a 2.5 the 750watt and a bulb (unstatted) would probably do the job. Yep, an unstatted bulb as its a very big area, the AHS has its own stat built in so that'll cool the AHS down if the temps get too high.

The reason i asked about pine and varnishing is because tress to me are big things that grow outside. I wouldn't know a tree from the pine family from any other.

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it can be really difficult to establish what type of wood it is if its already cut. so find a tree, maybe in a neighbours garden or local park where the tree surgeons are chopping them back. the best one to go for that you can pick yourself is a fruit tree such as cherry or apple or an oak. they are pretty hardy and deal well with the high humidity. pine or anything similar will need to be dried out and can smell pretty strong for quite a while. so if you collected it from tree now, you would be better off waiting for a while or baking it in the oven a few times. but to fit it in the oven, its got to be small enough. which menas that its not going really provide anygood climbing. it would be good for shels and perches though. the best investment i made for my cwd vivis buying some twisty liana. its about £10 a metre and you can get it from Dartfrog - Everything for the Amphibian Keeper . they also do lots of other good accessories for high humidity vivs, as well as the two part epoxy sealant for incorporating a fully sealed waterfall in your rock background. and misting systems. and loads of other good stuff too!

cheers tinks..
i was thinking along the lines of dog walking and thinking 'oops, that'll do nicely' for one of those big branches lying on the floor.. and going back when its dark.

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For large bits of wood you could try pressure washing them first and dry them in the sun (SUN???), as they will be too big to freeze or bake you could try heating it with electric heat gun used to strip paint etc, this should kill the nasty bugs, problem may be it could cause sap to seep out.

i have tried loads of different ways of treating wood we have found. if the bark will strip off very easy then thats half the work done. for freezing i havent had much success with the bark still on. and my husband went mad when he opened the chest freezer and found half a tree. the best wood i have found so far is cherry. the bark strips easily and it goes a nice golden colour once its dried out and baked.

and as for the walking the dogs and noticing the best branches, we have all done that! there are loads of good nature trails around here so we have trained the kids to find branches and tortoise food. good to see them working for their keep!

slight re-think going on so another question....

Is it a bad idea to have a viv next to a window? by next to a window i mean using the window 'in' the viv? to be economical on space we can build a bigger viv by putting it on the far wall but there's a window there..

Obviously there's the issue of over heating but the viv could be about 7ft high, 6ft wide and 3 or 4ft deep so it wouldn't be too much of an issue i don't think. Also if the heat is coming in through the window that'll mean the thermostats will turn down the additional heating and save me money.

There's also a radiator on that wall too which could be boxed off but set to give a low heat during winter, again saving on additional heating.

So.. are there any obvious problems that could occur?

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