American Alligator indoor enclosure
- Thread starter jyabs7
- Start date
Update so i can follow my timeline later down the road... Right now it's a waiting game for parts to come in the mail. Decided to give some Arcadia lighting a try. I'll play around with number of fixtures and such when i get everything set up. So far some Arcadia Deep Heat Projector bulbs which will be ran by a vivarium electronics ve-300 to get the right temp gradient in check, arcadia proT5 d3+ dragon bulbs/fixtures to get his UVB supplement and lighting down, and an Arcadia Jungle Dawn LED bar to give a small amount of supplement light over his pond area. The pond will be filtered by a Fluval FX6 with an inline heater backedup by an inkbird controller. Initial thoughts are to have the top of the pond layered in frogbit for a more natural look, along with the land being covered in soft turf for the same reason along with ease of cleaning. The pond itself is a 4ft round behlen country stock tank (24" deep) which will be coated in pond armor and will nest perfectly in the base of the enclosure.
USPS decided to take a day off apparently so all my stuff that was supposed to come today, isn't. But i tinkered. Shortened the stand some, cut the hole for the pond, added some braces to the decking, and put up some walls. i made a door for the last opening but don't have any hinges so that's on my shopping list. I got a coat of paint on everything, and started working on the turf for the bottom of the enclosure. It's not perfect by any means, but i'm satisfied. Hoping to have it up and running by Wednesday, lets hope USPS cooperates and gets me my stuff so i'm not delayed any longer.
messing with some turf for the inside. give him more of a natural feel, easier to clean, not as messy as sand or dirt.
threw a few coats of pond armor on the tank. if it's dry to touch tomorrow then i'll set that in the enclosure and work on finishing everything up. I'm running some vivarium electronics Pro t5 ho fixtures with arcadia bulbs, and two heat lamps. tonight i'll work on mounting all them and getting everything ready to rock and roll. USPS is still holding out on delivering my filter, but i'm hoping they bring it soon and i can get this enclosure operational in the next few days.
threw a few coats of pond armor on the tank. if it's dry to touch tomorrow then i'll set that in the enclosure and work on finishing everything up. I'm running some vivarium electronics Pro t5 ho fixtures with arcadia bulbs, and two heat lamps. tonight i'll work on mounting all them and getting everything ready to rock and roll. USPS is still holding out on delivering my filter, but i'm hoping they bring it soon and i can get this enclosure operational in the next few days.
Leak tested the pond over night, and filled it up today. Got the water treated, and noticed a very very slight drip under my valve. No big deal. About one drip a half hour. I'll get it fixed. but, I programmed the schedule for the lights, got the filter functioning, all the controllers set up, and no it's time to let everything warm up and move him today. Hell need more decorations but good enough for now.
I had built something similar back when I had a large African rock python. I used a large stainless steel sink as the water area and mounted like you would in a kitchen. Hooked a ball valve to the sink tailpiece so I could drain into a couple buckets. I didnt have the claw issues that you'd have so I lined the inside with melamine board and caulked the seams.
Hes in. I added a turtle ramp to make sure he can climb out of the water with his little legs.
