Waterfall good or bad?

Alright so my whole thought is to have a somewhat realistic terrarium that my BP can enjoy. I know how to place the plants and all of the other husbandry stuff but I do have one question. Would a waterfall be ok if I can keep my humidity between 50-60? I plan on just making my own with hydraulic cement and a small pump. I really want it to have a basking spot on the top. Would this be a bad idea, and if so please explain.

not too sure the pressure might force him under which might make him drown its really not worth it just cause of the looks

Probably a good thing. We've been running one for over 10 years in a ball python display. You've got to build it so it is serviceable so you can get to the pump to clean or replace it when needed but the ball python can't. Also the edges need to be tight fitting against the top, bottom, and sides. If the ball python can get his head behind it he will force his way behind it and maybe do some damage so he can have a nice, tight hide. It needs to be easy to clean because the snake will relieve himself in it requiring a thorough cleaning. It is a great way to help the humidity in a display set-up and usually an attractive addition. One more thing, if you've got hard water, you will want to use distilled or R/O water to avoid water spots all over the inside of your display. Good luck and have fun with it!
- Paul

Good to hear, my plan is to make it a water feature/hide with the pump hidden in the structure so it can only be seen when I take the whole feature out. Do you think the noise of the pump will keep him from using this as a hide or is the hide a bad idea?

Other info, I plan on starting with a foam block as a base. Ill carve it in a corner so its tight then cover it with hydraulic cement to shape, mold rocks, plants and other things into it. I plan on having a pond like bottom so it pools and he can soak. Any suggestions on anything else?

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Originally Posted by PiedPeddler

Probably a good thing. We've been running one for over 10 years in a ball python display. You've got to build it so it is serviceable so you can get to the pump to clean or replace it when needed but the ball python can't. Also the edges need to be tight fitting against the top, bottom, and sides. If the ball python can get his head behind it he will force his way behind it and maybe do some damage so he can have a nice, tight hide. It needs to be easy to clean because the snake will relieve himself in it requiring a thorough cleaning. It is a great way to help the humidity in a display set-up and usually an attractive addition. One more thing, if you've got hard water, you will want to use distilled or R/O water to avoid water spots all over the inside of your display. Good luck and have fun with it!
- Paul

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Any tips on how you made yours?

I dont plan on it being a forceful waterfall, just a gentle trickle or small drop off.

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Originally Posted by Amp625

not too sure the pressure might force him under which might make him drown its really not worth it just cause of the looks

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It will probably be useless. I doubt he'd spend any time in it or 'enjoy' it in any sort of way.

In fact, he'll probably poop in it, and cleaning that out completely would be difficult and more work than necessary. Poop will probably also kill the motor in the waterfall system.

If you want a waterfall, get a pacman frog or some poison dart frogs. I'm sure they'd love it. Ball pythons don't generally interact with items that people often put in the enclosure to make it more "natural". Most discover that they're happy with a water bowl, hide, and substrate.. and that's pretty much all they need unless you want to clean more.

Decorating with fake foliage is fine, but I think a waterfall is a little bit ridiculous for a ball python.

Well it would be just more of a display thing, would it stress him out at all? Like the hum of the motor or would he be afraid of it?

If the water fall makes a lot of vibrations, it will most likely annoy your ball python and it may not use a hide if it is near it.

I have one in a cage with the tiger salamanders, and when ever I loose a bp in that room I find it in a week or so in their cage in the waterfall. The salamanders tank is a 55 gallon fish tank and the top is open in the back where the filters use to be. The waterfall is on one side of the tank, nothing fancy but makes a nice sound. Basically the bp's seam to like something about it because I have found them soaking in the base of it the two times I have lost one (not the same snake twice).

This quote helps me a lot, I was worried it may stress him out. I thought about making it a hide/waterfall? What kind of pump are you running in your waterfall and is it pretty quiet?

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Originally Posted by boasandballs

I have one in a cage with the tiger salamanders, and when ever I loose a bp in that room I find it in a week or so in their cage in the waterfall. The salamanders tank is a 55 gallon fish tank and the top is open in the back where the filters use to be. The waterfall is on one side of the tank, nothing fancy but makes a nice sound. Basically the bp's seam to like something about it because I have found them soaking in the base of it the two times I have lost one (not the same snake twice).

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how would you make this waterfall what kind of pump would you use

i do know most pumps now a day if you pick a garden pond pump would have no problem with the ball going poop in the water as any good pump has a pre-filter the water is sucked into and it aint like just 1 hole and the snake would get stuck most I've seen has at least a dozen long slits the water is sucked into it from and even then the suction aint all that great most even come with a setting that is either under the pre-filter to raise or lower the suction level (IE the more the pump sucks in the more water is pushed out) some have a nob out the front of the housing. and some others the rod that comes out the top can be adjusted to control water-flow
all in all I'd say your snake wouldn't get stuck to the pump you use unless you leave the pre-filter off so the snake would only have a 3/4 inch hole at most to cover to try to be sucked into (even then i don't think it would drown your snake) but if houseing and pre-filter is left off it could suck your snakes tail into it cutting his tail or if he flicked his tongue into the hole I'm sure it would easily chop it off (even the ones with a mag drive and use plastic for the moving parts spin very fast

now as for if your snake would go near one while running i think it would depend on the type of pump you got some are suppose to be whisper quite and hardly vibrate. others will bounce around if not weighted down to stay in place and can be heard over 10 feet away.

i do think your snake would love to have a moving water source to soak in. but is it really worth it in the long run to have a waterfall ? how about build a little creak in the display cage. i myself never heard of a ball being found around a water fall in the wild. yes it is for a display cage set-up. but aint display cages suppose to be set-up as natural of a surrounding as the animal came from?

oh and the pumps will raise the temp of the water depending on how much water it has to push ie lets say you get a 500 liter per minute pump and only got lets say 2 gallons of water all the water pushes goes threw the pump a few times a minute thus heating up the water. and for animals that would or could drink the water you would want a mag drive pump

You've received some good input here. The party line for experienced snake keepers is that the vibrations will bother the snake and you should avoid it. As I mentioned before mine has been running for 10+ years and continuously occupied by a couple different ball pythons with no known bad effects. Will your pump bother your snake? Who knows. Mine have grown up, fed, bred, and produced viable clutches in the enclosure with no perceptible negatives. Even the males that were introduced for breeding purposes went right to work, apparently blissfully unaware of any vibrations from the fountain pump.
Hassle? Absolutely. The snakes relieve themselves in it, algae will grow in it, and the pump inlet will need to be cleaned periodically and the pumps don't last forever so you'll have to buy replacements as needed.
Why do I do it? Humidity. Our air is very dry and it is hard to maintain humidity in my rack systems and about impossible in a large display.
Does it look good? Well it used to. I made the mistake of using silicone aquarium glue to hold flat rocks in place to line the sides. It didn't hold up. Over the years, many of the rocks have come loose and I haven't looked into alternative safe adhesives.
Do the snakes enjoy it? I've never seen one try to soak in it. The reservoir is way too small, really. They do like to poop in it though. You can find pumps that can handle around 20 inches of rise but use only 3 to 6 watts so the water shouldn't get too warm. Get a pump meant for fish so you know it is non-toxic.
How did I make it? Well, I spent about 10 minutes describing what I did then deleted it. Mine is a totally custom built enclosure. Most people wouldn't be crazy enough to do what I did and it wouldn't work out in most set-ups. If I had to do it over again I'd come up with something different so you'll have to let your own creative juices flow. (Actually... I do have to do it over again because mine is really looking bad)

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Originally Posted by RideRed12

This quote helps me a lot, I was worried it may stress him out. I thought about making it a hide/waterfall? What kind of pump are you running in your waterfall and is it pretty quiet?

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As I said, it's not fancy. I got a preformed water fall from a guy, IDK small foam thing, might be a zoomed????. It has a reservoir (that's where I have found the bp's soaking) But I made it spill over the lip into the dirt where I put the bio balls in the corner and buried the pump, covered them with the mesh stuff and them filled the fish tank with 4" of the eco dirt. I bought one of those small pumps from Hagen and ran a tube up the back of the waterfall.

The salamanders and toads like it and they can't get out the top of the tank behind the lights, so I don't worry about the holes in the top, but the lost bp's must smell the water because that is where they go. Funny the lost boas never go there, I find them other places.