To waterfall or not to waterfall?

[Fataltix]

Hey there BP net, long time lurker here and figured it was time to join this wonderful community . Pleasantries aside, I have a question for you guys:

I'm going about the process of a building a new enclosure for my lil 4 month old normal BP and was wondering about the prospect of putting a Waterfall into the viv. This would be something I would be making myself, I have a lot of experience with sprinkler systems and pumps from my days of boating (live wells). I want to do this for scenic as well as husbandry purposes. I live in Utah, SLC to be precise, and the humidity is about... well 0% here haha. I'm able to maintain the humidity at around 40-50% but I want to forget about spraying every 4 hours. Would a waterfall be good for this? I know they might be hard to clean/care for, but maintenance aside are "snake-proofed" waterfalls safe for a BP? When I say "snake-proof" I mean that the pump would be screened, filtered, etc.

Any advice welcome, this will be a project I'll be partaking in around a month, going to build a beautiful enclosure I can hopefully keep him in for his whole life, so expect a project log at some point .

Cheers!
-Fatal

[llovelace]

to BP.net , I have seen some members that have had waterfalls in vivs, even one with a fogger on a timer (pretty cool), my only concern is with cleaning/sanitizing the unit, but if you only have one snake to contend with, go for it. Make sure you post pics

[floridayank22]

only issues ive heard of was on another site im on and that is the snake gettin its toungue or tail stuck in the pump, but if u can avoid that and manage to keep it clean i think it would b a good idea...i also second the wantin to see pics good luck to you

justin

[sookieball]

yeah! i wanted o do this too when i had one,

now i have 5.
and wouldn't be able to maintain it.

but go for it! pics are a must! im sure all the members would love to see this!

[Fataltix]

yeah! i wanted o do this too when i had one,

now i have 5.
and wouldn't be able to maintain it.

but go for it! pics are a must! im sure all the members would love to see this!

Thanks for all the advice guys, really appreciate it . I drew up some rough plans today for the new Viv and waterfall, I'll be putting them up on AutoCAD soon and I can post some of those once I get some nice renders (who thought being an Architecture major would help my Herp addiction? ). I'm also working on some kind of "new" designs for heating systems for homemade Viv's. Here is a quick mock up on paint:


Few things to note when looking at this picture:
-Astro turf would have a Velcro connection to the peg board.
-The Peg board has one small hole every square inch, hole diameter is smaller than a centimeter.

I realize there are some serious issues with this heating system, for example; any water that gets through the two permeable forms of support for the substrate (peg board/astro turf) could potentially contact the UTH. How bad would this be? Also, while it would be nice to be able to remove the whole floor to access the heat system etc. it would be a pain to remove EVERYTHING in an enclosure just to see your heat units (especially with a waterfall...).

Anyways, wondering what your thoughts are on this one, I have another mock up, a little more basic and perhaps more practical, tell me if you guys think this will provide sufficient belly heat:


Sadly this one came out small... But you should be able to get the idea. My concern is that the heat won't be able to pass through the board very well, unless its quite thin. Anyone have much experience with this?

These were hastily put up, but I was wondering what you guys think of them. This will be my last comment in this thread regarding my new Viv though, I will move the rest of it to a new thread once I start the Project Log.

Cheers!
-Fatal

[Clint Bundy]

I have never tried a waterfall before. I might think about getting a substrate that hold water a little and that will help with the humidity. Water in reptile cages 9 times out of 10 ends up being the toilet. I know it sounds neat and everything but I would probably steer clear of the waterfall in the reptile cage. This is just my opinion, if you do go ahead with it let us know how it works! It is your snake and your set up, Make it what you want and if it doesn't work out try something different.

[FatBoy]

Not much experience here with the water falls either but one concern comes to my mind...may not be a concern but does make a red light come on in my head. Snakes are very sensitive to vibrations, wondering if the constant vibration of the running water would be a stress factor to the animal Just throwing that out there for discussion.

[TrpnBils]

only issues ive heard of was on another site im on and that is the snake gettin its toungue or tail stuck in the pump

That was me that made that comment yesterday. For clarification - I haven't heard of that happening, but it could depending on how the pump is set up so watch it when you're building. Like somebody else said, the water ends up being the toilet so you never know what might get sucked up into the intake.

We had a neonate tentacled snake go inside of a power head a few months ago...in 6 years it was the first time that a neo went in one so we never thought it would be a problem before. He came out of it fine, but it's not something we considered to even be possible when the tank was set up originally.