Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,
I am in the final stages of construction for my Merten's indoor enclosure. The whole set up is 10 feet long by 5 feet wide by 8.5 feet tall (three feet or more of that will be dirt space).

right now I have a five foot by 2.5 foot bathtub that I was planning on installing in the cage, but I feel like this would be practically useless to a mertens. What I really wanted to do was have half of the ground section of the cage be water and the other half be the dirt section; the only problem with this is that I haven't been able to find any type of square water container big enough to fit the bill.
I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions on what I might be able to buy (or build) to use as a large( five feet by four feet or so) water container in this cage?

thanks a lot,

Jon

Sorry, I dont know the answer to your question, but is that the Merten's from the classifieds a few weeks ago? Just curious. Thanks!

Ryan

ps: PLEASE REPLY TO MY JEFF CORWIN POST IN THE GENERAL DISCUSSION FORUM! I WANNA TALK ABOUT IT! Thanks!

yep, it was posted in the classifieds a while back. There were two different Mertensi posted at that time, so there is still one in the classifieds.

Jon

you could mold your own pool out of cement.
I know it doesnt sound easy but...sounds like the best thing to do in your situation.

I think that there is a really tough type of pond liner you can use, but I don't know what it is called or who manufactures it. Razeraze on repticzone uses it for his salvator. You might try asking him there. I don't think that he has used it for an extensive amount of time, so I don't really know how it does in the long run.

Ryan

Thanks for the ideas! I would really like to make a cement water area, but I have absolutely no idea how to do that properly haha.

I'll look into those pond liners too, although with those I think a whole lot of potential water space would be lost due to their odd shapes.

Jon

Look into preformed fiberglas garden ponds. They come in all shapes and sizes (except probably square LOL), up to 1000's of gallons. With a bit of imagination they could be fitted with a bulkhead or permanent drain and plumbed for easy cleaning.

I know this probably wont work but just an idea. Could an old jacuzzi shell work? You could probably even put a cleaning and empting pump in it or something like that easily. I have seen a few for free at the local dump and just sitting on the side of the road sometimes.

Just trying to help.

Good luck!
Sean

They make pondliners that are like 45 mil. (these are not plastic but more like a above ground pool liner. Not sure if your monitor will puncture that with the claws. That I would think woul be the easiest. To help reduce the risk of ripping, pad it with felt. Also make sure to buy the fish safe liner. I sell them at my nursery 10x15 for like $125. The company is called Laguna. They might even make thicker liners. But I use this for constructing ponds, and I pile rocks on them without any ripping. Almost forgot, they last a long time, but if you have UV lights expect around 10 years.
Nick