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I was just reading up on the latest CWD questions and answers when this wetland filter answer caught my attention. I will be building my CWD(Scooter)'s final enclosure and was having abit of dificulty deciding what type of filtering system to use. I do believe that this may be the answer to my problem but, I will need more information on it. Could anyone provide me with a link or two on this Wetland filter system.

Scooter will be much apprechiative.

Thanx

Hi, the concept of the wetland filter has been applied to aggriculture and cattle raising and has been quite successful. Some countries, like Mexico, use it as there sole source of sewage management. Most universities have ongoing studies in their practical application. I don't know that you'll find a site that demonstrates the use of one with regard to keeping waterdragons, I believe that I was the first to bring this idea to the hobby. Here is a description of how to make one that I wrote awhile back:
Basically a Wetland filter works by mimicing a natural wetland. In a natural wetland, the water will move slowly through the soil where aerobic nitrosomas bacteria and microbes do most of the filtering. Plants aid this process by absorbing nitrates a by-product of the bacteria's work and also minerals and contaminants. The plants also provide oxygen to the bacteria through their roots. In the aquarium hobby the benefits of bacteria, plants and atmospheric exposure have been long understood and applied separately with such devices as under gravel filters, wet dry filters, and canister filters using a porous medium to promote bacterial growth. Wetland filters combine all of those filters in a simple way that not only cleans the water, but also provides a natural habitat and they are easy to build.
1. First you need two containers that will hold water one roughly twice the size of the other or larger.
2. Place the smaller one inside the larger, this is your pond area.
3. Place your water pump inside the larger so that it is pumping the water into the pond area. When running the pond will fill up and trickle into the larger container.
4. Surrounding the pond area, fill the larger container with lava rocks a few inches below the pond level.
5.Build a platform that will surround the pond area and lie on top of the lava rocks. I use plastic egg crate, the kind used for florescent lights. With aluminum screen glued on top. When placing the screen on the platform make sure that it overhangs so that it will cover up the sides.
6. Fill the screen up with moss so that it is level with the pond.
7. Fill the whole unit up to the platform level with water. This way the moss is always wet but not submerged. Plant the moss area heavily, making sure to remove the soil from the plants.
8. Your done! The only maintenance should be cutting back the plants that will thrive in this environment and adding water to account for evaporation.

As far as the kind of plants to use, I suggest any that have "keep soil moist" on the tag. I have used many different plants and have yet to find one that will not do well in this environment. Cattails are considered to be the best by most scientists for use in artificial wetland filters, but they grow too large for this miniature version. The most import issue in this kind of setup is the amount of surface area provided for the bacteria to grow, the lava rocks(or bio beads) and the moss.