Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just saw a 50 gal plastic pond at Lowe's. I'm looking for ideas to create a weland filter or another way to keep the water clean. I would appreciate any ideas. I have 6.5 ft x 3.5 ft of floor space to work with

50 gallons would be plenty to do a wetland filter with. Mine is about 20 and it supports 3 waterdragons.U can use a cement mixing tub as the inside. or shape something out with fiberglass.
Post a picture when you get done.

aight man, i don't know too much about fiberglass, so you'll have to explain that to me. so you're saying i should mold a 25 g pool to set inside the 50 g. but first i would lay some lava rocks inside the 50 g so that the 25 g pool would sit on top of it. then fill in the excess space on the sides with lava rocks all the way up to the brim almost - so the depth of the rocks is irrelevant? - and lay the egg crate on top of that. then lay the moss on - which moss would you suggest and where could i get it? - and some plants. then fill up the 50 g pool and then just have the water pump start filling up the 25 g pool and flow over back into the filter. does that sound right? i appreciate your help.

Sounds good, the more lava rock or other suitable substrate for the bacteria, the better. So, aside from the few inches on top needed for moss and plants and the egg crate ledge, filler up! Fiberglass is easy to work with, but expensive, so your better off with the 25 gallon. For the moss, Long stemmed moss is sold fairly cheaply at Home depot. Remember to plant heavily and to have suffcient lighting for the plants.

Will 2 100 w powersun mvbs be suffient for the plants?

UVB lighting designed for herps, aren't the best for plants. Plants respond to UVA not UVB. Not that they won't work, because they do have UVA, but if you were going to add additional lighting for the plants sake you'd be better off with some standard florecent lights. I would go with what you got and see how the plants respond. You notice them tilting to much toward the light if its insuffcient.

where can i find info on what a wetland filter is and how to make one? I did google but couldnt find much useful information.

You won't find much outside of this forum with regard to miniature wetland filter for use in reptile husbandry. Its a concept that I initiated here and personally have used for about 6-7 years. The concept of wetland filtering is not new, Mexico relies on wetland soley for sewer management, and many cattle farmers use it too clean run off from there farms.Most major Universities are currently studing wetland filters and their applications. as technical as that may seen the concept is quite simple and that is to mimic a natural wetland by providing substrate suitable for bacterial growth, plants for completing the nitrogen cycle, and exposure to air for further remove of gases. A wetland filter is little more then what Aquarium hobbiest know as a trickle or wetdry filter with the addition of rooting plants. The Nitrosoma and aerobic bacteria in the substrate(lava rocks) break down waste(feces) and amonia into nitrites and nitrates, which are then absorbed by the plants along with metals and other contaminates completeing the water cycle. Currently I would describe the use of wetland filters for reptiles as experimental. There are many ways that you could make one. The basic features are as follows:
1. two containers, one to be use by the reptiles as a pond, the second to hold the substrate(lave rocks or other porous material) and the plants.
2. the second container should be roughly twice the size of the first.
3. water should be pumped from the larger filtering container into the smaller and allowed to trickle back in to the filtering container.
4. Plants should placed in such a way as allow their roots to grow through out the filtering medium. Most use a plastic egg crate shelf on top of the medium with a layer of moss for the plants to be planted in.
Thats it, its quite simple really. As far as plants go, most do well, although marginal pond plants will do the best.

So the filter container needs to be twice the size of the pool container? Is it ok to let the animals go into the filter container and walk around on its land, or does it need to be seperate from them?

Is it necessary to have these two seemingly seperate areas, with land/shore plants? How would it be different to have a larger pool area with a gravel of lava rocks, planted with aquatic, submerged, plants?

I noticed earlier when i tried sticking some plants in my dragons water, they got mold on them. Is this why the leafs need to be above water?

i could also shape it out of plaster. i want to use a product called Fix-All, then seal it and it should be good to go. I got that from this website http://www.javafx.com/personal/dragons. what do you think?

I couldn't see what your were talking about on that site, but try it and let us know how it works.