So this is my new project, the Lizard Lounge. This monstrous contraption is being built to house a pair of Chinese Water Dragons in comfort and style. Roughly speaking, it's 72"x18"x36" with the plywood extension. I'm still a long way off from being ready for lizards, but there's already enough life to make things interesting. It's about time to start cataloging progress too, so here we go!

It's hard to get good photographs with the lighting so roughed in. You can see the hardscape better in the early photos.









So the basics first:

The tank is a 125 with a big crack in the backside that was being used as a snake cage. The old silicone was cut out and replaced, and a pair of holes were drilled in the bottom before it was used here. I wouldn't trust it as a fish tank, but it's perfect for this. There is a 20L sump, fed by a Home Depot durso pipe. A Mag5 return pump feeds a waterfall feature in that big landscaping rock on the right. A closed loop in the display driven by a Mag9 makes for a pretty rough riverbank environment. There will be some interesting tricks to the ATO that maintain humidity and add a little fun.

The hardscape is about 300 pounds of stuff from Keller Materiels, another couple of hundred pounds in holey rock, and a whole tree's worth of dried cedar root. Now I need to grow a jungle on top of that. The big hood is being built around a pair of 250W metal halides. The greatest thing about using these for plants is that bulbs come from Home Depot and cost $26.99 While I was in the lighting department, I picked up a few other things for low lighting that I'll share as they get installed and tested. The reptiles will also require some sort of UVB lighting, though I haven't decided how I want to implement that yet.

The plywood section already built is part of the enclosure, with access being through the big screen doors (made from a dismantled 40B top). There will also be a cosmetic cover made once the equipment is built and in place topside. There's already some mosquito fish living and breeding in my little river, and a big crayfish poking around somewhere. I put a few test plants in the pool to see how they do, with many more to follow as I finish the hood and get things nice and humid in there.

Miles to go before it's done, will post updates.