Baby J's Temp Home

magicmagni

Hatchling Member
Beardie name(s)
Jackson
Hi. I wanted to share a new setup I threw together for my baby bearded dragon named Jackson who is just over 3 months old now. It's just a temporary one while I build him his forever home. I'm experimenting with a DIY substrate and watering system for the plants and humidity management. Tank is just an Exo-terra 36x18x18 and same parts I had laying around. So far he's having a blast running around on his driftwood and using his plants as trampoline lol.

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magicmagni

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Jackson
Plants are just ones I picked up at my local nursery. They had Australian Rosemary so you know I just had to try that out. I also got some Blue fescues that I've had success with before on other arid setups. All plants get taken down to bare root using a small hand rake, but a fork works well too. After most the soil is removed they get a good rinse to remove any herbicides and so on.
 

magicmagni

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Jackson
Substrate was a DIY. I usually use Terra Sahara from the biodude from and it works great, but trying something different following this..

I started with a drainage layer.. I've seen it done with and without, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have.. and it does provide a layer of safety if it is over watered.

I used Clay balls that I got from local hw store. I did a one inch layer on the bottom. To separate the drainage from the substrate I'm using these Filter Media Bags. I use these aquascaping my fish tanks. They are 100% plastic and won't rust. I just filled the bags halfway with the balls and lay them on the bottom of enclosure.

Once drainage was in place I then added about 6 to 12 inches of DIY soil.

Basically it was:
  • Two parts topsoil
  • Two parts sand
  • One and half part peat
All from local landscape suppliers purchased in bulk

I also mixed broken up pieces of cork bark and a few handfuls of live oak leaf litter. Also added a good handful or two of horticultural charcoal. These item keeps it fresh and also supports clean up crew.

Lastly I capped the substrate with Real Australian sand. This was mostly for cosmetic reasons, but it also helps provide a buffering layer for the substrate from the drying heat. Leaf litter was put around base of plants as well which helps the roots maintain moisture and also creates moisture pockets that are beneficial to clean up crew.
 

Chris.

Juvie Member
Beardie name(s)
Luis and Lilith
This looks really nice and I'm very curious about the final built.
Do you think Jackson is gonna dig a lot? Luis (my boy) does it a lot and will find the botton of the tank no matter how deep the substrate is ;)
 

magicmagni

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Jackson
This looks really nice and I'm very curious about the final built.
Do you think Jackson is gonna dig a lot? Luis (my boy) does it a lot and will find the botton of the tank no matter how deep the substrate is ;)
Thanks. So far he doesn't dig, but he really enjoys the height of this enclosure and laying in his bush. I suspect when he gets older he'll dig more that's why I thought puting his drainage layer in the plastic mesh bags would be a good idea. Better chance of him not pulling it all up. That said on his large enclosure I plan on about 8 to 12 inches of substrate so he can dig to his hearts content LOL.
 

magicmagni

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Jackson
To water his plants, but help keep humidity from getting too high I am going to mostly water from the "bottom up" The idea is that there is water is in the deeper layers of substrate like in nature and then dry as you reach the surface. Basically IME you want to keep the lower layers damp at all time. You never want the substrate to fully dry out... then plants die as well as the clean up crew and beneficial bacteria that keep the bad ones away.

To accomplish this I am using a watering spike like this one..

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The spike was put in the cool side back where the substrate was the deepest. I put it all the way down to the drainage layer. You can take the cap off and pour some water in there and it will perculate the water to the bottom where it will eventually evaporate and wick upwards towards the surface toward the plant roots. This damp bottom also serves as a reservior of water to provide a consistent healthy humidity in the enclosure. When watering, less is more.. Don't saturated soil in the bottom. I find a moisture meter is very valuable when trying to find out "how much water do I need to water" a drainage layer helps add a margin of safety.

Wanting to make things easier instead of removing the cap once a week to water the substrate, I installed a black silicone airline hose with a Raindripper end on it. For those not familiar a raindripper is something used in gardening and you can get a small bag of them for a few bucks.
1703273042001.jpg


It has a barbed fitting that connects to end of the air hose and then it allows water to drip out slowly instead of just all at one time. I removed the cap and then just put the hose in there with this at the end. The cap has a nice cutout to make room for this purpose which is helpfull.

Then I run the hose to a reservior bucket above the enclosure. It can just site on top of the screen top, but in my case it is on a shelf above the enclosure. I used an old plastic deli cup that some feeders came in as my resevoir. I think it holds about 2 cups of water. I simply drilled a small hole in the bottom side of the plastic cup that is a little bit smaller than the airline tubing and then put the tubing through. It helps to cut the line at an angle to get it in there easier. I like the slicone hose as it makes a nice seal that doesn't leak if done correctly. It looks like this..

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When it's time to water I just pour say a cup of water into the reservior and over a period of time it drains into the spike and down into bottom layers of substrate. I kept this low tech since this is a temp setup, but on my leopard gecko setup I'm using an old peristaltic dosing pump from my old aquarium to add water from a much larger 2 gallon container. This is less work as I only fill it up every month or so.
 

magicmagni

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Jackson
I know right! Ha Ha.. yeah my other bioactive is with insectivore so not usually a consideration, but I have carefully researched plants that are not poisonous, because of this.
 

magicmagni

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Jackson
Below is my setup for lighting.

Notice there is no such thing as an "all in one " light.. Lighting with current technology is basically a team effort where each player has their position and function. The LED and the Basking Bulb are in dome fixtures which I rig so that they are angled at the basking spot. Additionally, the UVB fixture is angled to the basking spot as well. All three blend together at the same spot. This is crucial since individually they are incomplete portions of the sun's radiation ,but together they become "full sun spectrum". Lastly the LED light bar just sits flat to the side and blankets the rest of the enclosure with some visible light.

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magicmagni

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Jackson
Setup is based on these deep dive presentations into reptile lighting from leading experts.... I am just scratching the surface here.
Basically, I'm trying to create "a patch of sunlight " where he can go to warm up and get UV.
Here is a graph of the natural sunlight for reference.. I'm marking very roughly over this graph, where each piece of lighting plays the majority of it's role in reproducing the light spectrum.
Screenshot_20231223_154922_Whiteboard~2.jpg
 

magicmagni

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Jackson
Used a Solarmeter 6.5 to verify UVB exposure... They are expensive, but worth the investment! I have had mine many years now and it as as valuable as my thermometer. Targeted a UVI of 4.0 in the basking spot. Trying not to go much higher than that as Jackson is a zero morph and although the breeder said that they can handle UVB just fine, I wanted to be conservative.

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