Draeju's_world
Juvenile Dragon
- Messages
- 142
- Location
- Raleigh, NC
Hello everyone!
Happy to join the forum. I've been in the aquarium hobby for ages and just recently decided to join the herp community. It's been a long time coming. I recently built my own dragon enclosure and it's set up for the most part but I'm still waiting on a few more key pieces of equipment and need to fine-tune things a bit before purchasing a pair of beardies! Can't wait.
I'm using this time to research as much as I can and hope to hear from some of the veteran herp keepers here during my initial newbie period. Luckily, my aquarium experience has given me a very good foundation to work with here. This should be fun.
I work for a custom cabinet shop so building my own enclosure was a no-brainer. I used cabinet-grade yellow pine for the bulk of construction and sealed/finished it with Minwax Polycrylic. My cost to "DIY" this enclosure was about $150 with the 1/4" glass incurring almost half the cost. The overall dimensions are 34"X 34"X 31" while the habitable portion inside the enclosure measures 32.5"x 32.5"x 20". The base portion of the enclosure has a 6" deep drawer with 22" full extension slides for storage.
The decor was purchased online and at a local garden center. I added a few potted succulent plants as well as snake plant in the back corner. I used a cactus/palm soil mix with no additional ferts. We will have to wait and see if they'll be able to survive the long-term with bearded dragons. Ha!. If not, I'll probably just try some tall arid grasses or something. The water dish has some duckweed I scooped from my aquariums. I'm not sure if this will be an issue or not, but I doubt it. It does look kind of cool. I love the natural look so opted for a real rock structure and added some driftwood for climbing and it just adds to the overall beauty of the layout. The background is a custom-made vinyl back drop ordered from petbackdrops.com and is attached with velcro. I uploaded them the picture of my choice and they did the rest. The substrate is two 40g Exo terra Sand Mats for Desert Terrariums that I cut to custom fit my enclosure. We'll give this a try for now but I'll probably switch over to textured tiles later on down the road. I do love the look of these mats, however! The floor of the enclosure is constructed of 3/4" pre-finished plywood with a layer of cork sheeting for cushioning and protect against moisture. All cracks/seams and the glass were siliconed with aquarium sealant, as well.
My current equipment includes a 30" ZooMed Reptisun T5HO 24W fixture that came with a 5.0 UVB bulb. I'll probably eventually replace it with an Arcadia 12% desert bulb. For the basking light, I'm set up with a 160w ZooMed Powersun mercury vapor bulb in a deep dome fixture. I've also installed two 6,000K full spectrum 10w led spotlights to help brighten/illuminate things and provide the plants with additional light. There's also a 10w led fixture with a warmer color spectrum that I will put on a separate timer to turn on an hour before and turn off an hour after the other lights to simulate a dawn/dusk period. The basking spot is approximately 12-14" from the basking light. Right now, I'm just waiting on some quality thermometers and a temperature gun I ordered to replace the cheap ones I initially purchased and was not impressed with at all.
Here are a few pics. Hope you enjoy!
I'll be happy to answer any additional questions about the enclosure if you have them.
Happy to join the forum. I've been in the aquarium hobby for ages and just recently decided to join the herp community. It's been a long time coming. I recently built my own dragon enclosure and it's set up for the most part but I'm still waiting on a few more key pieces of equipment and need to fine-tune things a bit before purchasing a pair of beardies! Can't wait.
![Smile :) :)](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/smile.png)
I work for a custom cabinet shop so building my own enclosure was a no-brainer. I used cabinet-grade yellow pine for the bulk of construction and sealed/finished it with Minwax Polycrylic. My cost to "DIY" this enclosure was about $150 with the 1/4" glass incurring almost half the cost. The overall dimensions are 34"X 34"X 31" while the habitable portion inside the enclosure measures 32.5"x 32.5"x 20". The base portion of the enclosure has a 6" deep drawer with 22" full extension slides for storage.
The decor was purchased online and at a local garden center. I added a few potted succulent plants as well as snake plant in the back corner. I used a cactus/palm soil mix with no additional ferts. We will have to wait and see if they'll be able to survive the long-term with bearded dragons. Ha!. If not, I'll probably just try some tall arid grasses or something. The water dish has some duckweed I scooped from my aquariums. I'm not sure if this will be an issue or not, but I doubt it. It does look kind of cool. I love the natural look so opted for a real rock structure and added some driftwood for climbing and it just adds to the overall beauty of the layout. The background is a custom-made vinyl back drop ordered from petbackdrops.com and is attached with velcro. I uploaded them the picture of my choice and they did the rest. The substrate is two 40g Exo terra Sand Mats for Desert Terrariums that I cut to custom fit my enclosure. We'll give this a try for now but I'll probably switch over to textured tiles later on down the road. I do love the look of these mats, however! The floor of the enclosure is constructed of 3/4" pre-finished plywood with a layer of cork sheeting for cushioning and protect against moisture. All cracks/seams and the glass were siliconed with aquarium sealant, as well.
My current equipment includes a 30" ZooMed Reptisun T5HO 24W fixture that came with a 5.0 UVB bulb. I'll probably eventually replace it with an Arcadia 12% desert bulb. For the basking light, I'm set up with a 160w ZooMed Powersun mercury vapor bulb in a deep dome fixture. I've also installed two 6,000K full spectrum 10w led spotlights to help brighten/illuminate things and provide the plants with additional light. There's also a 10w led fixture with a warmer color spectrum that I will put on a separate timer to turn on an hour before and turn off an hour after the other lights to simulate a dawn/dusk period. The basking spot is approximately 12-14" from the basking light. Right now, I'm just waiting on some quality thermometers and a temperature gun I ordered to replace the cheap ones I initially purchased and was not impressed with at all.
Here are a few pics. Hope you enjoy!
![IMAG0781.jpg IMAG0781.jpg](https://data.www.beardeddragonforum.com/attachments/14/14780-966fdd5532f06c7bf861ea7bc6e2208a.jpg)
![IMAG0791.jpg IMAG0791.jpg](https://data.www.beardeddragonforum.com/attachments/14/14781-5e5f33c61257c0be6e352179c984f166.jpg)
![IMAG0794.jpg IMAG0794.jpg](https://data.www.beardeddragonforum.com/attachments/14/14782-7fe07e0619246912c05b245394c7acf2.jpg)
![IMAG1018.jpg IMAG1018.jpg](https://data.www.beardeddragonforum.com/attachments/14/14784-b41384716a6e3c52daff7bc3cfa81d99.jpg)
![IMAG1019.jpg IMAG1019.jpg](https://data.www.beardeddragonforum.com/attachments/14/14785-43991e02a4036c1656fbb70711021862.jpg)
![IMAG1021.jpg IMAG1021.jpg](https://data.www.beardeddragonforum.com/attachments/14/14786-10e53603c1c49b2801824f1710e36195.jpg)
I'll be happy to answer any additional questions about the enclosure if you have them.