installing a waterfall in a lizard tank?

Question

I'm going to be getting an aussi water dragon soon. Right now I'm looking at putting in the pool/fountain for the wooo effect, filter the pool, keep water moving, and to raise humidity levels. I don't want to take up too much space with a waterfall but I'd like to have it up higher against the wall and flow into the pool. I saw at the petstore they had one in a fish aquarium that was huge and looked custom how does someone arange pumps and filters to make their own waterfall? I already know how to make the fake rock walls. I've looked at all these other waterfalls like exo terra but I'm just not impressed they all take up too much room and the water "falls" like 5 inches from the top while taking up like 12 inches of the lizard pool. Last resort I'd like to know how to just run some pumps to some filters to keep the water flowing and filtered.

Answer 1

If you already know how to make the rock form, you have 95% of the project figured out. All you need to do is get an appropriate sized submersible pump, some tubing from the hardware or pet store, and have an adequate sized reservoir at the bottom.

I made a custom waterfall and stream to a pond in a salamander tank once, and this is the pump I used: http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/11465/product.web I liked this because the flow is adjustable and the unit can be run in the position shown or on it's side so less water height would be needed. But there are a number of submersibles available, depending on the height you want for the water: http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/cat/info/23049/category.web

I used a flexible plastic tubing (although ridgid could also work) to whatever height you want, then use a PVC elbow (http://www.jains.com/Pipefittings/pvc_fitting_elbow.jpg ) to direct the flow. I used gray so it blended with the rock (slate) that surrounded the water, and I continued the rock up over the PVC fitting.

Just make sure the reservoir is large enough that you don't have to fill it every day to keep the pump from running dry (another major problem with the small store-bought waterfalls). Although I haven't tried this yet, I though for the next one I made about adding a fitting through the side or bottom of the reservoir dhat could be used for draining water for cleaning. This would be useful for you since your dragon would soak and defecate in the water if he had access. It would, however require a drilled tank (or something custom made on a tabletop or stand) to have access from below so you could put a bucket to collect the water.