I bought this used acrylic tank off of Craigslist which is about 300 gallons. I think this will make a nice size swimming area for the large pair of caiman lizards. The cage area will be about 8 feet by 14 feet long and 6 foot tall. I leveled the ground and placed the tank on a sheet of foam to help even out the weight between the ground. I have bought a new pond filter and heater to install at the end. I will try to post updates as I make progress but I'm expanding the tegu cages as well so we'll see which one makes faster progress.
I wanted to fully utilize a corner in my garage so I figured I would make an ackie enclosure at ground level and build the caiman lizard cage on top. You can see photos of my progress in the Photos: Cages section. I first used drylok to paint everything with 2-3 coats. Since both of these enclosures are high humidity I wanted to lay
the drylok on thick and I also caulked all the corners. Next I built up from the base and tried to plan it out. This was my first attempt at a semi aquatic cage, but I used to have many fish tanks that ranged in size with the largest being 150 gallons. For the water section I used a 50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank and connected a 200 gallon rated canister filter with UV, and 300 watt heater. I know for the tank size it’s a bit much but I’d rather go over for both heating and filtration than wish I had more later. I tried to use material that wouldn’t rot with such high humidity so I used all types of plastics around the stock tank like shower paneling and pvc molding for the sides. For decoration I was fortunate enough to use all types of wood from my property like bamboo and vines, and I picked up all the live plants from HD. This project was quite expensive with the main expenses being lights, filter, glass, and then all other materials which add up very quickly. I wanted to do it right as the ackies were due for an upgrade and I wanted to make sure the caimans have proper water filtration since this is my first go round with a semi aquatic lizard. There were a lot of details for this enclosure and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out even if the caimans out grow it in a year or so. When that happens I would love to look into maybe some Shinisaurus to put into that enclosure! My newly acquired baby caiman lizard. This one is a probable male and is currently in a temporary cage. I'm building a grow out enclosure about 5'Lx3'Wx3'H semi aquatic which will hopefully be good for a year or so to give me time to build the adult enclosure. I will have them outside when I can also to give them some natural sunlight.
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Hector's Habitat
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