16 gallon pond?

[dagecko]

Hey all,

I've just joined in the hopes of getting some help with my first aquatic endeavour.
I'm in the planning stages for my iguana's adult-sized enclosure (the better part of my living room :S) and my thought for a water feature has progressed from a rubbermaid with a drain rigged to it to an actual pond.
My first thought was to go to an aquarium store and ask for thoughts, but after getting an enormous amount of attitude from the guy working at the only easily accessible store, I've decided to try online instead.
Rather than just blindly ask for direction, I'm going to give a rundown of what I'm thinking of, and let those of you with actual aquarium knowledge put me in my place.

Container: 16gallon (22x13x13) rubbermaid container, hidden in a false bottom.

Heat: Fluval M 50 (or 100?) to keep the water at ~22-24C

Filter: no idea at this point. It was suggested that I use a fuval 2 or 4, but I'm not sure if I value any of the info I was given.

Life: One or two plants, and possibly some snails or something? I would like to include as much life as I could without overloading the system.

I am keeping in mind that even removing feces as my ig. makes them, it'll be a tough thing to keep clean, but if I'm taking out the main mass of waste will it be any different from a turtle? Will I just need a better filter?

So what's the consensus? Am I asking to much out of such a small system? Will I need to upgrade size, nix plants, give up all together?

Thanks for any input.

(apologies if this ought to be in aquatic reptiles, but I figured it was more of a newb question)

[DrNic]

I don't know much about iguanas but here are my thoughts.

If the iguana is going to be spending a lot of time in the water the fluval 4 would probably be better, but at the same time it's going to move more water so there will be a stronger current. (I'm not sure if that's a problem or not).

Seems like a doable project though. You'll probably want to get some kind of syphon to clear the bottom of the pool during water changes.

Plants are always good stuff for this kind of setup as well.

Let us know how it goes and welcome to the AC!!

[dagecko]

Thanks Nic.

The iguana won't likely spend a large amount of time in the water, but will likely poop in the water every or every other day.

The construction is still a ways off, I think, but knowing me it'll end up being sooner than I originally meant it to be.

[dagecko]

So I've decided to go ahead with this, pending my ability to get to the nearest aquarium store that doesn't employ the jerk I talked to last time. I just had a few quick questions for those of you who are in the know.

If I'm just going to be planting it, do I need to worry about cycling? My understanding is that plants speed up cycling, but I don't know if I still need to actually do the whole adding ammonia and testing the water bit.

Will it be possible to cycle the pond in the iguana's enclosure? He will poop in the water if it's there, and I'm not sure if that will affect the cycle (I'll still be cleaning out the majority of the feces, of course).

Would snails work in this sort of pond? The iguana is fed daily, and it wouldn't be difficult to toss a few scraps of greens into the pond every few days.

Thanks :)

[plantedlab]

If the water parameters are even halfway decent, it's a good bet snails will find their way in weather you want them or not.

Definately get as much solid waste out as you can. Iguana poop will overload a 16 gallon system very rapidly. Adding plants could make this difficult to do. Then again, if your tank was big enough and you had enough of the right plants, you could setup a system that would handle the bioload of an adult iguana.

I can't tell you what "enough" is for that. And really there are billions of right answers in terms of the different combinations of plants and tanks out there. My best guess would be at least 100 gallon tank fully planted with good circulation for complete waste handling.

Another thought is to use a bottom drain with a valve where you can easily tap settled solids out of the water. A round or oval tank with circular flow would be best as solids will be forced to the center naturally. A cone bottom tank would be even better, but hard to find and fit in to the floor of an enclosure. With a bottom drain you couldn't really use a substrate to put plants in, but it would be basically self cleaning, and you could experiment with net pots, or just use floating plants. Just water lettuce and duckweed might be cool.


Don't know what your situation is, but I would go with the biggest pond you can for a number of reasons. Larger volumes of water are more stable and easier to maintain. Iguanas don't swim often, but they can poo easier in a bath, and they hang out in branches above water in the wild for a quick getaway. If you can setup a branch above a pool large enough for your lizard to dive into, it will be much more comfortable.
So bigger is better, just dont' forget that water is heavy! About 8 pounds a gallon. So make sure your floor can support it!!

Anyhow, sounds like a cool project. Be sure to post some pics as it comes together.

[blacksnow]

check out those rubbermaid containers made for feeding livestock and such.

Can find them on www.tractorsupply.com sure you can get them elsewhere also.

They have like 50 gallon ones for like $40! They have smaller as well.

Hearing this makes me imagine one nice iguana setup.

good luck!

[gm72]

I think 16 gallons is very small and that you'd be better off going larger.