# beardie tank



## mrodge (Nov 13, 2004)

anyone wanna show pics of there bearded dragon cages , and what are like good things to have in the tank, is it ok to use sand , like aqua -tera, ( which they sell in petstores)


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## TANK (Nov 18, 2003)

Go to Home Depot or Lowes and get PLAYSAND. You can get a 50 pound bag for under $5. It is safe for your Beardie and you will save a ton of cash.


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## psychofish (Jun 5, 2004)

TANK said:


> Go to Home Depot or Lowes and get PLAYSAND. You can get a 50 pound bag for under $5. It is safe for your Beardie and you will save a ton of cash.


Do Not use playsand. It is very dirty and also 
if your beardie was to accidentaly ingest some of it
it may become impacted and kill your dragon. I use and 
suggest ZooMed Vita Sand Check It Out

That link will tell you everything you need to know about it. 
As far as tank decor, I have a large flat rock that is under my 
ceramic heater so after my beardie is done eating, it can lay on it
and warm its belly to properly digest its food. I also have a large 
branch that lays halfway across my tank and runs diagonally to the top
so my beardie can lay on it and get as close to the uva and uvb lighting
as it wants to. I can also spray water on the branch and it will run down 
and the beardie can drink it if it wants too. I have a standing water dish 
aswell, but they usually dont drink standing water.

Dracofish has an awsome site on beardies if you have anyother questions about them
www.dragoncharm.com

My digi cam is broken and I dont have any pics of my whole tank on 
my cpu at this time, but here is one of my beardie chilling on its rock.


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## TANK (Nov 18, 2003)

Sorry but I have to disagree. I have a very good friend that has bred and raised his dragons and his leopards on PLAYSAND for many years.

PlAYSAND is usually fairly clean but if its "dusty" you can dump it in a bucket and rinse it the same way you would aquarium gravel.

I have NEVER seen PLAYSAND that was large enough to cause imapction either.


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## dracofish (Jul 13, 2003)

I've used Playsand from the beginning and have never had any problems whatsoever. It's also not dirty in the least. My girls stay clean just fine. Besides, if you mist them every day that also does a good job of getting any minute dust off them.

On the other hand, we've tried Vita-Sand and hated it because it was so dusty. Every time we sifted it would raise this massive cloud of dust that we ended up inhaling. Also, I don't like the fact that with that sort of substrate, you have no way of controlling the calcium intake of your animal.

Lastly, if you feed your animals on dishes, they generally won't ingest much anyways.

For hatchlings we use the white Repti-Sand. I'll never use Vita-Sand or Calci-Sand. I'll always, always use Playsand for sub-adults and adults, and Repti-Sand for hatchlings.



TANK said:


> I have NEVER seen PLAYSAND that was large enough to cause imapction either.


The concern is that lots of grains stay in the gut and then cause an impaction. But, as there's a risk of impaction with pretty much any substrate, I wouldn't not keep them on Playsand because of it. We've never had any problems. The only excuses I've heard people use are the ones about impaction and that it "will make the cage smell because it's impossible to keep clean." Well, most people just parrot that without actually having tried it. Like I said before, out of the hundred or so Beardies that we've had (adult with babies), we've never had any problems with impaction. Their cages also never stink and stay clean. If sifted and scooped properly, there is no problem with cleanliness. As a matter of fact, I'd think that keeping them on newsprint would result in more of a stench or dirtiness because it just sits there in a pool. The sand will act as a kind of kitty litter and when you scoop and sift, you remove the poo with the sand that was around it.


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