Waterfall in enclosure?

[Bodega aquatics]

Hello! I am planning on doing a California kingsnake enclosure and had a quick question. My idea was to do a 4x2x2 PVC enclosure and I was wondering if it would be safe to do a small waterfall in the enclosure. My only fear is the water becoming toxic over time from waste. Has anyone else tried this and had success? Thanks!

[chairman]

The short answer is that the only people that have been successful with small waterfalls are people that remove the waterfalls and clean them daily.

The long answer...

Snakes produce a lot of waste. The waste is large enough size-wise to clog plumbing, especially plumbing small enough for snakes to not escape through. You would need to use some variety of oversized pre filter, like a screen or sponge, to catch the waste but still allow adequate water flow through the unclogged portion of the pre filter.

You'd then need to either manually clean the filter or employ a clean up crew, like shrimp or snails. This means that the water area cannot be small, since it needs to accommodate an oversized pre filter and aquatic life. You're probably looking at 15 to 20 gallons. It also means...

Your snake was already producing enough biological waste to require significant filtration. Every critter you add to the clean up crew adds to the amount of waste produced. Realistically, you're probably looking at an additional 30+ gallons outside the cage in a sump. The sump would need to be loaded with beneficial bacteria and plants wouldn't hurt either. Aquatic plants placed within the water in the snake cage may be needed to.

After the sump I would be inclined to add a cannister filter and a UV purifier. After all, we're talking about drinking water here.

So, the conclusion to the long version is that small waterfalls are generally unworkable but a short waterfall attached to a large body of water, split between the inside and outside of the tank, can work. You could probably make it look rather nice, too. A 55 gallon aquarium is around 4 feet long, like your target cage, so you could stack the snake cage on top of a very nice looking planted tank, maybe with a stick-on background that can be used to hide any filters, pipes, cords, etc that sit behind the aquarium. Water would exit the snake cage via gravity and be pushed back up into the waterfall by the cannister filter.

As an extra aside, such a setup would be better for a nerodia or a garter snake, as they'd benefit from the additional humidity of the water feature far more than a California kingsnake.

[Bodega aquatics]

Thank you very much!