sav tank, natural setting?

[Bartman]

So im starting to plan the new sav tank..well not changing the tank, but changing the substrate to dirt..and this is going to be a big *** job lol, so im thinking about what im doing way before i start..i think ill do this next week...so i just wanted to know if their was any type of plant, or some sort of high grass that you would see in africa savannah's, that i can grow indoors..

Its hard to explain, but if its possible, im thinking about the grass that grows really high, and you see in discovery documentries as the lion is hiding in it while stalking prey..loool..thats the grass im thinking of putting in a corner of the tank..if i cant grow real grass indoors, then i think im want to make fake grass..anyone know how i could do this?

annnny info,comments, are appriecated!

[JRQ]

umm.....poo poo that's a tough one Bartman, but you can grow lawn grass indoors. Go to a gardening center, not home depot or something like that and ask for high growing grass, they can always tell you.

[Kyle Barker]

i went to a feild and got the seed clusters from the large grasses. sprinkled it in and it seemed to grow pretty good. its a good way of keeping some humidity in the cage.

[V.hb]

Want it to look natural? Put some nice basking rocks in. There is tall grass you can throw in, but I dont think it'l grow?

Green grass would like kind of stupid IMO.

Just out of curiousity, how high is your litter dam? you should reverse your enclosure, so its top opening, instead of front. easier to hold dirt.

[Bartman]

It is already top opening...litter dam?

Yea green grass would look dumb, but what tall grass can i throw in that wont grow? what kind is this and where could i get it?

[V.hb]

Oh, i thought you had a sliding glass door on the front?

Yeah, a litter dam, to hold the dirt in place, so with a glass door that slides everytime, you wont have piles of dirt on the floor.

As for the grass, i have no clue.. never bothered.

[Bartman]

true, so do you have pictures of your sav set ups...before i put dirt, i wanna get a detailed plan of the stuff i will add to make the enclosure look good, since this is one of our display ones.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Savanna monitors grow in green grass in the wild? I might be misunderstanding what you mean by a "natural" tank. Do want it to be natural like your back yard? Or do you want it to be natural like a Savanna would encounter in nature? Because those would be two VERY DIFFERENT cages, which is made blatantly obvious by the name of the monitor, LOL!

As for some xeric grasses, there has to be some. Specialty garden centres maybe? A trip to Arizona to collect seeds and stuff (heh heh, that's what I' do!!). Its going to be tough either way though because Savs love to dig, just like every other monitor.

[Bartman]

yea i didnt want green grass, i wanted the looong yellow grass you see in savannah's..

[Jeff_Favelle]

I'm sure that specialty stores sell it. Some people have it as house decor. You might even be able to buy seeds for some wild grasses online. They can be quite popular.

[Bartman]

But i think your right, it'd be a biatch to grow..and id need a lot of uv that isnt really supplied in that tank..its probably a very low amount if any

[Jeff_Favelle]

I'm not sure of the UV requirement for grasses to photosynthesize. Probably more than what's in your cage now, but certainly attainable with current products/technology.

[Scales Zoo]

We have savannas out here, and it is much like parts of africa or arizona. There is a wild seed mix used for reclamating parts of the sandhills or the river valley, that I had to grow for our tortoises one time.

I beleive the stuff would grow given proper light (I think grow tubes would work in a 48'' fixture) in a cage. It could grow till it was 1 or 2 feet tall, and then you wouldn't need to use the light to grow it any more, it would die - but still stick around, as some ellow grass in the area seems to be 3 years old - and is still looking very savannaish.

Its a mixture of bromes - I will see if I can get my hands on more of it - and maybe repackage it for people who want it.

Ryan

[concept3]

you guys do realize that tall yellow grass is green when its growing? haha im sorry i just never heard anyone mention that.

[Double J]

UV requirement for grass??????????????????

I think it would be more of a case of *light intensity* rather than UV.

Hmmmm.......
Perhaps one of those 1000w (yes one thousand) might do the trick indoors. It would not be cheap...... but I am sure it would do the trick in terms of the number of lumens it would crank out. There would likely be a considerable amount of heat put out.... after all... they are 1000 watts.
You can pick them up at hydroponics stores... and I imagine the fixtures to hold them. I assume people use them do grow plants of *ahem* questionable purpose,........ but they may work for your *legal* grass as well.
Either way... this will be an expensive endeavour... but rewarding if you can pull it off.
Anyway... just a few thoughts.

Double J

[geckoguy157]

concept3 you can get grass that natuarly grows the colour he is looking for all grass doesnt grow green what might look cool is a grass i was growing in my horticuture class it grows in clumpos and is a bluey grewy colour il find a picture and the name and post it for you tomorow i cant rember the name im gonna have to look tomorow in horticulture

[Bartman]

Thank you so much! Cant wait for the response, do you think its difficult to get your hands on it?

[Kyle Barker]

not yellow but a dull green. i go out to the clearcuts (VERY VERY dry!) and grab the seeds. when i had my save it grew very good with almost no water (the plants). just potted it so the sav didnt dig it up as much. it all grew under teh spot lights for the monitor and 1 compact flouro. it is tough stuff. as for names i have no idea. if your interested i can mail you an envelope of random seeds.

i also added mealworms in there and they ate a bit of the grass and the monitor LOVED catching the beetles and digging a bit for the worms.

EDIT: I just came back from a hike up in the hills. I found a huge grassland area (arbutus, garry oak, doug fir stand for those familiar) and found some killer looking grass. Its blue/green, about 6" tall in clumps. Has small blades. Anyway i grabed a whack of seeds for my rock garden. They were growing in DRY rock, with 30+ degree sun beating on them for about 2 weeks now.

[JRQ]

alright let me say something in my own defense..... have lawn grass in my tank....but not a sheet of grass all over. What i did was I spreed the seed throughout and then kept it growing well for about 3 weeks.....after that point I cut off light and watering....not amphibians in there of course. My end product was a tank with mostly dead grass as ground cover and some sprouts very scarce. It looks pretty good for my first vivarium, and when I did this I had not run into any of these forums online to talk to other folks in the hobbie.......(Damn I wish I had a Web Cam).

[Bartman]

if you have pics id love to see it..

[geckoguy157]

ok well ive been looking for it around and i cant find it or the tag that was in its pot it was blue ejage or something to that effect is there anyone here who can help me out with the name.

[Deven]

You can do a search for field or crab grass and find seeds or just transplant some from your area if you can. it works great for what you're looking to do, hope this helps.

Deven
Terra5Designs

[Bartman]

What do grass seeds look like if i went outside and got some? And would they be on the surface or underground? Or should i just go buy some grass seeds?

[hhw]

By the way, how do you go about disinfecting a setup like this?

[Bartman]

How would you do it anyway with all the dirt in their...even without grass.

[Kyle Barker]

well the grasses send up really long tubular stems with a bunch of puffy crap on the end...those are the seeds.

[Linds]

I doubt grassd could be maintained in a typical sav enclosure since they love to dig and burrow all around, but to answer the question...

I forget the name of it, but my mom always plants this tall ornamental grass in her gardens. It grows in rigid clusters up to 8' or something like that and you can get it at most greenhouses I assume. Not sure if it would work out, but a thought.

[Bartman]

well mine doesnt seem to care to burrow or dig..well he digs a bit but doesnt burrow at all from what i can see...

I dont think im gonna plant grass as it seems to complicated, and hes not going to be in the enclosure for to long..its only 5x2x2 so he'll have to be moved outta their eventually

[hhw]

Originally posted by Bartman
How would you do it anyway with all the dirt in their...even without grass.

Well, I would normally replace the substrate and scrub/disinfect everything thoroughly...

However, there wouldn't be much point of growing anything in there, nor would you really want to keep destroying burrows, right?

So, do you just spot clean? Or do you spray everything down with virosan?

I don't currently keep any monitors, but I would like to sometime in the future so it would be best to find these things out first :P

[Bartman]

Well i just spot clean..but i dont just clean the area he defecated but a lot of the surrounding dirt..but my sav is really great..he only poo's in the waterdish! Its so great, other then the fact he barley has anything to drink ever lol..i have to change it everyday like twice!