Drainage layer flooding

[phoenixn7g]

Hey! I've got a 12*12*18 Exo with lots and lots of plants. I had set it up with a drainage layer ( probably 1.5 inches thick full of bio balls with crate on top and mesh on top of the crate so the substrate didn't fall into the drainage layer

Doing my daily inspection I found that my drainage layer has filled and now the substrate at the bottom is soaking.

Im not sure what to do. Should I rip apart the tank? I was always told the drainage layer would evaporate with time so a better humidity could be kept.

If its possible I would prefer not to rip the tank apart as it is very heavily planted and I can't imagine my crestie being too thrilled about it either.
If I do rip it apart, what should I do to prevent this in the future? I was hoping to get a little ecosystem started where I could do spot cleaning without disrupting him all the time

[MarkB]

Have you tried keeping the water level lower? If you have 1.5 inches of hydro balls you could keep the water level just below your egg crate and that should fix your problem.

[miketleopardgeckos]

to take water out go to any petstore and by some airline tubing the stuff for fish tanks. Push it past the substrate down to the very bottom of the tank, suck the other end and that creates a syphon which will suck most of the out. Trust me I did it with my L. Williamsi tank

[phoenixn7g]

The thing is I'm not trying to keep water down there. Besides
misting ( and watering plants) I don't want water down there really if it's not going to do what I was told

[MarkB]

Are your plants dieing from the saturated soil? I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to achieve.

[phoenixn7g]

No. The plants are in pots with broken bottoms so they have access to the water however.
I was told that having a drainage layer would cause the extra water to trickle down, and then evaporate after

[MarkB]

Your water level is too high. I mist my tanks daily and never have to remove water, just add from the evaporation. Keep the water below your egg crate and you should be fine.

[dart_frog_dawn]

I think you are misting too much at a time. I keep dart frogs in a similar enviornment and had a very similar situation. I reduced the duration of my misting and that solved the problem. Do you mist by hand or use a misting machine of some kind?


Dawn

[FrogPimp]

A few things come to mind. Hopefully something here will help you.

1) 12x12 is a very small false bottom, especially if it is less than 6 inches deep. You said you have only 1.5 inches. Of course your tank is saturated. I would fill that tank up with a single misting. In my experience, 12x12x12 or 12x12x18 are simply just too small for proper false bottoms because of the front-opening doors.

2) An eggcrate false bottom is meant to be hollow/empty so that it can hold a larger volume of water. This is the purpose of a false bottom. Where is the water supposed to go if the bottom is filled with balls? To me, adding bio balls defeats the purpose of the eggcrate. Either use balls, or use eggcrate, not both. When you fill your false bottom with balls you effectively decrease the water holding capacity by maybe as much as 90%.

3) All false bottom tanks need a means of draining. You would never buy a shower that doesn't have a drain. How else do you get the water out? The amount of evaporation that is likely to occur is obviously insignificant in comparison to the amount of water you add during misting, otherwise you wouldn't have this problem.

I mist like crazy until my tanks become flooded, then I drain, and mist like crazy again. You should never be limited to how much you can mist.

[joeysgreen]

I would recommend a flow-through tank. This allows passive drainage, set to a peak water level via a stand pipe. Elaborate systems can be designed to create seasonal variations in water levels; and are simpler to make than they may sound.