Giant Day Geckos

Allanira

New member
I am getting 2 giant day geckos. I have already started the terrarium. I have the lights, the plants the water fall for the humidity factor and looking at the gages and the timers now. I have the drip system in place not filled and turned on yet. I plan to have everything going for a month or 2 so I can chart the temp and humidity that it gets to at various times of the day and night. Are there any suggestions that people have that I might have over looked? I am doing live plants in the terrarium and using a 55 gal aquarium. I have vines all over and 2 bromeliads in the tank. I am using cocofiber for the top of the substrat and have potting soil that doesnt have any chemicals in it for the plants. I have live charcoal and gravel under the potting soil and several vining plants inside now. I also have a small fountain in the tank to provide some water flow and humidity. I am looking at the coil lighting for the lights and am wondering if I should use a basking light also or just a day and night light will work. I am looking online for the other items like the timer and temp and humidity gauges. I am going to go with the analog temp/humid gauges, and a digital timer for the lights. I am getting the hood here in town from the only exotic pet store here. Any suggestions or am I doing ok? Thanks in advance.
 

MikeLee

New member
Sounds like you're almost good to go. I don't think a drip system is necessary though. Substrate, plants, waterfall, and occasional misting should create enough humidity. (depending on the humidity of the room your vivarium is in) Besides, you can always get a fogger. I would recommend the zoo-med reptifogger. Minimal misting is still necessary though so they can drink from the water droplets.

Are you buying hatchlings, sub adults, or adults?
 

NigelMoses

New member
When I had my grandis I used exo terra 10.0 and an exo terra tropical basking bulb. I am not sure if you have them yet but you did not mention Mother In-Law's Tongue/ Snake plants (Sansevieria trifasciata). They work great, sturdy enough to support them and guaranteed to make them feel safe and secure. If you plan on breeding them you will also see that they will lay their eggs in them.
 

Adrn

New member
Great pieces of advice. For a basking light option you can also consider halogen puck lighting. This a 12v standard plug-in setup with a conversion to 10w-20w halogen bulb fixture. These work well at providing ample basking temps. I do tend to turn them off during the hot summer weeks and go with the daylight bulbs only as they provide enough warmth.
 

Allanira

New member
I live in the desert so I need all the humidity I can get in here. The house wont have the swamp cooler put in for another month so we arent getting any humidity unless it rains. We dont get a lot of rain lol. I dont have a large enough vivarium to put in mothers inlaw tongues. I am using a 55gal aquarium. I have put in 2 bromeliads though. the plants are really taking off also. Thank you for the advise.
 
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