looking for some advice for a Leo tank

[budriley]

I just had a 55gal fish tank give to me. I want to clean it up and use it for leos, i want to know if i have to toss the top hood lights and all and just use a screen top and dome lights for day and night cycles. Or can i modify it somehow for ventilation and use the 2 light fixtures it has. Are there any types of bulbs i can get that will not harm the leos. Also any tips or ideas, about how to make a second level since it is 21 inches tall?

 

[Amiego]

Do you mean the bulbs are inside the tank? You could use a bulb guard such as: Bulb Metal Guard | Pets At Home
You could probably get much cheaper on eBay or american petsmart or whatever it is you have it your country

For the multiple levels you could get glass cut to your specific size and glue it into place with non-toxic silicone. However I dont think this would look nice so instead you could just build your hides up and join them together so you have the roof space on top as a kind of second story, just add a ramp/steps up

Hope this helps

 

[budriley]

No the lights mount on top, they are standard flouresent fixtures. I believe they use 18" bulbs, one over the back half of each sice of the tank, but they are covered with a canopy that covers the full top of the tank that is 48" long and 13" deep it matches the stand for the tank and has a hinged lid over each half. My main worry about it is the lights causing a problem with the leos d3 levels and there not being enuf air flow to keep proper temps and humidity. I was just hopeing others may have crossed this bridge before and had a list of dos and donts.

 

[Amiego]

I think its better to stick with UFH and a light on one side, it sounds like the light goes the entire way across the tank. That won't be ideal as it wont give the leo the temperature gradient it needs to thermoregulate itself, not sure if I understood you correctly but hope this helps

 

[budriley]

I have 2 - 8x12 uths to put on one side for heat , the lights will be would be simply for viewing. Set on timers to rotate between day and nite bulbs, so there would only be one on at a time.

 

[Conched]

I think you might be better off getting rid of the hood and using a screen enclosure. Leo's are crespular so you don't really need any lighting, fish tank lighting would be overkill.

That is a great size tank, you should have no problem setting up a large thermal gradient for your leo with plenty of moist, hot and cool hide for it to choose.

Have fun setting up your new leo habitat.

 

[budriley]

Is there a trick to uploading pic from a cell,,i haven't been able to do it. I want to post some pics of the new tank for feedback , but i only have my phone. Computer is down at the moment.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Is there a trick to uploading pic from a cell,,i haven't been able to do it. I want to post some pics of the new tank for feedback , but i only have my phone. Computer is down at the moment.

Is your computer back up for those pictures?

 

[budriley]

Unfortunely no, i did however email them to my aunt, so i could upload from her computer. But that was a fail cause the files are too large. So now i do not know what to do about that.

 

[budriley]

Ok, so now i have learned how to resize my pics, and managed to change my avatar to a pic of the tank i will get them uploaded to an album this evening and then i can finally get some feed back.

 

[budriley]

did get them in an album named 55gallon tank, but they are so small I guess I did not learn how to properly size them after all, Its a public album so anyone should be able to see, I will keep working on it till I get it right, I don't understand why it is different than any of the other pics I have uploaded. I used the same camera at the same settings as all the other pictures have uploaded.