Swisswiss's terrarium

swisswiss

Member
well here it is folks... hope you have the patience for a longish read...

first off let me give you some specs:

terrarium:
Exo Terra 90x45x30 (35"x 18"x 12")

substrate:
zoomed excavator mixed with sand about 70/30

heating:
28W lucky reptile heating mat

thermostat:
luckyreptile thermocontroller pro II with sensor scotched to the bottom of the vivarium directly on the heating mat

lighting:
1x small 3 1w white LEDS ballast and 1X dont know what Watt (but low regardless) white LEDS painted blue with a special glass paint I had lying around...

Live stock:
None, though im planning to add two females to this set up one of which hopefully will be a mack snow or a mack super snow

QUESTIONS!!

HEATING (the one where im most at a loss):


firstly im sorry but im going to use the metric system so please bare with, ill convert base temperature readings when I can...but yeah...

Lets begin by giving you my room temps during the day and night....

during the day, and during this time of the cold period I seem to have a room a temperature of about 21-23°c (69-73) however at night temps drop to 17(utmost coldest)-19 (62-66)...

Im not sure how long the lows last in the night but im guessing its in the heart of it (2am-5am) again this is a wild guess on my behalf....

Iv set the thermostat so the "basking area" warms the tile to about 23-24°c (73-75) from 9pm to 8am in case they want to warm up at night....

so my first question would be this....are the ambient temperatures at night far to cold for the geckos?

should I perhaps invest in a CHE knowing that the temperatures will probably rise during summer?

The next part concerns the heating mat.... Iv placed the 28W mat on the outside, under my terrarium, and with it i scotched the thermo stat sensor ( I can provide a picture if needed). directly over the mat (after the terrarium glass obviously) i have placed a ceramic tile thats about .5cm thick (0.19 inches?). there seems to be about 3-4 degrees Celsius difference between what the mat gives off and the temperature reading i get on the tile.

this being said, iv been able to tar the thermostat so that at the hottest of the "day" (between 11 and 15h) the tile/basking areas ranges from 30 to 33 °C (86-91)..... while the thermostat reads 36°c

a little more detail about this... the way i have "split up" the tile into those four basking areas (the tile is actually a single piece) allows me to actually have 4 different basking temperatures. the larger segment usually being the hotter one. while the other tend to be half or one degree cooler..

so my questions about the heating are as follow....

am I killing my heat mat by using it like this/using a tile/using excavator?

is there any advantage of providing different temperatures at different times during the day?

and more importantly will the animals suffer negatively from this in any manner?

SUBSTRATE:

what do you folks think about excavator?

I have a friend who suggested I use wood chips but after reading some of the horror stories online and the fact live foods can actually borrow under it i decided against. should i have listened to him? (he has been a keen reptile keeper for many years and has various cold blooded animals...)

Is there any kind of maintenance I should do on this substrate?

FINAL QUESTIONS (hang in there if you got this far...) LIGHTING:

will my simple recycled LEDS work to impose a day/night cycle?

and will the blue lights bother my geckos if i leave them on all night? not that I plan to)


well there you have it folks, if you got this far you already have my gratitude. iv attached some pictures of the setup (including cable mayhem). i just finished a few minuets ago the "dry hide" and aside the doubts mentioned above I think I should be ready... I will let excavator dry for a week and then hopefully introduce my girls...

...oh right about that.... we have a reptile shelter here in Geneva and iv spoken to them on the phone. seems many animals have been abandoned the last few years so they would be willing to part with one for free.....how cool is that?

not sure ill get a crazy morph but honestly, if i can get a good classical yellow black spotted leo ill be more than happy. for the mack snow or super snow I talked to a pet store about it but nothing set on ink....

anyway there you have it, for real this time.... thank you in advance for all the tips/screams/suggestions and hugs you will throw my way....

-Jeff-
 

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JessJohnson87

New member
Temperatures:
This will be in US temps.

1. Air temps can be between 72-75 on the warm side of the tank. If you feel it will get too cool at night, yes you can add a CHE to supplement but no higher than 80*.
2. Floor temps where the heat pat is located should be between 88-92* on the substrate.
3. With tile and excavator clay, the heat pad has to heat everything up to the proper temperatures that they need to be. SO the heat pad will run hot while the thermometer probe will read about 10* less.

I would leave the floor temps to be constant 24/7. If it gets warm there in the summers, you should not need a supplemental heat source. The ait temps above my heat pad stays between 72-75* and my leo has no problems with that.

Substrate:

1. If the clay is mixed with sand and has become hardened, then it is fine. Many people who choose to do a natural set-up for these guys go the clay/sand mix.
2. No wood chips, it's a recipe for disaster.
3. Excavator clay can be hard to clean. Once your leo finds their bathroom corner, I would place a piece of tile there to make it easier to clean up.

Lighting:

The regular ones are great for a day time photo-period. I don't know about the blue, LED's are relatively bright without paint so I would leave the blue ones on for viewing purposes and then shut them off when you go to bed. It has been found that they can see different colors of light and it can bother their eyes.

Anyways, it is a very nice looking set-up and I'm super jealous. I think I will be turning my leopard gecko enclosure into a bio-active one at some point, have to finish my bio-active crested gecko enclosure first.
 

swisswiss

Member
thx for the reply Jess,

so youre saying that I risk frying my mat and or causing a fire hazard set up like this? I had no idea the probe was actually that far off, ill have to double check its readings....and keep temps static throughout the day

Im wondering if i should scrap the mat all together and just go for a 60W CHE instead....if the mat can do its job without blowing up my terrarium I think it looks nicer but in no way should looks take priority over the well being of my animals....

great idea for the toilet tile, didnt think about that. I left a corner of a tank free of decorations with the hope they will use that as the toilet...but yeah no guarantees right?
 

JessJohnson87

New member
You don't risk frying the heat mat so long as you have a thermostat. When mine is heating up to the desired temperature it usually runs about 10* hotter than what the probe reading is. They have to heat up at full power and once the desired temperature is reached, the thermostat kicks off. I do have an article you can read, it's about a bio-active leopard gecko enclosure, you're halfway there with the one you have.

Creating a Bioactive Leopard Gecko Setup - Gecko Time - Gecko Time
By making it bio-active, you can eliminate having to clean the tank. The bugs will eat the poop and stuff :)
 

swisswiss

Member
sweet! im always down for a good read...Iv tried watching some youtube videos but 90% of them seem to be maid by 12 year old boys with screechy voices....I cant stand it.....

you hit the mark with that link, I love the idea of having a complete ecosystem... i fear if you dont know what youre doing though you may end up with a lot of fungus, humidity swings and health hazards for your gecko? ill definitely look into this though. maybe give it a shot once I get some hands on experience with my little critters.

bookmarked!
 
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Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
What is the room humidity where your cage will sit?

Hey Liz,

between 30 and 40

Liz here. More number crunching for you, Jeff. :)

My usual room humidity ranges from the 40s into the 50s. Right now it is 53%.

If the environment is too dry (and there is no warm moist hide to help your leo shed and stay hydrated), he will have difficulty shedding. I recommend 40-50% RH.....even up to 60%. I recommend doing the best you can to keep the warm humid hide moist 24/7.

Moist hide substrates that work well are damp/wet sphagnum moss and paper towels. Some GU members use compacted Eco Earth coco fiber.
 
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swisswiss

Member
sooooo, i placed the sensor in the actual terrarium and i did get a reading of 50 but that may be because excavator is still drying. I have cut two slates of Plexiglas that i have placed over two of the mesh screen "windows" on the exo terra cover in an attempt to keep humidity in a little more. with regards to the moist hide i was planning in using moist vermiculite. the humid hide is placed near the heating mat but not on it...so still on the "cold" side, is that alright?
 

Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
sooooo, i placed the sensor in the actual terrarium and i did get a reading of 50 but that may be because excavator is still drying. I have cut two slates of Plexiglas that i have placed over two of the mesh screen "windows" on the exo terra cover in an attempt to keep humidity in a little more. with regards to the moist hide i was planning in using moist vermiculite. the humid hide is placed near the heating mat but not on it...so still on the "cold" side, is that alright?
Adding two large water dishes will help some with humidity too.

I would not use vermiculite in the warm humid hide. Vermiculite can be ingested. I wonder whether Hydroton clay marbles would work. They're pretty large.

It's important to have the warm humid hide directly on top of the UTH. The warmth from the UTH helps keep the moist hide humid.
 
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swisswiss

Member
Been working on my terrarium a little more, think this is the final version...

I moved the moist hide so its half on the heating tile, half not... added a few climbs and holes using excavator and some flat rocks i had lying around...

iv noticed excavator as it dried up kinda cracked in certain parts, should i moist and pat down or cover with new excavator?

what do you folks think? im hoping the geckos will enjoy this kinda "obstacle course" they have several holes to go around, climb up and back down...

cleaned up the cable mayhem too
 

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Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
I think your custom build is pretty cool! Lucky leo(s)!

If there's still time to add a few more hides, I'd go for it. Sometimes leos prefer to hide alone.

I don't have any experience with excavator clay.
 

Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
PS:
Small entrances are good for caves/hides, like your caves on the left and right. Can you make the entry smaller for the cave more towards the middle? If that one is the humid cave, a smaller doorway will also help with the humidity.
 

swisswiss

Member
the one on the left with the black "roof" is the dry community den, the artificial rock on the right is the humid hide thats half on the heating tile half off. the stuff in the middle is just a place for them to play/hide from light should they need to. its not really walled in anywhere....

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Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
Thanks for the labeling and break down of those sections. :)

Have they a warm dry hide too?

Where are the warmest places besides the artificial humid hide?
 
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swisswiss

Member
there is no dry warm hide as of yet, if you think i should make one though im sure i can think of something....

the warmest places are anywhere on the tile shown below....

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Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
there is no dry warm hide as of yet, if you think i should make one though im sure i can think of something....

the warmest places are anywhere on the tile shown below....

View attachment 37943

It's very important for leos to have 3 separate hide "zones". They spend much of their time alternating between their warm humid hides and their warm dry hides. Leos often don't spend much time in their cool hides.

In fact my leo and some others use their cool hides as "outhouses"! :razz:

Sometimes my leo sleeps in somewhat sheltered locations outside her hides. They really need a secluded warm cave too.

I have heard something about heat transfer and excavator clay, but I don't remember what. :/
 
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swisswiss

Member
URGH!!!!!
ill have to think of something then... from what i know excavator insulates rather than conducts heat but i may be wrong
 

swisswiss

Member
no need to be sorry liz I appreciate the help. was able to make a small warm hide as well letting excavator dry a bit and then ill post a pic....

P.s: could use your wisdom on my other post regarding food farming
 
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