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-
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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