Kristan Hayne
New Member
My first post but I’ve been lurking for a long time. Looking for confirmation or correction.
I have a 2 year old Hermanns tortoise (born July 26,2017). His diet is plantain, dandelion greens, clover, mustard greens some romaine and spring mix. Mazuri a couple times a week.
Atlas was previously in an open top table where I couldn’t control the humidity as well as I thought I could and I had equipment that In retrospect wasn’t right for him. (Maybe she but we always called Atlas a him). ie: zoomed tortoise house, analog humidity gauge and an MVB which once I got my solarmeter I realized even the brand new solar glo wasn’t putting out more than 0.4 uvb at 2” away. So he wasn’t getting uvb and the humidity was poor. As a result he has some pyramiding. An outdoor enclosure isn’t an option in our climate except for a few months in the summer. So My focus is on creating a proper indoor enclosure. I live in rural eastern Canada so reptile suppliers are hard to come by. I depend on the internet to order what I need, so this has been a few months in the making.
The interior of the enclosure is 30”x60” by 24” high. It’s a closed chamber PVC with 5ml glass sliding doors on the front. Silicone sealed seams. I have 16 vent holes drilled in the back. There is a 36” Arcadia 12% uvb tube centred in a sun blaster fixture with reflector and a 65 watt flood on one end for basking.
The substrate is 4-5” of coconut coir depending on location with Cyprus mulch spread over parts of the floor to try and keep the mud down. First time using the mulch.
Temps (all in Celsius)
Basking - 32 (12” under bulb)
Cool end - 26.8
Room in general - 20
The substrate is 19-20” below the Arcadia tube.
UVB with a solarmeter 6.5:
2.9-3 directly under the tube at tortoise level
1.5 front and back of enclosure
0.4-0.6 in the corners of the enclosure
Humidity is still an issue but in the other direction. It is currently 87%. I ran the enclosure for 12 hours prior to adding Atlas, humidity was 99% this am with the glass fogged up and moisture dripping. To try and bring it down I took the substrate back out and squeezed as much water out of it as I could and the glass doors are currently open 1.5” on either end. All this brought it down to its current level and there’s been no more fog or dripping.
I do notice in the last 5 hours Atlas has been more active than he’s been in months but I want to make sure I’m getting this right.
my questions are:
1. Are the temps correct
2. Is this too much uvb there are hides to get away from it but no location where it’s zero when not in one.
3. What am I doing wrong with the humidity. Is this too much for a 2 year old.
4. Is his diet varied enough.
I am waiting on one more sun blaster fixture to come for lighting purposes only. The enclosure is built and there was an issue when the plastic suppliers cut it so we had to re-cut some pieces after getting it home (6 hour round trip to get). So although a little smaller than I anticipated I can’t change the size now. The site is not allowing me to post pictures. Sorry for the long winded post and thanks for any input.
I have a 2 year old Hermanns tortoise (born July 26,2017). His diet is plantain, dandelion greens, clover, mustard greens some romaine and spring mix. Mazuri a couple times a week.
Atlas was previously in an open top table where I couldn’t control the humidity as well as I thought I could and I had equipment that In retrospect wasn’t right for him. (Maybe she but we always called Atlas a him). ie: zoomed tortoise house, analog humidity gauge and an MVB which once I got my solarmeter I realized even the brand new solar glo wasn’t putting out more than 0.4 uvb at 2” away. So he wasn’t getting uvb and the humidity was poor. As a result he has some pyramiding. An outdoor enclosure isn’t an option in our climate except for a few months in the summer. So My focus is on creating a proper indoor enclosure. I live in rural eastern Canada so reptile suppliers are hard to come by. I depend on the internet to order what I need, so this has been a few months in the making.
The interior of the enclosure is 30”x60” by 24” high. It’s a closed chamber PVC with 5ml glass sliding doors on the front. Silicone sealed seams. I have 16 vent holes drilled in the back. There is a 36” Arcadia 12% uvb tube centred in a sun blaster fixture with reflector and a 65 watt flood on one end for basking.
The substrate is 4-5” of coconut coir depending on location with Cyprus mulch spread over parts of the floor to try and keep the mud down. First time using the mulch.
Temps (all in Celsius)
Basking - 32 (12” under bulb)
Cool end - 26.8
Room in general - 20
The substrate is 19-20” below the Arcadia tube.
UVB with a solarmeter 6.5:
2.9-3 directly under the tube at tortoise level
1.5 front and back of enclosure
0.4-0.6 in the corners of the enclosure
Humidity is still an issue but in the other direction. It is currently 87%. I ran the enclosure for 12 hours prior to adding Atlas, humidity was 99% this am with the glass fogged up and moisture dripping. To try and bring it down I took the substrate back out and squeezed as much water out of it as I could and the glass doors are currently open 1.5” on either end. All this brought it down to its current level and there’s been no more fog or dripping.
I do notice in the last 5 hours Atlas has been more active than he’s been in months but I want to make sure I’m getting this right.
my questions are:
1. Are the temps correct
2. Is this too much uvb there are hides to get away from it but no location where it’s zero when not in one.
3. What am I doing wrong with the humidity. Is this too much for a 2 year old.
4. Is his diet varied enough.
I am waiting on one more sun blaster fixture to come for lighting purposes only. The enclosure is built and there was an issue when the plastic suppliers cut it so we had to re-cut some pieces after getting it home (6 hour round trip to get). So although a little smaller than I anticipated I can’t change the size now. The site is not allowing me to post pictures. Sorry for the long winded post and thanks for any input.