Recent content by DAANFEMA

Work in progress for her upgraded outdoor enclosure. Providing enough heat is my main concern. Outdoor enclosure is app. 15 x 3.5'. The coldframe is made of UV transmissive acrylic and holds heat well. The enclosure is on the south-east facing wall of our house and protected from rain and bad...

Yeah, outdoor enclosure from last summer is post #45, last indoor upgrade to an 8x4 tent is post #55, all on page 3 of this thread. Right now im working on a larger outdoor enclosure, will post it soon!

Hey, I wanted to give another update (21 months now) for those interested. It's finally spring, I'll post my updated outdoor enclosure soon. Meanwhile Adama is growing nicely.

Thanks, appreciate it! Are you also active on reddit?

14 months update: steady weight gain and very active in her new enclosure.

I did exactly what you recommended about the lower wattage incandescants alongside the metal halide and it seems to work out fine! I get good temperature and irridiance measurements and she seems to like basking under it.

@Alex and the Redfoot thanks for mentioning me! @Leonie Yes, I use the ExoTerra intense basking bulbs alongside with Arcadia T5s and a 70w metal halide. Despite their name they are incandescant bulbs with a very nice beam and readily available in europe. I don't like the Arcadia golden sun...

Yeah, the true chroma is an interesting option for sure, but to be honest I don't see any advantages over a good metal halide (maybe except less power consumption). The metal halide has a great continuous spectrum, bright light, a balanced amount of UVA and some good heat, so in my opinion a...

Yeah, that's a good idea, I could use two 50w incandescent bulbs on both sides of the enclosure instead of one 100w bulb. That's the thing with most "full spectrum" LEDs, they aren't full spectrum for tortoise eyes, they only appear white to human vision. One new LED that has a balanced...

Yeah, I agree she probably prefers the metal halide because it's brighter. In Germany and Austria metal halides are extremely common as basking lights for reptile and turtle/tortoise keeping. I used a "lucky reptile" ballast I had laying around from one of my other turtle set uns. But I...

Thanks! When I was pre-growing the plants there was a layer of topsoil underneath the cococoir, we'll see how they do now without the topsoil. But if they won't do well, I'll just replace them. The long tubes are Sylvania activa F172 fluorescent lights (150cm). According to Sarina Wunderlichs...

Of course I also want to show the inhabitant of the enclosure. Weight increased nearly tenfold during her first year.

Hello! I wanted to give an update, now that it's one year with my sulcata. I upgraded the indoor enclosure to an 8x4' greenhouse tent. On the bottom is a raised garden bed and pond liner. Lighting are two Arcadia T5s for UVB (UVI measured with Solarmeter between 3-5 in the area under the...

Yes, it does stay a few degrees warmer during the night even without heating. But I still have to install nighttime heating and a thermostat. But right now my tortoise is still too young to stay outside day and night I think and nights still get cold in April here. So for now I just have her...