RHP location on wooden enclosure

Before I finish setting this up I need to know if its appropriately placed. Had to go find screws with point on them cause the screws that came with it were flat. Its snug in place and made screws a little longer to make sure it in wooden a good half inch. Again dont want a fire hazard. Chicken wire touching in some places. ????? Lol. Sorry I freak out alot.

UnHooked said:

Before I finish setting this up I need to know if its appropriately placed. Had to go find screws with point on them cause the screws that came with it were flat. Its snug in place and made screws a little longer to make sure it in wooden a good half inch. Again dont want a fire hazard. Chicken wire touching in some places. ????? Lol. Sorry I freak out alot.

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RHPs don't get too hot, comparing to ceramic heat emitters and heat lamps, so it's okay.

UnHooked said:

Before I finish setting this up I need to know if its appropriately placed. Had to go find screws with point on them cause the screws that came with it were flat. Its snug in place and made screws a little longer to make sure it in wooden a good half inch. Again dont want a fire hazard. Chicken wire touching in some places. ????? Lol. Sorry I freak out alot.

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Plug it in and let it warm up. Then put your hand under the "lens" side and on the back side. You'll see that RHPs direct their heat down where the lens is pointing and don't get all that warm on the back side. This is one reason why they are great for expanded PVC type enclosures.

So glad I got him this panel. But im thinking bout putting it on cool side to take che away from night heat. Would still produce enough ambient heat throughoutnenclosure that way. And put basking light and t5 on other side. Also will any house light work for ambient lighting? Using another 50 watt basking light for light but producing just enough heat to where i feel it may be too much. Like during day his enclosure patchy with temps in 84 some places 91 on another. 103 for basking. Another corner is 97. This mean I should take the other basking 50 watt away and just add a normal bulb? Then there would be an actual cool side and warm side?

UnHooked said:

So glad I got him this panel. But im thinking bout putting it on cool side to take che away from night heat. Would still produce enough ambient heat throughoutnenclosure that way. And put basking light and t5 on other side. Also will any house light work for ambient lighting? Using another 50 watt basking light for light but producing just enough heat to where i feel it may be too much. Like during day his enclosure patchy with temps in 84 some places 91 on another. 103 for basking. Another corner is 97. This mean I should take the other basking 50 watt away and just add a normal bulb? Then there would be an actual cool side and warm side?

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If I correctly got enclosure layout from the photos, placing an RHP closer to mudflaps will make it almost in the middle of the enclosure. It's the optimal spot, usually.

You can use regular household LED bulbs, no worries. Try to choose not the cheapest but with better specs, e.g. CRI (color rendering index).

Temperatures look fine by me, if these are daytime temps. I would make it a bit cooler (under 86-90F) to have a safety margin (probably, adjusting thermostat is enough). Basking area should stay in 100-105F.

Can you post photos of packaging or labels on the sleeves of the bulbs you have in the double-dome?

Alex and the Redfoot said:

If I correctly got enclosure layout from the photos, placing an RHP closer to mudflaps will make it almost in the middle of the enclosure. It's the optimal spot, usually.

You can use regular household LED bulbs, no worries. Try to choose not the cheapest but with better specs, e.g. CRI (color rendering index).

Temperatures look fine by me, if these are daytime temps. I would make it a bit cooler (under 86-90F) to have a safety margin (probably, adjusting thermostat is enough). Basking area should stay in 100-105F.

Can you post photos of packaging or labels on the sleeves of the bulbs you have in the double-dome?

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It gets to be 77 on cool side and 82 on warm side at night. The mudflap part is the cool side. Dual dome on left (cool side) has che on thermostat for 79 and a led filament bulb for ambient. Then the reptizoo t5 across center and the vivarium electronics rhp running along front of warm side. Its hooked up to a VE 300. Set on dim, (heating mode), not pulse. Daytime temp on it set for 91 and it drops 9 degrees at night. Then dual dome across from rhp on warm side has just another uvb bulb and a 75 watt basking light (reptizoo) on dimmer set for 94 but it never goes above 89.With enclosure being so big i wanted the uvb to be distributed well throughout. Or is that too much having that bulb too? Also I know the dimmer on basking light never reaches the 94 I have it set to but my temp gun reads 101 under it at mid day after lights have been on a bit. Is that good and can I just set it for 90 then? When I had a 100 watt it got to hot. Again this is 2nd night with fresh substrate so I feel the temps are still leveling out. And he sleeps on cool side under his che. He just has always loved that corner but dont want his shell to get dried burned up from che which is why I got the rhp to try and get all these damaged lights off him. When i put lid on posts in next month or so it will help raise them higher off shell too. So I'll have to readjust all this light mess again. Joy!! Can't wait to get him outside and be done stressing with this extra lol. Things we do for these guys he my buddy. Just wants him happy and healthy. BTW he does go outside twice if not thrice times a week for and hr or 2.

Changed lighting a bit. Took out that dual dome on hot side with the extra uvb. Replaced with single big reflecting dome that has the 75 watt basking bulb on dimmer. Moved t5 closer to it.. think the lights are all spaced out enough. Thats why I had the lights kinda far apart cause I dont like them being so close together. They seem to have plenty of breathing room though. See what the temps do with this.

UnHooked said:

Changed lighting a bit. Took out that dual dome on hot side with the extra uvb. Replaced with single big reflecting dome that has the 75 watt basking bulb on dimmer. Moved t5 closer to it.. think the lights are all spaced out enough. Thats why I had the lights kinda far apart cause I dont like them being so close together. They seem to have plenty of breathing room though. See what the temps do with this.

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I like this layout more. I would still use a double dome over basking area, though - with a bright LED + heat lamp. From what I can tell, tortoises navigate by brightness, not warmth, when choosing a basking area.

Putting lights next to each other, over basking area, is okay: each simulates a small part of natural sunlight's spectrum.

What kind of basking bulb you have (ReptiZoo has a few different lines and not all of them are good for tortoises)? And what is the distance between lights and substrate?

Yea I went back to doublendonencaude the heat wasn't holding up. Lol it os the reptizoo intense basking. 75w. But I did just order these other 50w bulbs from repti home. Reptizoo has bad bulbs?? Posting pic of the ither bulbs i ordered. They better than reptizoo? Besides them being less warm.

ReptiZoo Intense Basking needs to be used with caution (otherwise, basking area will be too small for the tortoise to warm up efficiently). The bulbs from ReptiHome look more suitable (flood bulbs with frosted glass).

Every brand has bulbs suitable for different kind of animals (or with a specific equipment layout in mind). And sometimes just bad bulb kinds (e.g. spot bulbs in clear, non-frosted glass sleeves).