Help with enclosing existing enclosure as if in a "greenhouse"

wellington said:

Why species of tortoise and what size is it?

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wellington said:

For the cover, attach either 2x2 or 1x2 to the ends and then a piece across the top and drap regular roll of plastic over it. Hand the lights etc, from the center pole under the plastic
You can also rig a free standing plastic top holder out of PVC pipe.

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Tyamar said:

I cannot find any premade greenhouse covers that will fit my enclosure. Picture of the actual one I have below. It is 48"L x 24"W x 22.8"H. I have my UVB tube sitting on the metal mesh along the back, my daytime flood sitting on the right (basking) and a ceramic heat emitter sitting on the left. I have (for now) used plastic and painters tape to completely tape up the two sides where the vents are, and more plastic and painters tape to (as close as possible) tape up the metal mesh around all of the lights. I have caulked up all of the insides. What I can't really help are the sliding glass doors. When not in use I tape them up as well, but that's really annoying to remove and replace three times a day at minimum. Plus, the temperature gauge for the ceramic heat emitter has to get in the enclosure somehow, so it's going in the bottom left side where the sliding glass meets the wall.

I have coconut coir as a thick (and currently sopping wet) bottom layer of substrate, with another thick upper layer of repti-bark.

I have a 100w basking flood running from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and with it sitting right on the metal I can now get up to 95 F in the middle of the day when the UV bulb is also on (12-4 PM). My ceramic on the left is set to 82 degrees, to maintain a good temperature at night.

I have a hygrometer inside of the hide on the right, the one my tort always sleeps in, and it's always showing in the 90s.

That said, with all of this, I have another hygrometer on the back wall just above tortoise height, and I'm having trouble getting it to stay above 65% for an extended period of time. Right now every time I take my tort out to soak (2-3x daily) while she's soaking I spray down the entire inside. I also do it at night after she goes into her hide. That will get that gauge up to the 90s, but during the day with the lights all that doesn't last very long at all. At night it'll last a few hours, but by the morning I'm back in the 60s.

I know the answer to all of this is to just wrap the entire thing in a greenhouse cover, but I just can't find anything big enough. With the lights all on there I need something at least 36" tall.

This leads me to my final question, that I have wondered every time I see the cover mentioned. How do you guys string your lights inside? Like, is there some built-in cord outlet somewhere, like in a tent? How does that work to keep the humidity inside?

View attachment 401350

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Tom said:

Cut a piece of plywood (or have Home Depot cut it for you) and screw it on to the top to cover the whole top. Screw up through the ledge that runs around the whole top. I would use some 2x2 or 2x4 on top to catch the screws. To put it another way, you will run a screw up from the inside through the existing rim, into and through your plywood, and into the 2x2 or 2x4 on top of the whole thing.

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Tom said:

The problem is that you are trying to force a square peg into a round hole. You bought the wrong type of enclosure. Open tops don't work. All of your heat and humidity is drawn up and out because of the chimney effect. Having all of the heating and lighting outside the enclosure doesn't work, and you are seeing why. It doesn't look like it will be too hard to modify this one.

Cut a piece of plywood (or have Home Depot cut it for you) and screw it on to the top to cover the whole top. Screw up through the ledge that runs around the whole top. I would use some 2x2 or 2x4 on top to catch the screws. To put it another way, you will run a screw up from the inside through the existing rim, into and through your plywood, and into the 2x2 or 2x4 on top of the whole thing.

Then you can use coffee cup holder hooks to hang all of your heating and lighting from. You can screw them into the plywood top. You might have to cut the screen out.

The CHE should be near the middle to evenly heat the whole enclosure. Basking and UV should be together over to one side. LEDs should be evenly spaced to brighten up the whole enclosure. One thing that you will discover is that your thermostat will keep the CHE off most of the time, and that 100 watt heat lamp will be way too much. 100 watts in something this size will over heat the whole thing. You'll probably have to drop down to a 50 watt. After all this is done, you can use some electrical tape to cover the vents on the sides as needed. You'll probably need to leave some of them uncovered for some ventilation, but let your thermometer and hygrometer be your guide there. Once the top is closed in, there will be no need to tape up the front doors.

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Tom said:

The CHE should be near the middle to evenly heat the whole enclosure. Basking and UV should be together over to one side.

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Tyamar said:

I got my UV after a recommendation from a pinned message in this forum, which is why it's a long tube along the back. I can't put it "on one side" unless you count the back side, which it is. I can move the CHE into the middle, that makes sense.

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Tyamar said:

I don't think that will work, because it's not wood, it's plastic.

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