300 gallon closed chamber enclosure

[G-stars]

Hello everyone. I have a 300 gallon stock tank and thinking about converting it into a closed chamber for my torts.

It's made out of some type of thick plastic. Any ideas of how to keep the heat and moisture in will be greatly appreciated as I plan on keeping this outdoors. Going to put peat moss then top soil over it. Should I go with a couple CHEs? Or use something else? Have a few ideas to use as the top. Maybe a tarp as a tent but concerned about the heat retention especially during cold weather. By the way I'm in so cal so by cold I mean maybe low 40's during winter. Maybe 30's. Any and all help with this will be appreciated. What I'm really looking for is the best material to hold heat and humidity. I'll post pics as I go.

 

[wellington]

What kind of tort is this for? @Tom may be the best for helping with Cali temps.

 

[G-stars]

Indian and Sri Lanken stars. Was thinking of starting it next weekend but wanted to run it by everyone here first to see if I could get some good ideas.

 

[tortadise]

Stars your going to want it more arid with a monsoon season. Which is easy with a closed chamber style enclosure for either tropical semi tropical, arid, or wet-dry season. I'd start with plexiglass framed in wood and all hinged together for easy access at any point of the enclosure. Maybe like a trifold hinged plexi lid. And the middle one you could screw the basking/UVB bulb to that piece of plexi glass so each side of it has it's own door(lid) but hinged to the center one. Hope that makes sense.

 

[G-stars]

Yes that does make sense. I did think of plexiglas but just wanted to make sure that it could maintain the heat inside on colder nights.

 

[Tom]

Plexi will not hold enough heat on our winter nights.

That sort of enclosure would be fine for indoors, but outside you should just build an enclosure on the ground and put a closable heated night box in it. Something like this: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/another-night-box-thread.88966/

I lock them all in every night, and open the door every morning.

 

[tortadise]

Oh haha. I didn't read the entire post. This is for outside? Yeah plexi won't work. Not even in Florida I don't it would. Gonna need some insulated wall lid thing like Tom posted. Maybe add some windows to it. But a night box would be best. The plastic of the tub won't insulate well either

 

[Millerlite]

If it's gunna be outdoors, why make it closed chambered? Why not put substrate dow fairly deep. Plant plants, broad leaves that cover most the top naturally. This can create the humidity. You can add a heated hide or hear one side of the enclosure to helping keep warm. Or a cold fram. Idk if I would make a fully closed chamber outdoors. Keep us posted tho. It can work if some right

Kyle

 

[G-stars]

Was kind of hoping I could make it work. So plastic won't retain heat? Even if I added an insulated top like Tom has?

 

[G-stars]

Reason why I wanted to create this outdoors was because this thing is kind of stocky to put inside. And their closed chamber now is not as large as I would like.

 

[leigti]

Just a thought from a person who knows nothing about building things you could cover the top or add heat lights like people above said and to insulate a better just use the pink insulation that comes on a roll and wrap it around and also put a layer underneath of it.

 

[littleginsu]

Maybe there's something you could wrap around it to make it retain enough heat.. Or you could maybe build a box around it will insulation? I dunno much about fabrication, just throwing some ideas out to see if any stick.

 

[littleginsu]

http://www.builditsolarblog.com/2010_09_01_archive.html

This is pretty cool.

 

[G-stars]

Pretty interesting article.

Well since most of you don't think this will keep them warm during winter outside. Then I might just place it inside the garage which is well insulated.

 

[G-stars]

Thank you all for the replies and suggestions. Keep them coming. As always just want to do the best I can for my stars.

 

[WillTort2]

The plastic will work to hold heat but you have to insulate both the sides and the top. To insulate the sides you can bury the stock tank or you can push enough dirt around the sides to provide insulation. For the top you can build an insulated cover that is retractable to allow sunlight and rain for moisture. If you put in a deep substrate, the bottom of the substrate will be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter by transferring the ground temperature of your region.

One idea that might work is to make a connecting chamber either inside the stock tank or beside the stock tank. This chamber can be heated for the winter months and insulated to avoid the heat of the day in summer.

Good luck.