Ambient temp not warm enough?

mrsbotero912

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Hello all,
Trying to fine tune my heating/lighting situation. Apollo is a 3 month old Ibera Greek - I've had him just over a month so I'm still adjusting things to get everything where it needs to be. Temps all seemed great at first, but now that the temps outside are dropping, the ambient temp in his enclosure is lower than I'd like it to be. He's in a 2x4 ft wooden tort table with plastic lining to hold humidity (photo attached). MVB (100w) at one end is probably about 8 inches above shell height, and is giving me about 90-95° at shell level. This light stays on for about 13 hours per day. The area around the basking spot is around 80°, but the rest of the enclosure is only about 70° (from what I've read, it should be at least around 75°). The light on the far right is just a simple LED light to light up the other half of the enclosure during the day. Night temps drop to about 64° all over, and he always burrows for the night. Just tried adding a CHE today (I know the clamp lamps aren't reliable, that was just temporary for today & tomorrow to see if it heats things up enough - if it ends being good enough, will definitely mount it more securely), but it doesn't seem to be heating as big of an area as I thought it would - wondering if raising it up higher would allow it to heat a bigger area sufficiently. I've read that covering the majority of the enclosure helps hold the heat in, but since the MVB has to be over an open area, how do you get heat under the cover? Can't hold the heat in if it's not there to begin with!

Thanks in advance for your ideas & suggestions!

img_20191102_195803_edit.jpg
 

Tom

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70 is fine for ambient as long as there is a basking area to warm up in.

Closed chamber is how you solve the "problem" you describe.
 

jsheffield

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70 is fine for ambient as long as there is a basking area to warm up in.

Closed chamber is how you solve the "problem" you describe.

Closed Chamber is a pretty good answer to many of the issues with establishing a stable and healthy environment for tortoises.

Jamie
 
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