confused.com!

[molliemoo]

Hi just setting up my Russian for outside living fir the first time post summer. I have all the kit I need but confused what goes where! I have his UV tube, I have both a basking bulb and heat emitter. I believe by asking bulb for day and heat emitter for night. However confusion is I have a microclimate ministat which I'm guessing turns off heat at target point and back on if drops however which bulb plugs into this? And dies it needs to be timed is day Ur night? Secondly which may be answered based on microclimate I also have a reptizoo pid timing thermostat.... What's that for?

Picture enclosed of my confused kitchen island!

Thanks in advance

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hello!

1. You need to connect the ceramic heat emitter to a thermostat and basking lamp to a timer. UVB lamp connects to a different timer.

2. MicroClimate Ministat is rated for 100 watts, so it's suitable only for low-powered devices like heat mats.

3. ReptiZoo PID Timing Thermostat is rated for 300 watts and it's both a timer and a thermostat. It has two sockets: one works as a timer socket and the second socket is controlled by a thermostat.

4. You set the thermostat to the lowest acceptable temperature and leave it running 24/7. This will ensure that your tortoise is kept warm at night or if the basking bulb burns out etc.

5. If you have an adult Russian tortoise and plan to brumate him, usually you don't need supplementary heat: they can tolerate nighttime temperarure drops to 15-17C if they have basking lamp during the day.

Please, excuse me, but I have some bad news about equipment:
1. You have a basking bulb with clear glass sleeve (non-frosted). Very likely it's a spot light. These have narrow, non-uniform heat output and don't work well for any animals and especially larger ones, like tortoises.

2. The double-dome is too deep and too narrow to be effectively used with a ceramic heat emitter. The latter is a non-directed heat source and works best with wide (8-10") domes.

3. The UVB lamp looks like one from ReptiZoo. These lamps have some potential issues with reliability, life span and safety for animals. If it's possible to replace it with Arcadia ProT5 that would be the right thing to do (Swell Reptile has good prices on these at the moment).

 

[molliemoo]

Thank you so much for your comprehensive response.

Just to clarify I can use pid thermostat for both heat immeter in heat socket so stats on constantly based on temp I set. And basking lamp can also go into pid socket but the timer socket so it turns off at night?

So I don't need the microclimate at all?

I'll look to swop out kit you suggested.

Thank you

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Thank you so much for your comprehensive response.

Just to clarify I can use pid thermostat for both heat immeter in heat socket so stats on constantly based on temp I set. And basking lamp can also go into pid socket but the timer socket so it turns off at night?

So I don't need the microclimate at all?

I'll look to swop out kit you suggested.

Thank you

Yes, you can do this and skip the Ministat. Be careful about wattages, though. Thermostat is rated for 300 watts and it's always good to have some spare capacity, so, don't plug a 150W ceramic heater and a 150W basking lamp, 100W + 100W or less, will, probably, work fine.)

If you'd like - post links or pictures of equipment before ordering, so we can check if everything's okay. This technical stuff can be confusing at times.

 

[molliemoo]

Thank you soooooo much x