Does my set up sound okay?

[ChurroTheTort]

Partner has been researching torts for years and we’re finally getting a 1yr old Hermann.
We live in the UK.

Set up:
- vivarium
- coco coir substrate
- infrared basking light 100W
- UVB light (T5) with reflector
- Humidity-triggered fan

evo connect 3 thermostat - have had it on for a few nights to monitor temps overnight.
- basking light @ 92F for 12hrs during day with slate below it
- temp at cooler end is around 75-80F while basking light on
- Temp 71F overnight when basking light off
- basking light triggered to come on if hits 65F (is infrared so ?ok to be on overnight if too cold)
- humidity was around 60% before putting coco coir in but put coco coir in today and now is ~65-75%
- Fan triggered to come on if humidity >65%

Does all this sound okay?
So many different opinions on temps and humidity is stressing me out!

TIA

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello and welcome! How exciting for you guys🐢💚

It can be a minefield out there when it comes to research. This forum has the most up to date info from keepers around the world. Many have spent years perfecting their care for the best long term results.
Most other sources are repeating same old outdated information, some sources have a mixture of both good and bad which makes it all the more confusing. I’d save yourself the headache, if you have any questions feel free to ask them here, they’ll always be someone along to help🙂

When you say infrared, do you mean one of those red heat bulbs? They aren’t appropriate unfortunately, day or night.

For a basking bulb you want an incandescent floodlight, I’ve attached an example.

For night heat during colder months you’ll want a CHE(ceramic heat emitter) they’re non light emitting heat bulbs, tortoises need complete darkness day&night. Any ceramic bulbs will need to be ran on a thermostat.

Humidity for babies needs to be 80+, which is impossible to maintain with an open top, closed chamber set ups work best. Your new arrival only being 1 would benefit from the humidity being higher to help aid in nice smooth growth

Your uv is good, what brand are you using?🙂basking temp directly underneath could do with being just a few degrees higher.

This thread is useful to read through

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

I made this one not too long ago that covers set up, equipment, levels etc, feel free to check it out🙂

Housing young Russian/Herman

Hello there! In this thread, I’m going to include some information on an effective way to tackle a starter set up/a way you can build a bigger size once your baby is an adult. I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to break down any information...

tortoiseforum.org

Also having a look through this one will hopefully help with what bulbs to avoid👍

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Any further questions, please ask away, they’ll be others along to help advise with anything too😊

 

[wellington]

Along with above, no fans. With thermostat and the right set up you should not need a fan, besides it can make a baby sick unless you were using it to blow heat out, it should not blow in.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Along with above, no fans. With thermostat and the right set up you should not need a fan, besides it can make a baby sick unless you were using it to blow heat out, it should not blow in.

Completely missed the fan part! Thanks for pointing that out🙂

 

[ChurroTheTort]

Hello and welcome! How exciting for you guys🐢💚

It can be a minefield out there when it comes to research. This forum has the most up to date info from keepers around the world. Many have spent years perfecting their care for the best long term results.
Most other sources are repeating same old outdated information, some sources have a mixture of both good and bad which makes it all the more confusing. I’d save yourself the headache, if you have any questions feel free to ask them here, they’ll always be someone along to help🙂

When you say infrared, do you mean one of those red heat bulbs? They aren’t appropriate unfortunately, day or night.

For a basking bulb you want an incandescent floodlight, I’ve attached an example.

For night heat during colder months you’ll want a CHE(ceramic heat emitter) they’re non light emitting heat bulbs, tortoises need complete darkness day&night. Any ceramic bulbs will need to be ran on a thermostat.

Humidity for babies needs to be 80+, which is impossible to maintain with an open top, closed chamber set ups work best. Your new arrival only being 1 would benefit from the humidity being higher to help aid in nice smooth growth

Your uv is good, what brand are you using?🙂basking temp directly underneath could do with being just a few degrees higher.

This thread is useful to read through

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

I made this one not too long ago that covers set up, equipment, levels etc, feel free to check it out🙂

Housing young Russian/Herman

Hello there! In this thread, I’m going to include some information on an effective way to tackle a starter set up/a way you can build a bigger size once your baby is an adult. I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to break down any information...

tortoiseforum.org

Also having a look through this one will hopefully help with what bulbs to avoid👍

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Any further questions, please ask away, they’ll be others along to help advise with anything too😊

Thank you so much! Really appreciate your detailed response.
We’ve both been trying to research but info varies so widely it’s hard to know what’s right and want to do what’s best for our tort. We have ferrets too so we know how much misinformation there is about less-common pets.

1. Lighting
So we did originally get the 100W ProRep basking bulb (https://www.reptilecentre.com/produ...t-bulb-bc-bayonet?_pos=2&_sid=8bbf61276&_ss=r) but when we messaged the breeder about getting the tort they asked a few questions and they said the UV light (Reptile Systems eco T5) would be enough light/UVB and that we should have the infrared light instead? Which I’d never read about when researching. On the one you’ve posted I see it does say infrared too so maybe they just weren’t totally clear that it should be the ceramic one rather than the red one.

Is that basking bulb okay?

2. Heating
So 95-100F for basking temp?
What would you say is an okay lower limit for overnight when the basking light is off?
(I’m assuming during winter swapping the basking bulb for the ceramic heat emitter bulb to ensure it doesn’t get to cold?)

3. Humidity
Good to know! It is sitting 75% just now and was worried that was too high so had the fan on.

At what age would you say to lower humidity? When they’re fully grown?

4. Fan
Worried about airflow within the vivarium so thought a fan would be useful but is it best just to go with the 4 vents that are already in it?

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[ChurroTheTort]

Hello and welcome! How exciting for you guys🐢💚

It can be a minefield out there when it comes to research. This forum has the most up to date info from keepers around the world. Many have spent years perfecting their care for the best long term results.
Most other sources are repeating same old outdated information, some sources have a mixture of both good and bad which makes it all the more confusing. I’d save yourself the headache, if you have any questions feel free to ask them here, they’ll always be someone along to help🙂

When you say infrared, do you mean one of those red heat bulbs? They aren’t appropriate unfortunately, day or night.

For a basking bulb you want an incandescent floodlight, I’ve attached an example.

For night heat during colder months you’ll want a CHE(ceramic heat emitter) they’re non light emitting heat bulbs, tortoises need complete darkness day&night. Any ceramic bulbs will need to be ran on a thermostat.

Humidity for babies needs to be 80+, which is impossible to maintain with an open top, closed chamber set ups work best. Your new arrival only being 1 would benefit from the humidity being higher to help aid in nice smooth growth

Your uv is good, what brand are you using?🙂basking temp directly underneath could do with being just a few degrees higher.

This thread is useful to read through

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

I made this one not too long ago that covers set up, equipment, levels etc, feel free to check it out🙂

Housing young Russian/Herman

Hello there! In this thread, I’m going to include some information on an effective way to tackle a starter set up/a way you can build a bigger size once your baby is an adult. I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to break down any information...

tortoiseforum.org

Also having a look through this one will hopefully help with what bulbs to avoid👍

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Any further questions, please ask away, they’ll be others along to help advise with anything too😊

I will have a good read at the articles tomorrow also thank you! Sorry if my questions are answered in them.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Thank you so much! Really appreciate your detailed response.
We’ve both been trying to research but info varies so widely it’s hard to know what’s right and want to do what’s best for our tort. We have ferrets too so we know how much misinformation there is about less-common pets.

1. Lighting
So we did originally get the 100W ProRep basking bulb (https://www.reptilecentre.com/produ...t-bulb-bc-bayonet?_pos=2&_sid=8bbf61276&_ss=r) but when we messaged the breeder about getting the tort they asked a few questions and they said the UV light (Reptile Systems eco T5) would be enough light/UVB and that we should have the infrared light instead? Which I’d never read about when researching. On the one you’ve posted I see it does say infrared too so maybe they just weren’t totally clear that it should be the ceramic one rather than the red one.

Is that basking bulb okay?

2. Heating
So 95-100F for basking temp?
What would you say is an okay lower limit for overnight when the basking light is off?
(I’m assuming during winter swapping the basking bulb for the ceramic heat emitter bulb to ensure it doesn’t get to cold?)

3. Humidity
Good to know! It is sitting 75% just now and was worried that was too high so had the fan on.

At what age would you say to lower humidity? When they’re fully grown?

4. Fan
Worried about airflow within the vivarium so thought a fan would be useful but is it best just to go with the 4 vents that are already in it?

Thanks again for all your help!

No problem at all! So for your uv light, far as I’ve been told, that brand of uv if fine to use so no problems there, I do suggest you get some ambient lighting to go on the same timer as your basking bulb. Reason I say this is you only technically need your uv on a separate 4 hour timer, you’ll see so many places telling you 12hours uv, it’s an old rule that has stuck with most keepers, it stems from the fact that it’s assumed once the basking light is on, ie the ‘sun’ that uv must coexist for the same amount of time, fact is though the uv rays only peak for a few hours a day, no tortoise is blasted with 12hours of uv in the wild, therefore it’s not necessary in captivity, save your bulb life🙂

There was potentially a mix up with the wording, it can get confusing, the floodlight does have infrared light but it’s different from the red heat bulbs, that floodlight you’ve included in your response is the right kind👍

Mount the basking bulb the one end and have the uv mounted near it the same end, then I’d hang a LED in the middle for some ambient lighting.

Yep 95-100f directly under the basking bulb, a temp gun can come in handy when making sure you’re getting the right height for that.

The night temps you mentioned you’re getting previously sound fine(the 70 range)

For the Ceramic bulb(the non light emitting one) no need to swap the bulbs during cooler spells, still keep the basking light for during the day. You can mount the ceramic one in the middle, set it to the night temp on your thermostat and place the probe in the corner of the cooler end, the thermostat will turn that bulb on and off as needed, no need for you to worry about doing that yourself, it’ll simply make sure your enclosure is never getting too cold🙂

Don’t worry 75 isn’t too high, you’ll actually want it a bit higher whilst they’re younger, so no need for the fan. Usually around the age of 3, you can start lowering humidity to around 50% for these guys, but it’ll depend on their growth rate, they all differ

No need to worry about air flow either(this used to be something I wondered about too) no enclosure is air tight, and opening up to do daily husbandries is more than enough air exchange, you may actually find covering those vents will boost the humidity to where you’re needing it.

Happy to help🥰