Enclosure help

[RandyTortoise]

I went to a farm supply store and bought a thick plastic farm animal watering tub. It is super huge. Then I just built a wooden table structure and cut a huge hole in it, dropped in the tub, and presto, instant tortoise table! Cheap and looks great!

 

[COmtnLady]

RandyTortoise - we need pics! Especially if you did before, in progress, finished product. Also tell us costs and other detils.

 

[hollym]

Another question about the lights. This is how we have them set up right now. Any thoughts or concerns with how it’s setup? Besides the mess of cords!! Gotta sort that once I’m happy with where the lights are.

The black light closest to the UV is set for 95-100 F. The other black hanging light is 75-80 F. They’re both flood bulbs. The light hanging structure isn’t final yet either, left it flexible till we knew it was what we wanted.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hello!
1. I'm not sure how beneficial are two basking lamps with different temperatures. I would place both alongside the UVB lamp, without a thermostat control and adjusted to provide temperature 95-100F.
2. This could be a perspective of the photo but it looks like the heat lamp dome blocks significant part of light from the UVB lamp. The easy fix is to add some space between UVB lamp and the basking lamp dome. A bit more tricky is to add space and tilt a basking lamp dome a bit (~10 degrees angle). Here is the example: https://tomaskas.co.uk/what-is-uv-shadow-and-how-do-i-avoid-it/

 

[hollym]

Thank you. The pic does make it seem like they’re on top of each other and they’re not, but it’s still probably shading the UV. I’ll move the light to the end of the UV. There isn’t really space to move it over more.

I don’t know why I have them different temps. Suppose I thought one was basking and one was just to warm things a little. I don’t think I quite understand how I should be using lights.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Actually, it's a good idea for rising daytime ambient temperature using a basking lamp like you do (I simply didn't get the idea, sorry).

However, maybe it would be better to lift the dome higher (to increase heated area) and not to use a thermostat.