Grow house for torts?

[Andy27012]

I am long overdue for upgrading my aldabras housing and am getting ready to get a group of five hatchling redfoots as a future breeding group that I plan on moving into my aldabras current housing. My question is are the indoor growing houses acceptable to use as a tort house? It is cheaper for me and more user friendly to use an indoor grow house vs an outdoor greenhouse with a tarp. I understand that these units are considerably taller and will require more heat but they are built imo to better handle the requirements of Mr. T the Aldabra I currently own. They have bars designed to hang lighting that will work great, the model I’m looking at has a plastic tray for the floor and is 8x4x6 feet. Normally these units run 2x what I can get a greenhouse and tarp for but they are running an amazing deal currently. If anyone has experience using these type of grow houses or can think of reasons not to use them please let me know.

 

[Yvonne G]

I am not familiar with 'grow houses.' Can you post pictures?

 

[Andy27012]

This is the exact model I am looking at. it holds humidity and heat more efficiently than a traditional green house.

 

[Yvonne G]

Wow! Will they be in some sort of container in there? That looks great for RF tortoises!

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

think of reasons not to use them please let me know.

Probably one con is having less insulation than expanded PVC enclosures. And then there is the heating extra height, like you said.

 

[Andy27012]

Probably one con is having less insulation than expanded PVC enclosures. And then there is the heating extra height, like you said.

I agree with you, but the lead time is zero and the cost is much less than a comparable pvc enclosure. This unit is on sale for 295 (reg 595) vs 1000 minimum for a pvc up to 3500. This will hopefully be the last enclosure until he gets moved outside.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

There some members who use them (e.g. https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/c...-for-grow-tent-enclosure.217231/#post-2134598).

As far as I read, there are two issues with such tents: lack of large viewing pane (most tents have only small "peek" windows) and "strange" dimensions. However, with a large tent (e.g. 8x8) extra height isn't bad at all - maintenance is much easier if you make an island in substrate for yourself. If you'll notice that heat loss is significant, you can add some foam insulation sheets from the outside (e.g. XPS which is really cheap). Perhaps, it makes sense to put some thick insulation sheets right under the plastic tray.