Heating advice for enclosed tortoise space (and basking light + UVB vs CHE + UVB)

[WrinklyTortoiseNeck]

I've built a roughly 4.5 x 5.5 x 2.5 ft enclosure for a possible Eastern Hermann's tortoise in the near future. Half the top is wood with the other being plexiglass. I was hoping someone could give me an idea of how to heat the enclosure with the stuff I already have. I'm thinking of either placing 100W CHEs on one side of the enclosure to create the warmer area. Do you think one or two CHEs would bring it up to roughly 90 F degrees? I have an Arcadia 6% UVB tube already that I plan to attach to the top middle of the enclosure. I know people often use the 12% ones but I have a brand new 6% that the Arcadia website says I can use for Hermann's as long as it's between 12 and 15 inches. I plan to buy the 12% when the 6% stops producing adequate UVB. Should I replace the CHEs with a basking light instead? I don't have one currently, but I'm willing to buy one if the combination of CHE and UVB is not right.

 

[Tom]

There are four elements to heating and lighting:

1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
2. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night.
3. Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in LED bulb types are both fine.
4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. In colder climates, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. I like the 12% HO bulbs from Arcadia. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html

CHEs are for maintaining ambient temps. Since they don't emit light, they aren't suitable for basking.

You still need a basking bulb, and you'll need LED lighting to keep it bright during the day.

The 6% bulb can work, but it will need to be mounted closer, and you'll need a Solarmeter 6.5 to know what it is doing. UV tubes should only run for 2-3 hours mid day, and at that pace the bulb will last for years.

Care info for your species:

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

 

[WrinklyTortoiseNeck]

Would having the basking light on and keeping the blinds open from the nearby windows work for enclosure lighting during the day?

 

[Tom]

Would having the basking light on and keeping the blinds open from the nearby windows work for enclosure lighting during the day?

You'd need light measuring devices to really see if that is adequate or not. Probably fine for forest tortoise species, but likely still too dim for a basking species like hermanni.

This is also likely to cause problems due to the angle, intensity and duration of light in the fall and winter months.

LED ambient lighting is cheap and easy.