Help! : Converting to Shower Curtain Enclosure!

Beasty_Artemis

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So I have been struggling with the conditions of my red footed tortoise table for the entire week! It's really taxing on me..... I had my lights inadequately temporarily taped up to my while I calibrated the temps. But while I had my back turned, the tape came loose and my light descended 2 1/2" inches down!!!!! I took Arty's temp and she was 98 degrees. I am so glad that hygrometer was actually taking readings that were too high!!! I soaked her and she never acted aberrant. I feel confident now that nothing bad happened to her internal temp.
I got my digital temp gun and started taking the temps, but my hygrometer seems off by 2 + degrees too high....
So my temps have been too low then....
Her table is an open topped encloser that runs around 2 of the walls of the tortoise room.
I just read advice some other members received regarding adding a cheap shower curtain to create an enclosed container . My open topped encloser is extremely hard to keep the temps in the healthy range. I'm sad. I added the shower curtain to one of the sides , and most of the other side so that the heat lamp could still hang down.
Any advice? Pics? Its soooooooo unsightly. My selfish human greed hates it.
(I'll add some pics here shortly.)
 

Beasty_Artemis

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I'm not sure what the word is for describing the frame I've built to hang all of my lights from....
Is it an armature, a scaffold, or just a frame? Whatever!
 

Blackdog1714

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Hang the light with zip ties please do not use the clamps they usually have. Dont' limit yourself with plain shower liners go bold - 1582566711209.png this was on bed bath and beyond!
 

Beasty_Artemis

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Alright....update:

I'm using the shower curtain temporarily. I forgot to stop and grab some framing yesterday when I went to the store. But by the time i was staring at a 2 × 4 I had redesigned my tortoise table enclosure idea to be alot better I think! I'm going to start adding frames for support and get plexiglass to replace the sheets of plastic.
I'm just torn about the design of an opening door on one of the sides of her encloser. Do I want it to open and lock in place, or use a door design that slides open.....? I knew I needed a redesign.

As soon as I put the shower curtain over the one side that I wanted completely covered, she started behaving very badly! She pushed her humid hide around and climbed the walls trying to follow me around. I have only seen her flip herself once, so I was not pleased. I am very nervous about implementing the closed top container because I want easy access to Arty... so when I go back I'll grab more wood and some hinges ...
Any ideas on the door? Is there a design that should be avoided? I want it to be as safe as possible.

When i first got my tortoise as a hatchling, i kept her in an open topped bookshelf tortoise table. But I got some sheets of plexiglass from my parents that they were going to throw away. But I was just laying them accross the top of my enclosure.... you really dont think very hard about how much a single sheet weighs. Well, one day I shifted the weight on one, and the corner slipped off of the side wall and the sheet feel into Arty's table. The sharp corner pinned the plexiglass up at an angle so it barely missed hitting / poking / stabbing Arty!!!!! But she was still untouched under it digging out from her favorite corner. I have not implemented any plexiglass since then except for in temporary set ups that I make sure to tape the sheet down with duct tape over kill!!!! I feel like a real jerk to this day for almost dropping that plexiglass on her! Be careful when you install that stuff guys....
 

Blackdog1714

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Go with a tented design-A Frame- Screw boards together into an A for each end. Use the Sides of the A for your plexglass/shower curtain. Use the crossmember of the A to run a board across to stabilize the sides and give you something to hang your lights from.
 

Blackdog1714

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As far as feeling bad don't there have been several versions of the Night Box and countless other enclosures. I use a kiddie pool with a 2x4 A frame covered in heavy mil plastic but mine is in the basement so I am worried about fashion not function. When my russian gets old enough he will have a fancy table upstairs that will meet my wife's approval, but until then my current setup allows for spot on temp/humidity controls.
 

Beasty_Artemis

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Well my tortoise room may seem a little claustrophobic. But it's also my little laundry room . It's super hard to get pics in here because of that! I'm reorganizing back here alot whilst I redo my permanent enclosure! I'm going to get wood to make a frame for panes of plexiglass! But spendy to acquire all at once though....
Well, I already had my temporary shower curtain plan. So fo now I'm implementing it but I'm using masking tape to hold the plastic sheets in place.

I made one shower curtain into the cover over the center angle/corner and both of the ends of the table .

Then I used a piece that overlapped those pieces by like 6 inches all around to be a door I can roll up to hold open when I'm needing access to Arty!

On the other angle of her table, I'm leaving the plastic top open so I can have her heat lamp and her UVB light there.
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Beasty_Artemis

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It's hard to get a good pic where you can see the plastic door closed. It works good so far.....
20200225_193539.jpg20200225_193612.jpg
 

Beasty_Artemis

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Also ordered myself a cute aluminum red foot tortoise sign to decorate my final product.
I had ordered a different design from a different seller 3 months ago but it never arrived.....sad.
The new one I'm ( hopefully !) getting , is bigger and cooler anyway.
 

Blackdog1714

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Well my tortoise room may seem a little claustrophobic. But it's also my little laundry room . It's super hard to get pics in here because of that! I'm reorganizing back here alot whilst I redo my permanent enclosure! I'm going to get wood to make a frame for panes of plexiglass! But spendy to acquire all at once though....
Well, I already had my temporary shower curtain plan. So fo now I'm implementing it but I'm using masking tape to hold the plastic sheets in place.

I made one shower curtain into the cover over the center angle/corner and both of the ends of the table .

Then I used a piece that overlapped those pieces by like 6 inches all around to be a door I can roll up to hold open when I'm needing access to Arty!

On the other angle of her table, I'm leaving the plastic top open so I can have her heat lamp and her UVB light there.
View attachment 286920
View attachment 286921View attachment 286922
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If you have the lights under the plastic then controling the heat/Humidity is easier. You have enough room put another crosspiece in so that the lights would not touch or be too close to the plastic. A good greenhouse effect.
 

Beasty_Artemis

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I'm surprised that only one shower curtain went such a long way! If I had grabbed 2 more I wouldn't have opened them yet.
 

Beasty_Artemis

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A framework for a set of bunk beds is still present on the walls above Arty's current table set up. That is what I am using to affix my plastic shower curtain to . Her table is constructed using the original framing from the bottom bunks, which I then expanded!!!
 

Beasty_Artemis

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I'll put in some framework and gradually evolve the shower curtain material into sections that are enclosed using plexiglass at my discretion.
The plastic sheeting is actually looking pretty good - even WITH all of the unsightly masking tape holding the temporary enclosure together .

Just now, I had one of my old pieces of plexiglass leaning against my wall. My service dog went over and laid down right next to it, and it fell on him...!!!
I really must advise people to make sure to permanently affix your plexiglass panels to your tables! Mabey using hinges. I've had had more than one close call in the past, not just that super scary story I posted, relating to falling plexiglass panels during my early tortoise table build.
Be safe! Negligence is murder.
 

Beasty_Artemis

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Can anyone offer me any suggestions on affixing the plastic shower curtain to the new
wood A frame I'm adding? Staples seem kind of dangerous.....
But how did other members have success?
 

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