Indoor enclosure help

[Kori5]

Hi . This is our hermann indoor enclousure my boyfriend built for our tortoise. It is 225*150 cm. It is for overwintering purpose because he spends his summers in our garden. Substrate is coconut coir which I water but humidity is a problem because it is placed in bedroom with heat on. He has a 10% uvb lamp and a heat lamp.Temperature is 25C and under heat lamp 32C What should I put under the coconut to increase the humidity? Please help with ideas and say if something is off because he is a little sleepy so I'm doing what I can. Also, It was evening when the photo was taken so it looks a little dark. Should I place my clip lamps further away one from another? .

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Can you post what type of bulbs you are using?
I would also cover a good portion of it to keep in some humidity and then place a screw into the clip-on part of the lamps to secure them and make 100% certain that they stay in place.
The light holders ARE rated for the wattage of the bulbs being used, correct? (They look like light fixtures for a desk and not intended for heat or high wattage.)

 

[Kori5]

This is his uvb. It is former reptil glo 10.0 compact. His heat is a 50w spot lamp reflector. Lamps are pretty sturdy and the uvb one is for 50w and his is only 25w. They are well secured, heat one is new but I will secure them more .Are they maybe too close or should I add another one?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

There have been many, many injuries to tortoises eyes due to compact florescent bulbs.
Darn, I had a feeling from the color of the light that you had one.
I would stop using it and replace it with either an MVB or a CHE with a fixture capable of handling the extra heat.

 

[Kori5]

Really? . Because I think he doesn't like it either, sometimes I have a feeling he avoids it. Is there something else I could use considering my 50w lamp because student budgets aren't that hight for a completly new setup :/!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

As long as you have your heat within range, a smaller 50ish watt UV bulb would work. In fact, I use them sometimes. That and a strip florescent.

 

[Kori5]

Can you post a picture or a name of a brand so I can look it up on amazon/ebay ? I don't want to blind my tortoise :/.

 

[Kori5]

Will this work? If I understood, I need to stay away from the coil type. This one is from ebay, it says full spectrum.

 

[Tom]

You need different fixtures and lamps.

Spot bulbs are not good because they concentrate too much heat in one small area. You need 10-11" hoods and you need flood bulbs to make a much larger basking area. Which wattage you need will depend on many factors and only your thermometer can tell you if your bulb is warm enough and close enough. You can make a simple 2x4 frame over head and hang your light fixtures from it. This will make sure those clamps don't fail and burn your house down and it will also allow you to adjust the lamps up or down to get the correct temps.

For UV you'll need either a Mercury Vapor Bulb, or a long tube type florescent bulb.

Your basking area needs to be closer to 37C. 32C is a good overall ambient temps for the warm side of the enclosure during the day.

 

[Gillian M]

Hi . This is our hermann indoor enclousure my boyfriend built for our tortoise. It is 225*150 cm. It is for overwintering purpose because he spends his summers in our garden. Substrate is coconut coir which I water but humidity is a problem because it is placed in bedroom with heat on. He has a 10% uvb lamp and a heat lamp.Temperature is 25C and under heat lamp 32C What should I put under the coconut to increase the humidity? Please help with ideas and say if something is off because he is a little sleepy so I'm doing what I can. Also, It was evening when the photo was taken so it looks a little dark. Should I place my clip lamps further away one from another? .

Love the enclosure. And hope your tort does too.

A very warm welcome to the forum.

 

[Kori5]

Thank you all . I'm going to buy a uv tube from Arcadia or Sylvania reptistar as my vet suggested those. We made a health check this friday due to his lack of apetite and lethargy. She took blood and made a complete test, a fecal sample and a x ray. Everything looks fine but he has some worms so was given panacur. The eating problem is probably his inner clock telling him to hibernate which he is used to and maybe husbandary related so I'm trying to fix this.