Lighting/Heating for a Large Enclosure

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Animalia

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Most of you have probably already seen my post about building a large indoor enclosure for my elongated tortoise, Tulip. But as I have never even had proper lighting or heating to begin with (she came with a 60 watt incandescent bulb) I am not sure how to approach this. My house temperature inside is usually between 63 degrees Fahrenheit and 77 degrees Fahrenheit. The indoor humidity is hard for me to judge, but probably less than 20% in winter. We do run an evaporative cooler in the summer time which raises the indoor humidity in the summer but still not enough for a tropical tortoise.

The enclosure is about 4ftx8feet with 2 ft high sides all around. We are planning to build two 4ftx4ft hinged lids for the top made from Plexiglas (perspex).


I know that she is a forest tortoise and so will appreciate little to no direct light, but I will have plants in there so I figured they would benefit from a grow light. I tried to choose plants that do well in partial to full shade so I don't need bright or strong lighting. On the other hand, I want to be able to see what I am doing in there too.

Heating is my other main concern. I am assuming ceramic heaters will be the ideal choice. Would one on either side seen sufficient (with larger wattage and output) or would they do better in the middle with temperature gradient going out to either side?

Humidity should be more controllable with the lids, plants, and large water dish.
 
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