new lighting help

[Kirin]

I did some work on Sheldon's lid and lights. Before there was about a 3 in space that wasn't closed, which I covered with foil. It sucked so I made it completely closed with some new wood.

So the lid works great, love it! I had the coil bulb for uvb and a heat bulb for basking, but stopped using coil one. I would take him outside everyday instead. Now I bought the powersun so only needing one bulb instead of two. My question is the powersun is the 100 watt and the basking spot with the lid closed reads 111 degrees. With the lid open it reads 105 degrees. Is it to hot for him when the lid is closed? Or will he be fine? I'm worried about him getting burned by the bulb.

 

[Tom]

111 won't burn him. He will likely stay out of the middle of the beam and hang out around the edges. However, its hotter than it needs to be and might contribute to dryness. If you can't raise the bulb, you might consider a different strategy, like a lower wattage flood bulb and a florescent tube for UV.

 

[mikeh]

How big and tall is this enclosure? What is the temp on the cooler end? How close is the bulb to the ceiling? Power sun runs HOT and may heat up the entire closed enclosure to very high temps, depending on size.
(Placing this bulb too close to the ceiling of the enclosure could be a fire hazard)

 

[Kirin]

Cooler end is 80 degrees. He is sitting in one of his favorite spot right now.

The bulb is 12 in from bulb to ground.

This spot is under the bulb

---

With the new lid the humidity now stays at 75-83%.

 

[mikeh]

That looks fine to me. As long as he can't flip himself under the hot spot he will maneuver around to thermo regulate. If you are still concerned about the hot spot being too hot, you could drill few holes right above the MVB and move it another inch higher.

 

[Kirin]

Thank you. I'm feeling better. I love my little one and never want anything but old age to happen to him. Thanks again.

 

[mikeh]

Another tip on the humidity, you could mist the tank in the evening before lights out. This will hold the humidity at night higher. So even if the daytime humidity drops to 70% range, the tort will still get 10-12 hours of 90% range at night which mimics the nature.

(In your closed chamber a night time heat cable snaked across the back wall would work nicely and keep the humidity way up not drying it out, unlike CHE.)