ralph's (the red foot) indoor terranium enclosure 18x18x24

[tertle]

Hi everyone!

This is ralph's tank so far. Ralph is under 4". weighing 75-77 grams and this is his enclosure.

I am aware of how much space they need, i'm just using an old tank on hand for now, probably for the next 3-6 months max at which time Ralph will have his own table or a tank with the biggest surface area i can find

so anyway let's start!

this is the first day... cyprus mulch and a generic llightbulb... no readers or anything else, not even a mister. I tried a diy mister, failed so miserably but i made sure for the first 24-36 hours he was well moist and happy.. notice the suran/plastic wrap at the top of the tank in an attempt to keep my unknown level of humidity lol

ralph! is it normal how his head is totally colorless?

in one corner i made him a humid hide.. just a plastic container of rice pudding cleaned out, he really loves it

got fake plants, a 'bonsai' money tree which i'm going to try and maintain current size, a new shallow water dish

and finally today, everything came in from amazon...
I picked up a 2600 lumen 40 ish watt bulb for the plants.

in the back corner there is an MVB bulb, i used it for 12 hours, but the minute i turned it off, it blew on me!? can anyone tell me why? The ceramic socket is rated for 150watt and the bulb is 100... no idea why it broke going to have to replace it..

i also got a reptile fog machine which has been doing a very nice job keeping the humidity around 88-99 depending on the hour of the day, temperature varies between 80-90F around the tank, i added in top soil, 2 hygrometers, 3 thermometers and a che. the substrate is about 6" deep, i keep pouring in water every other day (directly to the bottom of the tank) so that the heating cords can heat the water..

in the very back of the tank is also one of those reptile housing with a ramp on top, theres a very large area behind that digital hygrometer that ralph loves to hang out around

anyway thanks for reading, sorry for the disorganized blob of texts, and the sub-quality photos (taken from my ipad) I'm hoping you guys can take a look at his enclosure and tell me what i should change, from here, i'm going to try and add more real plants (probably try and grow some aquarium plants in the high humidity environment, taiwan/christmass moss?)

 

[Vishnu2]

First let me say he is handsome! And congrats! He really is stunning. Is there any reason you can't build the big tortoise table now the more the better. But, as you said you already know that. Does he go outside at all?

 

[tertle]

First let me say he is handsome! And congrats! He really is stunning. Is there any reason you can't build the big tortoise table now the more the better. But, as you said you already know that. Does he go outside at all?

i'm finishing my last semester of school, my room isn't too small and I probably can put in a tort table but I really don't see a point in establishing something so big only to have it cause moving issues later

Not since I've gotten him has he gone out, which is why i had the mvb bulb

 

[ascott]

What a cute little

I like the set up...it will work for the time frame you are talking about and if you are using that screen top you may want to adjust it some so that the mvb you are using (or will be when you replace it) will actually be able to go to the enclosure (as the screens block out a significant amount of uvb) and your enclosure is 24 inches tall right minus the 6 inches of substrate= 18 inches from the light to the surface of the substrate? so check on your manufacturers set up to assure that you have it at the right distance to offer the correct rays...

If you are able to take him out a few times a week for at least 30+ minutes of supervised natural sun time he will greatly benefit from that...also, what night heat source are you using? With the high humidity you will want to assure that your temps (even at night) never fall below 80 degrees...or you can end up with a sick tort....

Also, his coloring on his head is good....