Setup help.

[Cookiesandcream1.]

We are getting a table made for our russian tortoise. We are looking at 5x2feet, this is in addition to his larger outdoor enclosure. We are going to get an Arcadia Flood Light for basking and an Arcadia T5 12% uvb strip light as these seems like the most widely recommended. Our confusion is with:
1: wattage of the flood light for this size enclosure and how high to suspend this.
2: wattage of the T5 Arcadia uvb strip light (unsure whether to get the 24 or 39 wattage so
that it covers enough area of his table. Any advice on how best to suspend his uvb strip light and how high.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hi!

For the floodlight, your thermometer is going to be the only way to determine the best watt to create that desired basking temperature underneath, I believe the 75watt works for most people, you can try it so it’s at least 10” away from the carapace(top of shell), place your digital monitor under it for a few hours and see what temperature it reaches, if it’s too high, raise the bulb and run the monitor again, if it wasn’t getting warm enough at that distance, I’d try 100watt and go from them, tweak the height the same way and keep doing monitoring until you’re happy

When it comes to overall ambient temperature in the rest of the enclosure, again move your monitoring to the middle and cooler end for a few hrs to see where temperatures sit, you can do the same for your night temperature. If they’re lower than desired(pretty common in our colder weather) this is where ceramic bulbs can come in handy.
Can I ask, do you plan to brumate? Obviously our winters are quite long and cold here in the uk, so if you don’t plan to brumate, a lot of people struggle keeping their ambient temperatures where needed with an open table. Theres lots of different cover options that can help you maintain the heat better, I can add a link if you’d like?

For the t5 wattage, you’ll be fine with 24watts, recommended mounting distance is 18-20”, a solar meter is honestly the most accurate way to determine uv distance, but they aren’t cheap.

I hope this helps!