work in progress

Yellow Turtle01

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I wish all coir was so moist! :D
Is the blue lid supporting sprouts? Looks great. Wish I could plant sprouts :(:D
 

naturalman91

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looks great but i'd suggest getting rid of the circular gauges as they arent accurate and buying a acurite digital gauge that's what most of us use you can get them at walmart or most places with a garden center
 

Heather H

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looks great but i'd suggest getting rid of the circular gauges as they arent accurate and buying a acurite digital gauge that's what most of us use you can get them at walmart or most places with a garden center
thats funny i just removed them. on the right is the digital probe with temp/humidity. I have 2 one for the entire enclosure one for the hide. thank you
 

Heather H

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so i covered the tank last night. I want to see what the heat and humidity will be with no lights. The heat stayed around 68 f, the humidity is around 28 %. I am going to get a better covering for the top. I will see if the humidity goes up after I put lights in. I am almost ready to get a baby :) just need to tweek a few more things. little dots all over the tank are seeds. My son helped me planting and they went everywhere. lol
 

Heather H

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@Tom @Carol S @kanalomele @HermanniChris I tagged you guys so you can see if my set up is good for a baby. I can still do changes since there is no baby in it. When I do get a baby I want the set up perfect. I will work on the cover soon. I can't leave the house. There is too much cold white stuff and the roads are horrid. i am going to mess with the lights today. to see what the temps and humidity go up too. Thanks guys :)
 

Tom

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Looks good. I see a few things I would work on:
1. Looks like you need to hand pack your substrate down.
2. The glass marbles are okay for a baby, but be careful they don't get swallowed by a bigger tortoise.
3. The glittery fake plant on the left makes me nervous. Mine would probably try to eat that.
4. I'm sorry, but you are going to need to replace those light fixtures. The plastic "bakelite" ones you got won't hold up under all day every day use with hot bulbs. You need to get ceramic based fixtures and don't use the clamps they come with to hang them. Those clamps always fail. When they do fail, best case is a broken bulb in your tortoise enclosure. Worse case is your whole house burns down. Hang them securely from above and be carful about it. Check them all and watch them closely at first for any sign of trouble.

Hide, sprouts, water dishes and substrate all look ideal.
 

Heather H

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Looks good. I see a few things I would work on:
1. Looks like you need to hand pack your substrate down.
2. The glass marbles are okay for a baby, but be careful they don't get swallowed by a bigger tortoise.
3. The glittery fake plant on the left makes me nervous. Mine would probably try to eat that.
4. I'm sorry, but you are going to need to replace those light fixtures. The plastic "bakelite" ones you got won't hold up under all day every day use with hot bulbs. You need to get ceramic based fixtures and don't use the clamps they come with to hang them. Those clamps always fail. When they do fail, best case is a broken bulb in your tortoise enclosure. Worse case is your whole house burns down. Hang them securely from above and be carful about it. Check them all and watch them closely at first for any sign of trouble.

Hide, sprouts, water dishes and substrate all look ideal.
thanks Tom. the glittery plant is real just wet. no fake plants at all. I have 2 ceramic based fixtures. one large one small. Have a 100 watt heat/uvb. planning on making a light holder. just cant figure it out yet. ive looked at many threats about it. i want a baby so thats the enclosure I am trying to achive. :)
 

kanalomele

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Hi Heather Hilliard! I had noticed the same things as Tom so I would say definitely pay attention to those things. My other recommendation is to pick up a temperature gun. The probe sensors are fine but temperatures are critical. Especially for a baby.
 

Tom

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I have 2 ceramic based fixtures. one large one small. Have a 100 watt heat/uvb. planning on making a light holder. just cant figure it out yet. ive looked at many threats about it.

Are the two fixtures under your sprout shelf for something else? Those are the ones I was referring to.

I hang my fixtures from over head by the cord. I use rubber coated cup holder hooks and I zip tie the cord to them so they can't slip. We've had electricians on the site say not to hang them by the cord and instead hang them with light chain from the fixture. Full disclosure so you can't sue me if you hang them by the cord and something bad happens. I've been hanging mine by the cord for decades. Nothing bad has happened yet.
 

Yvonne G

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I hang mine by the cord too. I tie a knot in the cord leaving a tiny loop, and hook the loop over a cup hook in the ceiling. The length of the cord and where you tie the knot determines how high or low the light ends up.
 
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