Almost done - vents, lights, heat

[Mombo]

Ok I'm almost done with my 8x4x3 enclosure. Drylock is drying and the rails are going in next. Tegu hopefully coming in two weeks.

Do I need vents? If I do how many do I need? I have a hole saw so I could do 1 or 2in holes at different areas.

Are the holes for controlling heat or letting fresh air in?

For lights my plan is to use those hard wired ceramic sockets. Anyone have any experience with those? Can they be mounted directly to the wood or do you need to cut a hole out above them?

I'm going to start with 1 halogen fixture above the basking area and a 4 foot reptisun.

Do y'all think I'll need another fixture in the middle for heat? Ambient temp in my house is between 68 and 74. Ceramic heat emitter or another halogen?

Do I need heat at night?

My plan is to add more halogens to the basking area as he grows or I need more heat on the hot side.

Will I need a weaker halogen on the cool side to keep it lit during the day and provide some heat?

 

[Mombo]

Need some help on these. Really the vent stuff.

Also for a water tub we found a 7 gallon mixing tub in the building section of lowes. It's plastic. Not sure if that's safe for a tegu or not. I know some use a cat litter box but I'm not sure if all the plastic stuff is on toxic.

 

[Brinven]

My understanding is that the vents are kind of both... I put 2 in the back of my enclosure and of course the light holes in the top. Seems to keep temp pretty well, although this is literally day 2 for me on the big, non aquarium style enclosure. Yours is about twice the size of mine though, and Im just hitting the temps I want to see with 2 160w UVB Mercury Vapor bulbs (at about 24-25" above the "floor"). I'm planning on adding a lot of rock, probably slate, to elevate his basking spots a little higher. I've got multiple hygrometer/temp gauges at various points in the tank and I'm spot checking his basking areas with an infrared thermometer... you want a good gradient across the enclosure so they can go where they want and get the temps they want. 70ish is good nighttime temps.

Learning is half the fun, right? LOL

 

[Mombo]

Haha ya endless fun

I was going to use one of the ceramic fixtures for lighting but then I found one of those metal outdoor fixtures with adjustable heads on it. So I can center up my light and even if my basking spot changes / gets larger over time I will be able to change the light position easily and aim it where I want. It only holds up to 150w per bulb but I wasnt planning on using MVB bulbs so I should be alright.

I read somewhere that walmart carries a dual temp/hygro digital reader. I was going to head over that way and look for a couple of those myself.

I guess getting the heat just right is going to be some trial and error for me. I guess ill start with my 2 halogens and see what it does and add more if I need to.

 

[Brinven]

I use these from Amazon : https://www.amazon.com/Happy-Pet-Th...rds=Happy+Pet+Super+Wireless+Mini+LCD+Display Cheap but reasonably accurate (head over to a cigar forum if you want a dissertation on how inaccurate 99.9% of hygrometers are ). But they are close enough and give you a solid idea. The provided sticky tape is pretty strong, strong enough that my tegu used to use them to pull himself up the tank a bit and never had an issue... not sure how well they will work on DryLok (peeling them off the glass ruined the tape). Im looking for another solution now. Worst case I might just screw a scrap piece of plexiglass to the wall and stick it to that.

Edit : Fixed the link

 

[Mombo]

I've decided to put the dual halogen oven to the left side where my basking spot will be so I can aim them at the rock I'm using to get even heat acrossed it. Then I'm going to install the ceramic fixture I got in the middle but not put a light in it. I'll just have it there installed so if I need to add something for more heat I can in the future. See how winter goes.

As for vents I've decided to put 2 2in holes on the lower right (cool side) and 2 2in holes on the upper left (warm side) and see how that works out.

 

[Mombo]

On that thermometer you linked. Does it read in F or just C? Half the reviews say it only reads in Celsius.

Also it appears to not have any wires or anything with a probe on it. So it's just a stand alone unit that goes inside instead of having the unit on the outside and running a wire into the enclosure correct?

 

[Brinven]

mine are F... im betting there is a Celsius version though... and yes, self contained little things (run on watch batteries). about 1x2 inches. I just stick them to the wall at various points. Easy peasy

Oh and they come in black and white... I guess the white would "blend" in better with drylock, but mine are black and look fine.

 

[Mombo]

I tinted my drylock so it is gray now so both would stick out haha. No big deal though.

 

[Brinven]

LOL I hear that, Im using a bioactive substrate, so mine will probably end up slightly greenish