Heating advice needed

[TenaciousTegu]

Hi guys,

Don't have my Tegu yet, but Im doing all the prepwork. I have experience with reptile keeping, but not at this scale.
I've build a massive enclosure for him, 2,70*1*1 meter (so 8'10'' x 3'3'' x 3'3'). And I'm thinking about how to heat this.
His enclosure is on an attic which gets a bit on the cooler side (15 Celsius) and the terrarium is made of wood.

So my thought is as follows. During the day for basking I'd use 2x 70W Flood Halogens in a row, that should get his basking temperature up nice and warm. I will use a couple of extra smaller halogens for the rest of the terrarium to up the ambient temperature. So daylight I've pretty much covered, I can mixmatch, add or remove to get allt he temps right, thats not an issue.

My concern is how to keep the temperature up at night.
I have a couple of options as far as I can see:
- Use multiple CHEs or DHPs. Im guessing one isn't enough for this, so I can install multiple on a thermostat for night temps. But Im not sure how to do this, Can I wire them in parallel so I can use 1 thermostat? Or do I wire them individually and use a seperate thermostat for each?
- Turn on the room heater all night. This is a possibility, but costs me a lot of gas and this is really hard to regulate, no easy way to hook up a thermostat, so I don't prefer this option.
- Heating mat? Not sure if this is an option, since it's wood it had to go on the inside. This immediately jumps out to me as a risk. Tegus burrow, so I'd rather not take this risk.

So out of these the CHE/DHP option looks so be the best, only not sure how to wire this effectively.
Would really appreciate some advice on how other people did this. Found other posts regarding heating, but didn't find any advice on wiring or setup.


Thanks!

 

[TenaciousTegu]

No one who wants to share their wisdom?

 

[Debita]

We all use different equipment for different reasons. You're asking one of the more difficult questions to answer, because there's so much trial and error involved. The size you quoted is not considered massive in the Tegu world. What's common is 8'x4'x4'. Yours is not quite that big. Many will tell you that a few inches don't matter - but they are explorers and more space is always better. His/Her bask temp should be 105-110 for a juvenile, going to 110-120 for an adult. Even hotter than that won't hurt, but your basking temp is pretty important because they use it to digest. The cool side of your enclosure should be in the 70's. I use timers and misters, and heat lamps....in the end, you need to get yourself a temp gun (they're cheap) to be able to gauge your timers and and thermostats.

It's not that no one wants to reply, it's just difficult when everybody's enclosures are different. The good news is that I don't know of any products that are simply lousy. For night time....a properly timed heat lamp with do the trick. The heating mat is OK, but again - adds to the overall temp requirements. Some use them, and some don't. I don't, because I've built a hide that my adult male climbs on top of to bask, and a heating mat would just complicate things. I have a hard enough time keeping the cool side cool.

You're going to love it when you get one. Don't forget to look into Rodney Irwin's rescues (tegusonly.com). I've had 2 of them, a male and a female, and my male is a beast. He's 4' long, and after a long settling period, he's just so chill and full of personality...for a Tegu. My female was a beauty - very easy going - Unfortunately, she died a few months ago and I still miss her. It was an accident in the tub, where I think the male inadvertently pinned her under water. Anyway - both were from Rodney. Cheaper than all the stores (I paid $500 for a baby blue a couple years ago from a reptile store, then it got MBD and died). Rodney's prices were much cheaper, he takes good care of his animals. He gave me exactly what I wanted. PLUS!!....it's a great cause to know you rescued them from the new Florida laws that are just eradicating them as if they're a pesty rodent. These are very smart animals. I think it's been a couple years since my male has been potty-trained. They make good pets, once they've settled.

Good luck!!

 

[TenaciousTegu]

Thanks for the reply! I understand the difference in material, but I was hoping someone could answer the wiring questions, that should be pretty common. Fair point on the massive enclosure, I was comparing it to my dart frog paludariums in comparison this is pretty massive. Overall the floorprint of my enclosure is similar to an 8x4x4. Mine is a bit longer, the surface is around the same. If it turns out its too small Ill gladly build him a new one.

Ill definitely do some tweaking before the animal comes. Got a temp gun and some experience heating terrariums.

Thanks anyway, it was helpful

 

[Debita]

Sounds like you know what you're doing. I wouldn't worry about those inches!

Let us know when you get one!!

 

[rantology]

bit late on this but it may be worth shooting the folks at Pro Heat an email to see what the costs of getting a panel for it would be. That way you can just use the two halogens for the bask, and let the panel take care of the ambient both day and night. Then you would just need some LED or T4s for daylight/ plant lights (and the UVB fixture).

 

[Member1421]

Not sure how relevant this is, but depending on where you live your house temp might suffice for ambient night temperatures. My house stays at 70* at night in SoCal and I use no heat at night. I am sure there are people who might have mixed opinions on this, but it naturally gets cool at night in 'most' places and I just don't see a need for the added electricity cost or supplies to give a reptile that survives outdoors in Florida any super crazy heating in the evening hours. Makes finding that hot spot in the morning all the more special. Good luck.

 

[TenaciousTegu]

Thanks guys! Appreciate the answers.
Unfortunately I live in Holland, so the ambient temperatures are too low

 

[Member1421]

Yes, I have two RHPs from Pro Panel for my carpet pythons and they are a very good company to deal with as long as you know the dimensions you're working with and communicate your intentions to them. I believe Bob is the gentleman who runs operations.

 

[Skeep]

I'm a bit late to this thread, but I'm in a situation where the room temperature varies greatly as well. I have a smaller enclosure, under 2x1m, and it's mostly acrylic around which doesn't insulate as well as wood. I put blankets over the top as well, that helped a lot for my setup.

Anyway, after a lot of trial and error, I wound up getting a large radiant panel that covers a significant portion of the enclosure's roof, which is controlled by a thermostat on the cold side. And I have a separate thermostat for the basking area, with the sensor on the hot side. The thermostats support day/night cycles so it works pretty well. And overall it keeps the enclosure a pretty constant temperature whether the room temperature drops to 10C or goes up to 30C.