Need help with light mounting in an animal plastics enclosure Please!

[bsshig40]

Ok, so I just got my T100 in. I did order the coasters for this so I can move it around on my shop concrete floor. But I did notice that the PVC panels just seem a little flimsy and I'm thinking of running about three 8 foot 2x4's across the bottom for some better support. My main questions is about lighting. I have a 30" florescent uvb/uva which I can mount no problems. But I am also using Heat emitters and also a couple megaray bulbs. I'm using 660w porcelain fixtures. The megarays get pretty hot and I've measured the temp on the fixtures and they get about 150dg. So this enclosure is made of pvc and I read that anything over 140dg can start warping it. I was thinking of just mounting some boards on the inside at top where my fixtures will go. Do you think that would be ok? The wood is fine on my old enclosure right now with the fixture and bulbs. But I'm worried if having the fixture mounted at the top and my bulb putting off too much heat for the pvc at that distance. Any suggestions?
Thanks for any help!
Bobby

 

[bsshig40]

I guess no ideas here. Lol So I finally did come up with something. I had a small warped corner on one of my panels on my T100. So I got my heat gun out and molded it back. It didn't take a whole lot of heat and I then realized that a 160w megaray is not gonna be able to get too close to this stuff. So I found this rack I had in the shop and mounted a board onto it. It's has about a 6" gap from the board to the top rail that I will mount to the top of the enclosure. The board should hold the heat and work just fine. This is setup for my basking side. I will have one 160w megaray, one 100w megaray and two 75 or 150w emitters on this shelf. I will need all 4 outlets for the winter time. These will be in the first 2 foot section, then gonna place one more outlet at about 4 feet away which will be on one side of the middle support and his 30" florescent uva/uvb on the other side of that. Then another outlet about 2 feet from his cool side. This should give me some good cascading temps. So feel free to offer any better suggestions. Here's a pic of the rack that will be over the basking area.

 

[bsshig40]

Not that it seems to matter, but I figured it out myself! I think I'll stick to tegu talk on facebook. Much more action and info. later!!!

 

[Dylan koch]

Barely saw this post. There is a ton of insulation material you could of used to mount it directly at top of cage without any issues they even make this stick heat type tape that is super heat resistant and they make stuff that's fireproof. But that seems like a ton of heat for a enclosure do you live in a very cold environment?

 

[bsshig40]

Barely saw this post. There is a ton of insulation material you could of used to mount it directly at top of cage without any issues they even make this stick heat type tape that is super heat resistant and they make stuff that's fireproof. But that seems like a ton of heat for a enclosure do you live in a very cold environment?

I actually made bases for all my lights. With the enclosure being 4' high, I needed to get them down some to be effective. So I have the 4 fixtures on the basking side. I have a 160w and 100w megaray and a little 50w light I plan on taking out. That and the other fixtures will have heat emitters. Then I have another fixture approx. in the middle of the enclosure and another about 2' from the end of his cool side. The 2 megarays are putting 115dg on the 160w side and 105dg on the 100w side. The other fixtures are for winter. I also have everything set on timers. He is in my 20'x60' insulated shop, but it still gets a little cold in there in the winter time. My homemade enclosure had a hinged lid but this animal plastics enclosure is screwed down. I wanted to make sure I had enough fixtures in case they were needed instead of having to work inside the enclosure later. So far everything is working great. He is just now getting used to the big glass doors and not thinking I can walk right up on him. Lol