Theo.tortoise.lover.7
Member
You've gotten great tips from Ramsey. I wanted to chime in with a few thoughts too.
Hope these things help!
- In my opinion, a 2x4 will be a big waste of time. You'll be building another one in 6 months. If you go 4x8, it will last until your tortoise is large enough to live outside full time.
- I've had no luck using plastic liners. They don't last under tortoise feet. I recently used Pond Shield for the first time and love it. I also want to try the counter top paint Mark recommends.
- If you are going to spend the money on indoor UV, use a hood. It greatly increases the effectiveness of the bulb you buy.
- 5.0 bulbs are a waste of money and produce hardly any measurable UV. Regular 10.0 bulbs work, but must be mounted 10-12 inches away for the tortoise to get a little bit of UV. The newer T-5 HO bulbs are the way to go. I prefer the Arcadia brand, but the ZooMed ones work too.
- I you decide to skip the UV bulbs because your climate allows you to use natural sunlight all year, you should put in a HO florescent tube in the 5000-6500K color range, with a reflector hood, to brighten up the enclosure during the day.
- You should not need a humidifier in a closed chamber. If things are drying out in there, it means you have too much ventilation and all your warm humid air is escaping.
- I no longer think MVBs are the way to go. They run too hot for a closed chamber, they frequently burn out prematurely, the cause tremendous desiccation to the tortoise's carapace, and one of our vet members here says that he was checking them with a UV meter and they were only making UV for about 3 months, even though the bulb still lit up and appeared to be working. I suspect some of the European remote ballasted, lower wattage ones might still be useful, but I haven't tried them myself to verify this.
- Sliding doors are a pain in the rear! I intend to use hinged doors on future builds.
I can't thank you guys both enough! I will definitely use the doors with hinges and invest in the better reflector hood. My only remaining question now is, will tiles work on the inside? And also, could I use the glass from my 20 gallon aquarium? What way (up, down, or out sideways like french doors) should the doors open. I am definitely going to make two doors on it no matter the size. Thanks again!