Am I doing everything ok?!

[Babypetch]

Yeah I've ordered something to measure the humidity and also ordered some organic bark chips that slowly real ease moisture into the air when they heat up, so when they come I will change it, also in a tortoise table what's the best way to make sure the cool end of the table doesn't get too low I don't want to really use a heat mat as I've read a lot of bad things about them, also what's the lowest it can be at the cool end? Also can I use a coil uvb bulb instead of a strip bulb? Thanks x

 

[Babypetch]

Yeah I've ordered a humidity thing and ordered some organic bark chips which give off moisture slowly as they heat up, also can I use a different sort of uv bulb instead of a strip bulb? Thanks x

 

[ileoyu]

Do not use coil bulb, they are extremely bad. 1. They cause eye problems. 2. They don't provide much uv. I recommend zoomed's powersun 100w mvb. It has everything you need for your tort, uva, uvb and heat. For the cool side, as long as it stays 70 -80f, it's alright. What are your night lows? Also, keep your substrates 4 inches deep, they love digging.

 

[Babypetch]

Sorry what's 70-80f in Celsius? And ok thank u Hun, and at night I let the temps drop to around 19c, also when tortoises bask do they half burrow themselves? Or is he sleeping? He sleeps a lot x

 

[Babypetch]

Also, at the minute I'm using a thermostat to control the temps, if I use that mvb bulb how can I control the temperature with that as I know it doesn't work with a thermostat and I only got a thermostat because when he was in his viv the temperate was over 40c! And I worry this will happen again if I use a mvb bulb and can't control the temperature xx

 

[ileoyu]

70f = 21c, 19 c at night is fine.
As to your question about him staying burrowed, http://www.tortoiseforum.org/index.php?threads/59575/

 

[Babypetch]

Thank u, how do people control the temperature using a mvb?

 

[ileoyu]

They either raise the the lamp stand higher when it's hot or lower it when it gets too cold. You could try that method. I have my bulb like 15 inches above the enclosure and it works well.

 

[Babypetch]

That's a good idea thank u xx