ANOTHER Night Box Thread...

Tom

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night box looks great! my husband is in the process of building ours. have a few questions: are the heat mat and RHP both plugged into the thermostat, do you have any type of substrate inside the box and just curious as to why you have the thermostat inside a baggie? our box is 4x3x2 and for a 2 yo sulcata.

1. Yes. Both the RHP and Kane mat are plugged into the same thermostat.
2. I've tried hay, dirt and orchid bark. It all get "soiled" and has to be changed.
3. I keep the thermostat in a baggie to protect it from my dusty dirty environment.
 

samsmom

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1. Yes. Both the RHP and Kane mat are plugged into the same thermostat.
2. I've tried hay, dirt and orchid bark. It all get "soiled" and has to be changed.
3. I keep the thermostat in a baggie to protect it from my dusty dirty environment.
OK then let me ask a stupid question: if there is not any substrate inside for samson to "dig" in then he would just keep scratching the walls and then get splinters?
 

Tom

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I don't think that is a stupid question.

I went with no substrate for years and mine don't dig or get splinters.
 

Tom

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I think you will be amazed at how little electricity you will need now. Run it for a while and let us know please.
 

samsmom

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I've re-read this thread several times but don't see where you mention the vinyl door strips anywhere. where did you get the vinyl?
 

Jtort

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I've re-read this thread several times but don't see where you mention the vinyl door strips anywhere. where did you get the vinyl?

Some have bought it at Home Depot and others at Walmart in the fabric section. I will be buying some from Home Depot this week. I'll post the SKU once I buy it.
 

Tom

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I've re-read this thread several times but don't see where you mention the vinyl door strips anywhere. where did you get the vinyl?

I got it from a really awesome tortoise lady I know. It came in a 100' roll and its the heavy duty stuff they use in commercial freezers. You could probably find it on line.
 

Amanda81

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I see on this box you used a heating pad thing. I'm redoing an old storage shed for the Sudans for them to stay in over the winter months. I have been scoping out those oil heaters as many people have suggested. What size heater would I need to heat the shed? I'm going to construct a box inside the shed after I insulate the shed and the actual box area that they will sleep in will be 5'wX8'lX3't. What size wattage wise I guess. The descriptions on them aren't really saying what room size they heat or anything. I found some that said 500watt, 1500 watt, etc.
 

Amanda81

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I got it from a really awesome tortoise lady I know. It came in a 100' roll and its the heavy duty stuff they use in commercial freezers. You could probably find it on line.
The manager at the local Lowes was nice enough to cut me some off a roll they use in their own maintenance department. Course he made up a price and charged me for it but that was fine cause we seriously could not find any anywhere. That's y one of the Sudans new name is Jeff. Lol.
 

ksanchez

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I did it again. :)
And I'm going to keep doing it too! :D

Here is the latest night box. Its similar to the others, but I wanted to show more of the electrics involved and how I use them. I made this one for my two returning Gpp females. I gave these two girls to a friend in 2010 and he raised them. They both turned out to be female, while most of mine are male. He offered to give them back to me in the hopes of producing some babies in the future. They will live alone for a couple of months for quarantine and fecal exam purposes, but then they will join the other girls.

Here we go...

Here is the almost finished box showing the yet uncovered insulation inside the walls.
3310ths.jpg


@Tom thank you for another great post with lots pictures and details shown. I am going to use some of what I learned making my first box in addition to some of your ideas.

Here is the assortment of equipment going into this box:
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The heat mat and radiant heat panel have been mounted here, as has the shoe box that will hold all the excess wires.
s5vm6v.jpg




Here you can see all the cords and the thermostat all hooked up and stuffed into the shoe box. You can also see my thermostat probe hanging on the wall on the "cool" side. Notice the "drip loops" on the cord coming in to the box and inside the box. More on that later.
s1kkk5.jpg




Close up of the shoe box:
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See how nice it looks with the cords all contained? :) Notice that drip loop again...
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A wider view of the whole thing. In this one you can see my GFI circuit that I'm plugged into:
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Here is that "drip loop" that I keep talking about. I learned this back in my early aquarium days. You see, water runs downhill. Amazing right?! In the event of an earthquake or other aquarium splashes, the idea is that if you have a "loop" so that your cords always run downhill first and then uphill into your outlets, water will not be guided into your outlet. Instead it will come to the bottom of the loop and drip down to the ground harmlessly. I did one outside this new tortoise box and inside, just to be safe.
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Here it is open for business.
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In my excitement I forgot to get pics of the new inhabitants. I'll get some pics and post those later.
 
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