Enclosure advice

[Cpaulc]

Hi All,
New member, first post. Live in the UK, so our newbie is going to be pretty much inside 99% of the time, we will picking up soon so as we are new to tortoises we bought a 'red foot starter kit' but after some research I wasnt entirely happy with the contents for light and heat, so the plan is the following:
10%+ uvb used as daylight with a night to day controller to mimic mother nature.
Red spotlight for the basking area thermostat controlled,timed to go off overnight.
A ceramic heater to maintain the lower overnight temperature, thermostat controlled timed off during day.
Assuming this is ok, my question is placement for the above, I am planning to have the basking lamp at one end obviously and the uvb will run the length of the enclosure, so where would be best for the ceramic heater? As it needs to give a reasonably stable ambient temp I'm thinking it should be mounted in the middle but would welcome more experienced keepers advice.
Thanks for reading

 

[mkp04]

Hi All,
New member, first post. Live in the UK, so our newbie is going to be pretty much inside 99% of the time, we will picking up soon so as we are new to tortoises we bought a 'red foot starter kit' but after some research I wasnt entirely happy with the contents for light and heat, so the plan is the following:
10%+ uvb used as daylight with a night to day controller to mimic mother nature.
Red spotlight for the basking area thermostat controlled,timed to go off overnight.
A ceramic heater to maintain the lower overnight temperature, thermostat controlled timed off during day.
Assuming this is ok, my question is placement for the above, I am planning to have the basking lamp at one end obviously and the uvb will run the length of the enclosure, so where would be best for the ceramic heater? As it needs to give a reasonably stable ambient temp I'm thinking it should be mounted in the middle but would welcome more experienced keepers advice.
Thanks for reading

First of all, thank you for asking.
Below you'll find the slightly revised version of your list.

1: I personally don't have great experiences with red bulbs, as they can make the tortoise eat the substrate all the time. (some people don't appear to have problems with them though, but i'd keep an eye out for it).

2:Get a 5% UVB Tube mounted across the width of the enclosure instead. These tortoises will benefit from the light focused on one part of the enclosure, and they will like having less intense lighting.

3: Ceramic heater in the middle sounds just fine, especially if you have a thermostat controlling the temperatures. You will find information about exact numbers in the caresheets in the Redfoot section.

4: Though they have been known to bask, my Redfoots at least never do it. So no need to get a basking lamp unless you really want to give them the choice (which is fine).

5: Remember to have loads of shade and places to hide in the enclosure. Redfoots especially will enjoy this.

6: This one is more of a question really. But how big is the tortoise and how big is the enclosure? Are you getting more than one?

Hope you could use some of this information!
These are just my personal experiences, so no harm done in waiting for more responses.