Need a little bit of help.

Mrs Toonz

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@Mrs Toonz I was thinking about you situation, your heat and humidity is escaping so you need to close the enclosure some how, it looks a good enclosure so you don't want to dismantle that or have to start again. Why don't you add an apex on the open area, made of wood with a perspex front on hinges. Could even use a plastic sheet for the window with some creative thinking. This way you can hang the heat sources from the apex too. Also it will save you money on electricity because your not loosing the heat all the time.
Whats in those 4 holders.
A quick sketch to plant the idea.
View attachment 205878
Thank you so much sounds totally workable! I am heading to work right now but when I get back home I will send mesurments and wattage but I can tell you I have 3 heat ceramic coils in the black domes and also a uvb bulb that shines on them from a distance for 12 hours a day
 

Mrs Toonz

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What size is this enclosure and how big are your tortoises. They look smaller than I first thought.
The trouble you will have with an open enclosure is it will only be warm enough under the heat sources, anywhere else is open to the room temperature, also it will be a constant battle to keep the humidity up.
You need to find a way to cover your enclosure some how. So you get an ambient temperature and a stable humidity reading.
Also those clock face type readers are not very accurate. You could do with some digital temp and humidity readers.
You could also do with some more cover in there so they feel secure. I go to the local woodland and gather up some of the forest floor, full of dried leaves, twigs and other debris. You can then create a forest floor that will act as a micro climate, full of worms,slugs,snails and woodlice etc. Keeping everything moist.

Mine rarely eat greens in any quantity.
I feed fruit, mushroom and weeds, most of the time weeds are left over, I tend to leave the weeds in the enclosure, I've noticed they seem to eat the them at 3 days old or so if they are going to eat them, I've also caught them eating dried leaves.
3 times a wk I feed worms, slugs or snails with mushrooms, the other 4 days is a mix of fruit/mushroom and weeds. So for example when feeding protein I literally make sure each tortoise gets 1 big juice slug, or I put a pile of worms in.
Spray them and the enclosure daily, they come to life when sprayed down.
I also have been told to fully clean (take out all dirt and replace) tank every month. Is this correct because I have been reading through other posts that say 6 months or 2 months.
 

Anyfoot

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Thank you so much sounds totally workable! I am heading to work right now but when I get back home I will send mesurments and wattage but I can tell you I have 3 heat ceramic coils in the black domes and also a uvb bulb that shines on them from a distance for 12 hours a day
Ok. We need to know the size of enclosure to estimate the amount of wattage you will need. What type of UVB bulb are you using. Is it a compact cool type? Are your ceramic heat emmitters on thermostats to control the temperature.
 

Anyfoot

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I also have been told to fully clean (take out all dirt and replace) tank every month. Is this correct because I have been reading through other posts that say 6 months or 2 months.
Load of rubbish. Once a yr at the most if everything is set up right. What you don't want is stagnant water in bottom layers of substrate.
 

Mrs Toonz

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Yes it is a compact uvb. And no not on a thermostat but I see from previous posts that I need to update my technology when it comes to the thermostats and humidity gauges I will be doing that this weekend. But I click one off one of them at night to drop the temp to lower 70s at night
 

Mrs Toonz

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Load of rubbish. Once a yr at the most if everything is set up right. What you don't want is stagnant water in bottom layers of substrate.
Oh OK good to know and I have a mix of top soil, eco earth, coconut coir and ash moss all around trying to trap in moisture.
 

Anyfoot

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Yes it is a compact uvb. And no not on a thermostat but I see from previous posts that I need to update my technology when it comes to the thermostats and humidity gauges I will be doing that this weekend. But I click one off one of them at night to drop the temp to lower 70s at night
When you close your enclosure off the temperature will get very hot without a thermostat. With a thermostat your ceramics will probably only be on for about 50% of the time as it kicks on and off to control the temp.
 

Anyfoot

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Oh OK good to know and I have a mix of top soil, eco earth, coconut coir and ash moss all around trying to trap in moisture.
You can mix it if you want to get air in there. I don't bother. A top layer of bark,leaves,sticks and spaghnum moss traps the humidity in the coir. (This creates a micro climate). You want pillbugs and worms in there too. They will eat scraps of food and poop.
On a daily basis you need to spot clean, so remove unwanted food and any poop. Also put in fresh water daily.
 

Mrs Toonz

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Ok. We need to know the size of enclosure to estimate the amount of wattage you will need. What type of UVB bulb are you using. Is it a compact cool type? Are your ceramic heat emmitters on thermostats to control the temperature.
5ft length x 3ft wide x 22 inches deep is the enclosure and i have it lined with a pone liner. Substrate is around 3 inches deep.
 

Anyfoot

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Substrate is a good depth for now. Adults will need about 5 or 6" depth. You can just put some dried leaves and other debris on that substrate.
Personally I would have 2 x 150watt CHE's in there for heat and a small UVB strip light instead of that compact. I'm not familiar with those double lamps holders you are using. You need to make sure the wattage rating on those lamps holders is at least the same as what your CHE's are. So for a 150watt CHE the lamp holder wants to be minimum 150w rating.
Also same for your thermostat, they also have a wattage rating. Even cheap ones usually have a rating of 300w though. For example you can't plug 500w of CHE's in a 300w thermostat.
 
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