Warming up the cool side

gr8pets

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Joined
Nov 28, 2016
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6
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Texas
Hello,

What is the best way to raise the cool side temp of Yoda's enclosure about 5 degrees? It's currently about 75 degrees on the farthest end. He's in a 55 gallon. I have a 125w Solar Glo bulb on the warm side, with a 100w CHE in the middle. With the CHE on all the time plus the Solar Glo bulb, the warm side stays between 90 to 95, and about 100 in the basking spot. At night with just the CHE on, it's about 80 degrees on that side (I'd like to bring that temp up, too).

I keep the tank covered. The left half has a glass cover which would make it hard to scoot the CHE down that way. The right side, I have to cover with aluminum foil to get over the light fixtures, which stick out the top a little bit (they hang from stands). Humidity has been a challenge, but by covering with the foil and frequently adding water to his Eco Earth substrate, I have managed to keep humidity around 70%. He also has a humid hide and sometimes he just digs down a little into the substrate which helps keep him even more comfy. Once our few weeks of winter (in Texas) pass, the humidity will no longer be an issue.

I'm thinking of maybe a low watt bulb in a fixture sitting on top of the glass cover. Any ideas? I don't want too much, because it just needs to come up about 5 degrees down on that far side, and I don't want to raise the daytime temp on the warm side. Would a long UVB bulb on that side help at all? If not to raise the temp, would it be beneficial to add one of those anyway just for the added UVB on that side?

Unfortunately I am at work right now, so can't post any enclosure pics. I got Yoda on 11/26/16. Not sure how much he weighed then, but when I got my scale on 12/10/16 he was 45 grams. Now he's 65 grams. I am feeding him chopped grasses mixed with some spring mix, greens, and twice a week mixing in Mazuri (I have both kinds and alternate), or ZooMed grassland tortoise food which I soak in lots of hot water to make "gravy" and mix that with his chopped foods. I add calcium 2x per week and he has a turtle bone which he largely ignores. And I am currently growing some desert tortoise seed mix in a window greenhouse, so hopefully he will like that until the weather is nice enough to give him some grazing time outside.

And do I need to keep adding Reptisafe to his water? I add it to bathing water, drinking water, spritzing water, and to the water I pour into his substrate. I don't see anyone else mentioning that they do this, so I feel kind of silly...

Thanks!

Christi
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
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Changing it only 5 degrees will be tough, unless you use a thermostat, which I highly recommend. I would add an second CHE and then run them both on the same thermostat. Put the probe for the thermostat on the cool side away from the heat sources. The thermostat will automatically turn your ambient heat on or off as needed and prevent over heating, while preventing any wasted electricity too.

Here are two that I like, use and recommend:
https://www.lllreptile.com/products/13883-zilla-1000-watt-temperature-controller
https://www.hydrofarm.com/p/MTPRTC
 

gr8pets

New Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2016
Messages
6
Location (City and/or State)
Texas
Tom,

That's worth a try. And thank you for posting links! One of the hardest things I have found with a new tortoise is finding the light fixture that works with the bulb, which works with the thermostat. I do have a Zilla stat, but it doesn't work with my CHE/fixture combo, so I'm not using it. I think I need to try a new fixture that doesn't have a dimmer.

Christi
 

gr8pets

New Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2016
Messages
6
Location (City and/or State)
Texas
An update. Shifting everything over didn't work, because the warm side temps came down. So I ordered another CHE for the cool side. But it turns out, my new Zilla thermostat must be bad, or I'm using it wrong, because it never turns on the CHE. I tried the CHE without the stat, and it works great. It's a lot hotter than my other CHE which is the same wattage...So, this weekend I'm going to try putting the old weaker CHE on the cool side, and using the new hotter CHE on the warm side at night, which should be about right. And I guess I'm in the market for a new thermostat, or figure out what I'm doing wrong with the Zilla (same one that Tom linked above).

Thanks for the input!

Christi
 

cmacusa3

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2014
Messages
3,191
Location (City and/or State)
Bixby
Thank you! I just ordered one, and it will be delivered Sunday. :)

Christi
No problem, I still use my temp gun on occasion but this makes it easy to walk by and make sure everything is still working
 

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