Watt?

[tortgirl123]

As I've mentioned in my previous thread; I went to petsmart yesterday. I asked one of the employees there what wattage I should use for a baby greek... She looked at me with the blankest face I've ever seen. She just said, " 60? " so with that, I ask you, what watt of UVB and basking bulb should I get?
Yesterday I bought a kit that had a 20 gallon tank ( don't worry only for a month or so ) it had a day and night bulb, two domes and some sort of liner to go under the substrate.
I bought this not being able to trust what bulbs were in the kit:

It was cheaper than buying both separately. I just want to know, is it safe to use? Will it cook my tort?
This is the kit

Here's the enclosure all set up ( no substrate and the light aren't on. And obviously no tort yet.)


The same employee advised me to get Repti Safe. She said that reptiles can die of contaminants in tap water. I tried it in a bowl of water, it didn't make it smell or turn blue. So safe???
Here is more of what I bought:


Just want to know the wattage and if I've been classically fooled by the pet store! Thx for reading!

Btw any of my Fort Worth ( TX ) friends; there were two Greeks in a freakishly small enclosure ( maybe 10 gal. ) at the Petsmart in Watauga it was sad, wish I had enough money to buy them both.
Thanks for everything! You guys are great!!!

 

[Cycere]

Its the same in rowlett. Breaks my heart to see the tiny enclosures :/

 

[TortieLuver]

I really like the 100 w Powersun. I don't think 60 is warm enough. As long as you don't like your house super cold, you don't need nighttime lights.

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm sorry to say that your pet store employee has caused you to spend a lot of $$ that you didn't need to spend, and then more $$ on stuff that is the wrong stuff.

Unless you mount that UV bulb horizontally, it will harm your tortoise's eyes. If you mount it in one of the bell-type reflectors you show in your picture, that would be a vertical mount, and it will harm his eyes.

Your aquarium is not big enough. You show a picture with all the stuff you bought in the aquarium, and there's no room for the tortoise. He needs to be able to wander around and not have to walk through all that furniture. It would be much cheaper to buy a big plastic tub from a home improvement store.

That huge waterer is for snakes and lizards. When a tortoise, who has a hard shell and no 'bend' to his body, tries to climb out of that waterer, he may get over balanced and tip over backwards into the water and drown.

The cuttle bone, timer and scoop are fine.

But you don't need Reptisafe.

I buy 100 watt bulbs. Its quite easy to either raise the bulb or lower the bulb to make it warmer or cooler in the habitat. And speaking of that...you don't want to set your bulb on a wire lid because the wire filters out the UV rays. Plus, you can't raise or lower the bulb if you use a wire lid as a bulb holder.

Please take that kit back to the pet store and get your money back. You can do much better by buying the articles individually.

 

[tortgirl123]

I'm going to get a different water bowl; Tera cotta thingy. I'm also going to try and move things around to open it up a little bit. Unfortunately I can't take it back, the box is already gone in the recycling. I'll just have to make do with what I have. Like I said the glass is only temporary.Thank you for all of the replies

 

[Tom]

I wouldn't use that UV bulb at all. I'm not convinced they are safe in any orientation. If you get your tortoises some occasional sunshine, you wont need indoor UV. They can do three week stretches in winter with no UV with no problems, as long as they get plenty of sunshine the rest of the year. All you need is 30 minutes two or three times a week as a minimum, but more is better.

Ditto on the water bowl, but it sounds like you are already on top of that one.

The wattage of your bulb doesn't matter. The temperature under it does. If you put it close enough a 30 watt bulb will work. If you put it far enough a 300 watt bulb will work. Get your thermometer probe and put it under the bulb. You want a basing temp directly under the bulb of around 95-100.

Please click on the first link in my signature. It will help you.

 

[milkandsam]

This is almost exactly what I did too!!! Except I started out with a 10 gallon. I ended up exchanging the coil bulb for a mvb (I got the power sun 100 watt) and I just have the heat bulb laying around in case I need it later. Good luck! I think it's crazy how easy it is to get incorrect equiptment... Super irritating too! Glad you are planning ahead!!