Broke my old enclosure... Time to build a new one!

Hiya everyone,

So, I um. Dropped my previous enclosure. Down a flight of stairs.

Yeah, it's wrecked.

Luckily I still had Guac's old tank, so he can happily chill in there kinda indefinitely until I can afford to build a good enclosure again (moving in with my SO for the first time - we burnt most of our spending cash on the safety deposit, furniture and car repairs/upkeep). It's a bit small for him, but considering he gets full run of the reptile room (I have a reptile room now, guys! ) for 1-4 (usually 2) hours a night I'm not too worried about it.

While I am very upset my old enclosure is donezo, this is a great opportunity to re-make his enclosure with the lights and heart source I want to use in mind from the start! I have a new table I bought at a garage sale that's PERFECT for building an enclosure that will fit on it, though I don't have the exact dimensions right this moment... It's roughly 60 inches long by 20 inches wide, I think. Will edit the true values in here later.

What I really want help with and why I am posting here, though, is because I want help figuring out how to do the lights. Like, how to actually build a terrarium around the UV and heat sources. I, uh... Well, I really struggle with figuring that business out, and previously I just went through a bunch of posts here until I found something that made sense and did what it said for my UVB.

The exact UVB bulb I'll be using is the T5 HO 10.0 bulb in This Setting. I was using a different one, but, well. That broke. I would also think I want to install both a heat light and a CHE on the inside of the enclosure (with wire protectors, of course) so that I can have a bit more control regarding heat output, especially at night (turn on the CHE in particularly cold weather).

Can someone with a bit more experience tell me if/how they've done this in the past? I am particularly worried about finding and installing a socket for the CHE, as well as figuring out where/at what height to put the UVB.

Thanks in advance!
-Ellen

Hey Ellen,

Congrats on the move! How exciting. We have a second bedroom that was supposed to be for future kid 2... but I'm filling it with creatures I think I'm winning on the whole reptile vs baby room

In regards to your question, firstly the uvb.
The t5 is suitable if your tank is going to allow for the basking surface to be 12-18 inches away. 12-15 is a better range. I wouldn't use a t5 mounted inside unless you're planning to build your tank at least 24" tall. That way you can make sure to have a shortwave uv gradient down to 0 on the far cool end.

So basically mount your t5 on the ceiling of your enclosure, and provide a basking surface that allows the dragon to get in a range of 12-18 inches of it. This allows them to pick their exposure level.

In regards to mounting the light sockets, there is a recent thread in the diy section on this. I'll try to link to it but I'm on mobile right now so it's a bit more cumbersome than on my desktop.

Good luck with your build I'm sure guac is gonna love it!
And good luck with the life changes!

-Brandon

light fixture questions

Here is the thread I mentioned.

-Brandon

Hey Brandon,

LOL! Me and my SO are no where near children, since we've only been dating a little less than a year (have known each other for 3 or 4 years, total), but part of the reasons we really hit it off was because he always wanted a pet reptile growing up but his parents never let him get one. We're looking into practical turtle species because a turtle was his dream pet, in fact... I'm pulling for a stink pot, but if he wants something else I hardly have much of an argument against one inconvenient pet when I have more than 20 (depending on how you count insects and such).

Regarding the UVB - makes sense to me. What I've done in the past was essentially have an oversized basking platform that covered maybe 50% of the "bottom floor" from light... Do you think that would be acceptable if I can't quite get that 24 inches? I think I will be able too, just curious. Alternatively, would you mount it over a screen/mesh section? I tend to use wide "chicken coop" mesh when I can as opposed to the fine stuff the tops of most tank lids are made out of... I'm not sure how much it would really reduce the UV.

The fixture thread helps so much. I've also managed to cow-tow my old man into helping me with this a little next time I see him, so that will be a tremendous help, though that will be in a month or so.

Thanks!
-Ellen

Are you planning on having a mesh top or a solid top?
I would say 24 inches is ideal, but down to 18 tall would be ok as long as the tube is only half the length or so of the enclosure. That will allow for a gradient also. Multiple ways to do it, it's just whatever works best for you. Youd probably want a secondary light source on the cool end if you did it that way.

You should be able to calculate the effect any mesh has on blocking output based off of open area (between the mesh wires) and blocked area (the wires themselves) but with chicken wire I'd consider it almost negligible.

-Brandon

Regarding the CHE, what I did was re-purpose one of the red-bulb heat lamp sockets I bought in my ignorance when I got my first beardie, Otto. It's ceramic and should be fine with the heat. The main things to consider are making sure the socket is heat-resistant, able to handle the CHE's wattage, and protected so that it can't catch anything on fire/burn your little friend.

I suspended mine by a chain from a metal frame that sits atop the aquarium so I could adjust position & height, and have it on a thermostat that cuts it out at 30* C, which I've found is good enough to get the basking area up around 40*C when combined with his basking lamp.