felix27
Member
Hi,
40-gallon tank (Exo Terra large-wide)
5-6 month old beardie
basking spot is 2 large grapevine logs combined to slope/cave underneath for hide
Is there a specific way to deal with enclosure temps when there is a heat wave? I switched to a 125w MVB a few weeks ago and finally had a pretty good location/distance for basking, with the cool side/cave under the basking spot in the low 80s during the day and in the low 70s everywhere after lights out. But in Portland our temps jumped from the mid 70s to a high of 96 today, going down to low 70s tonight. It's supposed to cool down by the end of the week (74/55).
So my question is, what can I do to help adjust my beardie's enclosure to these high temps? He was just hanging out on the floor or in his cave once it heated up outside, he didn't want to eat, and looked just plain miserable. I ended up turning off the MVB and using my reptisun 10.0 tube light and adding a 40-watt for basking in the far corner to try and keep extra heat from the cool side. I took him out and kept him with me at the computer while I worked (I do transcription from home) so he wouldn't bake while waiting for the temps to establish
He spent the rest of the day at/near the basking spot, which was the same temp as it had been before.
I'm still trying to learn the art of the heat lamp, and getting a temp gun has certainly helped a lot. But it also made me spiral into a whole new set of questions, the most confusing being do I consider my beardie a surface? Surface temps go up depending on how close they are to the bulb, and if the basking spot is, say, 105 F, won't the surface temp be higher on the surface of the beardie since it's closer to the light? I really feel like the more I learn, the more confused I get.
Anyway...sorry for the rambling, I really just wondered if anybody has ideas on how to keep the enclosure temps stable during a heat wave!
40-gallon tank (Exo Terra large-wide)
5-6 month old beardie
basking spot is 2 large grapevine logs combined to slope/cave underneath for hide
Is there a specific way to deal with enclosure temps when there is a heat wave? I switched to a 125w MVB a few weeks ago and finally had a pretty good location/distance for basking, with the cool side/cave under the basking spot in the low 80s during the day and in the low 70s everywhere after lights out. But in Portland our temps jumped from the mid 70s to a high of 96 today, going down to low 70s tonight. It's supposed to cool down by the end of the week (74/55).
So my question is, what can I do to help adjust my beardie's enclosure to these high temps? He was just hanging out on the floor or in his cave once it heated up outside, he didn't want to eat, and looked just plain miserable. I ended up turning off the MVB and using my reptisun 10.0 tube light and adding a 40-watt for basking in the far corner to try and keep extra heat from the cool side. I took him out and kept him with me at the computer while I worked (I do transcription from home) so he wouldn't bake while waiting for the temps to establish
He spent the rest of the day at/near the basking spot, which was the same temp as it had been before. I'm still trying to learn the art of the heat lamp, and getting a temp gun has certainly helped a lot. But it also made me spiral into a whole new set of questions, the most confusing being do I consider my beardie a surface? Surface temps go up depending on how close they are to the bulb, and if the basking spot is, say, 105 F, won't the surface temp be higher on the surface of the beardie since it's closer to the light? I really feel like the more I learn, the more confused I get.
Anyway...sorry for the rambling, I really just wondered if anybody has ideas on how to keep the enclosure temps stable during a heat wave!
