roof mounted

[Michaelm1990]

so i finally got round to using my time off work to do something productive and mount all the lighting and heat mat on the roof. seeing how much cleaner and spacious the tank looks makes me mad i waited till now lol.
This comes ahead of a lighting upgrade and a decor upgrade to keep things intersting.
here are a few before n after pics.
hopefully tomorrow will be more of the same and he will have a nice new looking viv


BEFORE

After

 

[CooperDragon]

It's good to have everything overhead. The heat mat may not be of much use on the roof as it doesn't radiate much heat though. How far is your UVB light from the basking spot? You may want to consider adding a reflector behind it to help direct more of the light down over the basking area depending on the distance. With a reflector you can get some excellent UVB output at about 12'' from a T5 tube.

 

[Michaelm1990]

Its practically on top of it and spans most of the tank which is good as hes really active and runs around crazy so has uvb al.ost everywhere he goes.
Its a t5 dragon lamp 14% UVB so it covers the tank and then some without the reflector, I will be adding one in the near future tho
I have also just put in all my new decor including a live plant so will upload a picture soon of the new look when i have uploaded the pics to my dektop

 

[CooperDragon]

The T5 14% is a new bulb and incredibly powerful from what I've heard. You may consider not using a reflector in that case. I don't have test results from it yet but I've heard it should be mounted a bit further away than the 12% which makes it ideal for very large enclosures. Using a Solarmeter would help determine proper distance for sure but I'd at least ensure he has plenty of shady areas where he can get away from the UVB if he wants to.

 

[Michaelm1990]

Yeh oys mounted as far away as possible I.E the roof haha
Maybe i wont get e reflector then. I was of the understanding the more UVB the better but there must be a limit.
Yeh he has a dew hiding spots he likes to chill under in there

 

[CooperDragon]

They can tolerate pretty high UVB levels in the wild but I try to shoot for a happy medium in the relatively small enclosures they're in during captivity. 3-6 UVI reflects morning and late afternoon UVB levels in portions of their natural habitat so I shoot for that. It's important to give them options just as with the heat so I try to create a gradient with the UVI in the basking area between 3-6 and areas in other parts of the tank with very low or no UVB so they can move about and choose what they need at a given time.

 

[Michaelm1990]

Ahh i see. He seems to have figured out what works for hom with the setup so he seems all good and is quite good at moving about to get what he needs and what he doesnt need etc