Rate my setup

Here is a picture of my setup. Got my first leopard gecko two days ago. I got him in a 20 gallon long tank with an under tank heater reading 92 on the floor on top of the heater. Ambient temp seems to be about 70. I took the light off the top because I heard it's not good. I have vitamin powder in a bottle cap in it. The log on the right is over the heater. The wet hide is in the middle. It has a couple paper towels that I mist in the morning to keep wet. The saucer on the right is for food and the one on the left is for water. The paper towel tube on the far left is because I think he likes it. Substrate is newspaper. The undertank heater is on the bottom of the tank now, not the right. Also, I got an accu-rite digital thermometer for ambient temp instead of the dial one on the bottom of the tank.

Is this sufficient? Are my temps right? It's winter and I live in a house with high ceilings and not many vents so the thermostat stays on 67 in the winter. Am I doing everything right? I feed him about 20 minutes after the sun goes down. He gets about 8 meal worms.

Please spare my feelings if I'm doing something wrong. He didn't eat the first night and didn't come out all day yesterday, but he just got here so I'm not worried too much. I don't know if he ate his mealworms last night but they're either gone or hidden under the newspaper.

Sounds like your on the right track but might want to raise the ambiant temps a bit if you can either with a red light (heat) or another way... my abiant is around low 80's with a overhead heat sore that turns on and off when it hits it's set temp . Also maybe I'm reading it wrong but you said the UTH is in the bottom? Do you mean middle? If so I'd move it to one side so they can go back and forth as needed.

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michael.a.wyton said:

Sounds like your on the right track but might want to raise the ambiant temps a bit if you can either with a red light (heat) or another way... my abiant is around low 80's with a overhead heat sore that turns on and off when it hits it's set temp . Also maybe I'm reading it wrong but you said the UTH is in the bottom? Do you mean middle? If so I'd move it to one side so they can go back and forth as needed.

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The underground heater is on the bottom of the right side of the tank (basically under the log). My reptile store sold me the small one, but I might get the larger one so it'll take up more space (8x12).

I thought that about the ambient temps, too. I was thinking of getting a ceramic heat emitter to see how it'd bring up the tank. Any recommendations? I've heard it'll heat the whole tank, even the cold side but I think with a long and a low watt (probably a 40 watt) heat emitter it'll only do the side I want.

I have a 50 gal glass terranium so my UTH takes up 1/3 of it leaving 2/3 for cool belly temp. As for the ceramic heater I had one that raised my tank completely to almost 100° so I removed it as it just didn't have the desired effect I needed (to much heat). Not saying it will have same effect on your tank but research it first so you don't pay for something you might not have to use.

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Thanks. I'm hoping someone here can recommend a good one to me. I can also put it on a dimmer cord so it doesn't get as hot.

I use either zoo-med or exoterra stuff either ones good

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I ordered a 40 watt heater. I'm hoping if it's too warm I can just back it off the top to lower the temp. I think it's going pretty well so far, though. Although he didn't eat the first night, he ate the next two and he was out when I got up this morning. I think I'll give him a few more days before I try to hold him.

It was about 2 weeks before I would attempt to hold my geckos so they had time to adjust to thier new surroundings

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What are you measuring your temps with?

Do you have calcium supplements as well as vitamins?

I measure the floor temp with a temp gun and ambient temp and humidity with a digital thermometer. He has calcium powder in a bottle cap on the floor and he'll get his meal worms dusted in a multivitamin this weekend.

Should the calcium I leave out have d3 or not?

The calcium you leave out for him should not have D3 in it. You'll need to dust with calcium with D3 about once a week to make sure he gets enough.

One suggestion I have is to fill the space in the tank a bit. Leopard geckos don't like to be out in the open much, so he will feel more comfortable moving around his tank if there is more cover. Other than that I think you are doing fine. =)

Thank you very much. I plan to get him some more hides and probably redo his wet hide so he can get in from the top. Also plan to get tile for the floor pretty soon. Even though I saw him out for about 2 seconds this morning, I feel like that's a good sign. I'm sure they'll need a multivitamin dusting. How often should I be doing that?