10-20 gallon Debate

[firecracker]

Do you use tanks or tubs?

I use a tank.

What size setup do you have?

A 20 gallon long.

How many leos do you keep together (if at all)?

Just one.

What is you opinion on the topic of 10 gallon v.s. 20 gallon?

I'm still new to the leo world so I'd rather not say.

Can you show pictures of your 10 gallon?

Nope, can't do that as I don't have one.

How do you maintain a "proper" temperature gradient?

Oh, that's easy. Hubby does it for me.
(We have an UTH, digital thermometer, and heat lamp)

Do you use a lamp for your 10 gallon?

Nope. Again I don't have that size tank.

 

[tonyperkins203]

Do you use tanks or tubs?

I use a tank.

What size setup do you have?

A 20 gallon long.

How many leos do you keep together (if at all)?

Just one.

What is you opinion on the topic of 10 gallon v.s. 20 gallon?

I think one leopard gecko should be housed in a 20 gallon long minimum. It is large enough to achieve a very good temperature gradient, allows plenty of room for a cool hide, warm hide, moist hide, and water/food dishes, and gives the Leo plenty of room to move around.

Can you show pictures of your 10 gal?

I don't have one.

How do you maintain a "proper" temperature gradient?

I use an under tank heater, that is connected to thermostat to keep ground temps at 90 degrees.
I use a CHE, that is connected to a thermostat to keep warm side air temps at 85 degrees.

Do you use a lamp for your 10 gallon?

Don't have a ten gallon.

 

[Embrace Calamity]

I think one leopard gecko should be housed in a 20 gallon long minimum. It is large enough to achieve a very good temperature gradient, allows plenty of room for a cool hide, warm hide, moist hide, and water/food dishes, and gives the Leo plenty of room to move around.

Aren't 20 long aquariums just awesome? I love mine.

~Maggot

 

[CanadianGirl]

Do you use tanks or tubs?

Tank

What size setup do you have?

20 gallon

How many leos do you keep together (if at all)?

My one and only spoiled little man

What is you opinion on the topic of 10 gallon v.s. 20 gallon?

Previously I've used 10 gallons and not had issues with it, I managed to score a free 20 gallon though so I figured why not give him extra space?

Can you show pictures of your 10 gallon?

Don't have any pictures of my old setup unfortunately

How do you maintain a "proper" temperature gradient?

I used to use a heat lamp with a probe thermometer to keep track of temperature, but I recently switched to a UTH with a dimmer, probe thermometer, and a back-up heat lamp for really cold nights. I love it.

Do you use a lamp for your 10 gallon?

Yes, I did.

 

[LurancyVenom]

My tank is 24ins x 12ins x 16ins (60cm x 30cm x 40cm) and I was wondering if anyone knows how many gallons this is...
(I'm UK based and don't understand gallons. :/ )
Thank you


1.0.0 - Leopard Gecko

 

[Lavodnas]

Lurancy, here's a good link to get the gallons based on measurements. Yours would be considered a 20 gallon "tall" or "high"

Aquarium Sizes and Weights Chart

 

[favrielle]

My tank is 24ins x 12ins x 16ins (60cm x 30cm x 40cm) and I was wondering if anyone knows how many gallons this is...
(I'm UK based and don't understand gallons. :/ )
Thank you


1.0.0 - Leopard Gecko

A 10 gallon is 20" wide, 10" deep, and 12" tall, approximately, with a floor space of 200 square inches.

A 20 gallon LONG is 30" wide, 12" deep, and 12" tall, approximately, with a floor space of 360 square inches.

Assuming your tank is a 20 gallon High, which it sounds like, it should have approximately 288 square inches of floor space. That's more than a 10 gallon, but less than a 20 gallon LONG. Think floor space, not volume...

I wish I could remember where I saw it so I could link to it, but I once saw a video with a set of custom leopard gecko enclosures that were the same footprint as a 20L, but had only about 8" of vertical height including screen top. It seemed like a really neat idea.

 

[LurancyVenom]

Thank you guys.
It is tall, but has 3 shelves for him to climb on too. (Although I'm too scared to allow him onto shelves 2 and 3...)



1.0.0 - Leopard Gecko

 

[Nooon]

Wood/glass terrarium, 120x50x50 cm = 47x20x20 inches
1 leo
heating mat in one end
flourescent lighting 2x30W (UV and daylight)


Yes, she is spoiled... but not that much - swedish leos require a minimum of 0,36 square meters according to the Department of Agriculture. That is an area of 90x40cm and a minimum of 30 cm in height = 35x16 inches and 12 inches tall.


She´s got a moist hide made of a plastic self watering planting pot, bathing/drinking bowl (never takes a bath but don´t mind stepping in it), rocks, roots, branches, plant´s, pebbles and slates/tiles on the floor. Most swedes seem to use sand and we did too for a little while.. but this little one eats it so she´s on a lifelong diet There´s room for a lot in this terrarium and I know she does not need all of it but she clearly likes that she can move around the terrarium in secrecy ...and I´m having fun decorating.
She´s about 13/14 years - 10 of them with me. No pics right now - we are in the middle of spring cleaning and redecoration.

 

[Dreamsong]

Currently have three 20gal long tanks sitting in my room, will be decorating them to occupy my time until I get my leos. One tank, of course, is for my niece's gecko once she gets it/it's old enough to move out of the 'baby' tank (10gal with the 'bare bones' setup). For hatchies/young geckos, I prefer 10-gals, but I always bump them up to 20gal tanks once they reach around 4-5 inches or so.

Tank # 3 is empty at, but here are the castle and mermaid WIPs. (Castle will have one large shelf, stairs and three 'rooms' for hides on the bottom level. Mermaid will have a partial shelf, and the current hides will be grouted over/re-decorated to resemble coral figurations. Right decoration will 'hold up' the partial shelf.)

 

[Akari_32]

I currently have one of my girls in a 20 long (she's super active, and out grew her 10 gallon in just a few months), one in a 10 (being an enigma, she's got some medical problems. The small tank keeps her out of trouble), and the third is temp housed in a 10 until she's large enough to go with the first in a costom 28x19x13 tank. The only time I have issues with heating is when I have a temporary tank set up, and have to use a human heating pad. Has to be turned off every couple of days to cool down. Other wise, I have no issues using under tank heat and a heat lamp in the 10 gallons.

I feel like 10 gallons are ok for less active Leo's, but some, like my Orchid, just don't have the room they need to burn off steam. I prefer 20 longs, at the least.

 

[Some87]

I have my youngling in a 10 gal. but I want a bigger tank for him. I was thinking of makeing a new cage out of plywood and glueing down some tile. The only problem is I don't know what size. Is 12x24 good enough or should I go bigger? I want to make the cage because I want to make it 2 cages in 1 (48" in all).

 

[Sasha2]

I think some leos are just more active then others and need more space.
I put all 5 of my girls in a 75 gallon tank while redid my rack, and it took me a couple weeks.Anyway several of the girls seemed to love it and used the room nightly, hunting, climbing around etc.
My males are even more active then my females too bad I dont have the room for bigger cages for them all.
So I use tubs normally.But Im hoping by next year to build a wall unit that will house my leos in 20 gallon size enclosures.I will probably double up some of the females, the ones that get along.

 

[confused]

I just got my gecko about a month ago, and personally, I don't see how I could keep him in anything less than a twenty. I mean, sure they'll live in a ten, but it takes a twenty for them to have room to thrive and hunt. It's kind of cruel to keep a 9 inch gecko in an 18 inch (10 gallon tank) in my opinion.

-Steven

 

[Limited Exotic]

Rack system and Terrariums here
Terrarium: 60x40x40cm. About 24x16x16 inch housing one adult breeder each.

 

[Yuk]

Do you use tanks or tubs? Tanks

What size setup do you have? I have a 10 gallon and 20 gallon long

How many leos do you keep together (if at all)? Two females in the 20 gallon long, one male in the 10 gallon

What is you opinion on the topic of 10 gallon v.s. 20 gallon? Mine are still juveniles and a 10 gallon seems fine for one juvenile. A 20 gallon long is plenty of room for the two female juveniles and I'm not worried about them not having enough space when they are adults. I'm even moving the male in after everyone is an adult for a colony setup.

Can you show pictures of your 10 gallon? I don't have one of the current 10 gallon on hand --the one in my intro is the same tank, but the hides have been moved and changed, but it has a very large pet store bought cave that I use for a heat gradient (even though it's big, there's really only room for one in the sense that they can pick the exact temperature. The moist hide is a sour cream container directly over the UTH. The substrate is paper towels and there is plenty of room for an additional cool dry hide, water and calcium dish, hunting area, and a poop area.

How do you maintain a "proper" temperature gradient?
10 gallon: I just make sure that part of the hide is directly over the UTH - like 15% of it, then the remaining 85% is lengthwise towards the cool end. And it is big enough that they can pick a good spot.

The 20 gallon long: I use a really large black plant seedling container which takes up about 80% of the tank as a warm/cool dry hide. Inside I stuck a large ziplock container. The result is lengthwise, there is enough room for 3 geckos to be directly over the UTH, directly to the side of the UTH, and probably enough room for 2 geckos to be on the cool dry side (it's large, but the way the rest of it is set up, they can be away from each other and still get that heat due to the moist hide's placement. The moist hide has room for 3, but I don't think 3 would be in there at the same time. There is plenty of room for two to pick their own corner far away from each other, though.

Do you use a lamp for your 10 gallon? I don't. I do use a lamp for my 20 gallon long that is on for 3 hours a day providing UVB 2.0 light. A little of it probably makes it to the 10 gallon, but it's pretty far away and I don't think there would be much effect.

 

[INDRAJM]

I only have one Leo. She is in a 20 gallon long. She has lots of room.

 

[pixiepurls]

I am a new owner so still learning:

Do you use tanks or tubs? 10 gal tank with screen top

What size setup do you have? 10 gal

How many leos do you keep together (if at all)? 1

What is you opinion on the topic of 10 gallon v.s. 20 gallon? I will get her a 20 gal eventually but not for a long time, maybe a few years, kind of like a birthday present.

Can you show pictures of your 10 gallon?
I don't have a picture of the current setup.

How do you maintain a "proper" temperature gradient?
I have a UTH plugged into one of those thermometer things and its set to 91 (it seems to turn off when it was hitting 90 and it would bounce between 86-90 s I set it to 91 and now it bounces between 87 and 91.

Do you use a lamp for your 10 gallon?
I have a cheap little lamp that came with my tank. I got a 50 watt blue night vision lamp so we can see her at night but I actually mostly use it during the day because our house is 70 degrees and this helps the air get to 75 or 80 in the tank. I don't leave it on all the time as it makes me nervous (fire hazard) but if I am in the same room with her during the day for a few hours I turn it on while I am present.

Please keep it civil, express your opinions and don't bash others opinions.
This is our first pet I didn't want to invest too much I went with minimum (one reason I selected a leopard gecko was because they don't take up a lot of space or require heat lamps all the time). If she does well I will upgrade her eventually, they live so long it seems like a nice "present" for her but not something I need to spend money on initially. She really likes to climb so I am trying to create more space within the 10gal by creating "levels" of things she can climb but if she fell would not be injured.

 

[Noah L]

Do you use tanks or tubs?
I use tanks at the moment, however, once I start hatching eggs from my breeding project I will need to switch to a tub+rack system for the hatchlings because tanks just aren't practical or economical.

What size setup do you have?
I keep my current geckos in 10 gallon tanks and my 15g female is in a 5.5 gallon until she's bigger.

How many leos do you keep together (if at all)?
Until I can build a larger shelf, hopefully in the next two weeks which can hold five 10 gallon aquariums in a row I have two female juveniles, 26 and 33 grams, together.

What is you opinion on the topic of 10 gallon v.s. 20 gallon?
I believe a 10 gallon can happily house a single adult leopard gecko as long as you provide enough space, allow for increased activity, and can achieve a proper temperature gradient.
In my tanks I provide them with some silk plants to climb on and enough area to roam around and do as they please. If I notice they are climbing the sides of the tank I will put my hand in and see if they climb onto it, this is to train them that my hand is friendly. I also try to get some out-of-tank time and gently handle them whenever they are active in their tanks. This helps them work off energy as well as make them more friendly.

Can you show pictures of your 10 gallon?


How do you maintain a "proper" temperature gradient?
I use a single strip of 3" heat-tape connected to a thermostat+rheostat combo and maintain a steady temperature gradient of 91°F-79°F.
The temperature room in which they are housed is also held at a constant 72°F-74°F.

Do you use a lamp for your 10 gallon?
Not currently but I plan to have a strip-light running along the back of the tanks about 6" above the tops for daylight and red LEDs for nighttime viewing light.

 

[lxcoupe89]

I have 3 Leo's that are very happy in a 20L

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