gigantic enclosure for young geckos, a couple of ?'s...

[gumbii]

i've been having this huge melamine reptile enclosure for ever now... i don't know how i got it, but it came from a reptile store somehow... i would snap pics, but it's full of like, clothes, bike parts, aquarium equipment and blankets... LOL... right now i have my young geckos in a 30g long and since i've been seeing all the setups on this forum, i feel like they are crowded now... even though they are young... i guess i'm tripping...

anyways...

this thing has three 5'x2'x2' and two 2.5'x2'x2' so i'm going to give my young girls a whole five feet enclosure to themselves... and my males can be in a smaller one by themselves... each tank has a ceramic light fixture for heat lamps... and that's it... one switch turns everything on...

okay... here are my questions...



•will a ceramic heat emitter be enough for the big tanks...?
•is it okay if there is no hot or cold place...?
•will it be too risky to put heat pads in the back of the melamine housing...¿
•or will i have to move over the fixture towards a side..?
•how many females can i put together with that much floor space...?



right now in the tank, i'm using construction paper instead of napkins... i have a thing about crix, mealworms and dubias getting under the napkins... the construction paper is harder for them to get under since it lays flat...

is there anything wrong with that..?

i'm also thinking about installing LED lights... i don't care about the aesthetics or looks... i'm more about function, convenience and durability... any tips and advice you wanna throw my way..??


thx...

 

[spalek83]

There has to be a warm spot. They need it to digest food, so forth.

 

[gumbii]

um.... thanks...?

but that wasn't one of my questions... i asked if it would be bad if they didn't have a hot side or a cool side in the tank... since the heat lamp is in the middle of the tanks... or if i should move it...


thanks... you're responses are appreciated...

 

[Dog Shrink]

My son's ball python enclosure is close to those dimensions. His is like 5'x3'x2' and we have 3 heat sources on his tank. A heat emitting ceramic bulb (150 watt) on the hot side, a 100 watt mercury white bulb (emits heat and UVC light) in the middle of the tank), then an under the tank mat suited for a 90 gallon tank (on the hot side), There is a third light source on the top on his cold side but it doesn't emit much heat, and it is more for UV value and viewing pleasure. With that set up it keeps his tankbetween 82-93 degrees. The ceramic heater and UTH are on 24/7, and the daylight bulb and basking mercury heat bulb are on a 12/12 cycle (soon to be changed to winter hours tho).

 

[gumbii]

but the enclosure is made of melamine... can i stick an UTH on that stuff...?

 

[little98dime]

yeam you can use the UTH on melamine. Most people that have racks use melamine and have flexwatt on that for heating. Just make sure you use a thermostat.

 

[gumbii]

nice... time to get some from the LFS next week... i'm gonna have to get a couple of big ones then...


thanks bryan...

 

[little98dime]

not a problem. I may have missed it, but how many leos and what age will be in the enclosure?

 

[gumbii]

well... i have 5 females right now, and they are... i think 3 months now... a couple of hypo, tremper albino het eclipse... but, i wanted to know if i could get more females... i have one for sure male, and one RAbTOR that i hope is a male as well... but i don't know yet...

i would want to be able to house three more females in that setup... do you think it's possible...?

 

[little98dime]

I don't see why not. Pics would help a lot. Just make sure you have 3 of each hide for EACH gecko. And they will use vertical space especially if you provide ledges.

 

[gumbii]

each gecko needs it's own hide...??? wow... they're greedy... LOL...


okay... i'll do that... right now they have about 5 hides... and they only get in two of them... lol... they're always together... but i'll do it anyways... i'm using marble tiles to make them hides...

don't worry... i smooth down the rough parts... um... i'll try to get picture after i clean out the terrarium... LOL... i have a mess in there... i'll probably make a before and after build thread...