Hi from the UK

[gunny bedford]

Hi

Well my 10 year old son Ethan finally has his Leopard gecko, he has wanted one for years, and this year we decided he was old enough to have one.

We managed to get a fairly good deal on a second hand set up £60 for a 3ft viv, heating, caves,bowls food and a 6 month Gecko.

I thought i had understood on how to look after them, but to be honest the more i read, the more confused i get ! there seems to be a lot of various bits of equipment, that you can use in the viv if you want, and i am not sure what is best ?

The current set up has a heating mat linked to a thermostat, the tank also has a heating bulb (UV i think as it has a purple glow?) that is not linked to a thermostat, it has no lighting in the tank.

currently the hot side is 90f and the cool 79F, the heating mat does not seem to be able to keep the temp at 90f on its own, so currently the heating bulb is on all the time, the heating mat is about 1/3 of tank size (3 ft) so should i get a better mat, as should that on its own be able to keep the right temp ? or is it OK to use the 2 methods ? we have tiles on the floor over the heat pad, and i plan to put a small layer of sand down as well under the tiles.

should i change the UV bulb to a ceramic one, as they appear to be better ?

should we invest in a thermostat that can drop the temp at night or not bother, at present the tank stays at the temps described above, as i am worried it might get to cool if i turn the UV bulb off ?

should we put a light in to the viv to create day/night as at present there is no lighting?

The gecko looks in good condition but has not eaten much in the 4 days we have had her, we think shes had a cricket.

sorry for all the questions but i am surprised on all the different methods of heating and controlling the temp of a tank !! and wonder which is best ! thanks Neil

 

[Christywoowoo]

What you have I think is just a black light. Unless it says "UV" it doesn't emit UV rays. Leopard geckos are mostly nocturnal, so UV isn't really necessary for their health and can in fact burn them if they get too much.

I don't use lights at all, there's definitely some risks associated with lighting and as long as your temps are good without it, I see no use for lights although people use them often with good results. Low wattage bulbs can definitely be used to help if your heat mat can't maintain the proper temps. Your temperatures are perfect in my opinion.

Day/night cycles with leopard geckos at this point in time seems to be a matter of opinion. I don't do it, my geckos sleep whenever they want and get up whenever they want and I find extra light bothers them and makes them stay inside even if they want to come out.

You'll find that everyone does what seems to work best for them ^^ Just be careful to keep the right temps and not fry your gecko under too-hot lights.

 

[indyana]

Welcome!

As for the temps, make sure you are measuring the floor surface temp, not the air temp. You best do that with an infrared temp gun or one of those digital temperature monitors with a wire probe that you can lay down flat on the floor. It's the floor surface that needs to be 90 F, not the air temp. That might explain why the heat mat isn't reading hot enough? If not, maybe the heat mat needs replacing. Most of them can get up to 100 F easily without a thermostat controlling them.

Not sure what you have the thermostat set at, but once you can get an accurate floor temp, you may be able to bump up the thermostat so the heat penetrates the tile floor more.

 

[gunny bedford]

thanks for the tips, i will change thermometers as i had them stuck to the back wall of the viv high up to see, i will look for the ones with probes. I understand that the day/night light cycle may not be required but how about the heat drop at night, ive read it should drop a bit at night, im worried that if i turn the light of the heat will drop too much (will have to experiment) if i still need both i might have to invest in another thermostat (pulse?) to control the light, and the thermostats with the "night eye" to automatically drop the temp look quite expensive ! what do other people do re the night time temp drop ??

 

[Christywoowoo]

I don't do a night time drop, but I imagine you can just set the thermostat for a few degrees less if you really want to.

 

[gunny bedford]

thanks all i will move my question to a more appropriate section