Is this a good beginner setup?

[Onify]

So I posted my old rough draft earlier this month on here, and I took the feedback I got and created a habitat that was supposedly ideal. I've done a great bit of research about everything that I currently have in the tank. Also- I'm not here to start a eco-earth debate. Yes, I am using eco earth, I am very convinced it will be great for my leopard gecko. Okay, so my setup is two shelters, one is a Zoo Med repti shelter. This had a lot of reviews on it for leopard geckos and all of them were positive, so I decided that would be the humid hide for him. The next is a rock cave sort, that I made myself. It's a stair way with a small platform ontop and it has a little cave inside it. I bought some fake viney plants and I silicone glued them to the rock structure ( It's all very nicely siliconed together. ) to cover up some of the exposed glue and to provide more of a shelter like area for him. I have two dishes, one for water and one for food. I plan to keep worms in the food dish constantly, and feed crickets once or twice a week. I'll put the water dish in there every couple of days, as I read they don't need a constant supply of water. I have a Medium UTH that keeps the rock the humid hide is sitting on heated well and most of the tank heated. It's a steady 82 degrees generally in the tank and in the leafy hide its a little cooler. Should I have the UTH on a timer so it goes off during the night, or should I just leave it on all the time ?
Thank you all in advance for your responses, and any constructive criticism would be VERY appreciated.

 

[indyana]

Looking good! A little feedback:
- Only having a humid hide on the warm side could mean the gecko is hanging out in the humid hide too much just to stay warm. I recommend trying to squeeze another hide in there to make a dry, warm hide.
EDIT: If you can't fit another hide, you can just swap the locations so the dry hide is on the warm side. In my small quarantine tanks, I usually set up so there is a dry hide over the heat pad, a moist hide in the middle, and a little hide of some sort over on the cool side.
- You'll need a flat surface that reaches 88 - 92 F for the gecko to properly digest food, so make sure the surface on the warm side is warm enough. You didn't mention what temperature it was. The surface temperature should be measured with a temp gun, but a digital temp monitor with a probe taped down to the surface will do in a pinch.
- Please leave a constant supply of water. Not sure who said to leave it out, but you can't possibly know when your gecko is thirsty, and I hate to think of it sitting around and waiting for water to appear...

 

[Onify]

Sorry for the extremely late reply. I can't really switch the hides because the rock one is siliconed to a large flat rock that is underneath the humid hide to hold the whole stair case thing up. How would you suggest I fit another hide in there ? Doesn't that make it TOO cramped? And I'm sorry I read that leopard geckos could drown in the water dish if left there all the time. I thought it sounded weird. I added another flat rock next to the other one for the flat surface and also moved the humid hide alittle more so that there is a lot of exposed rock to heat up. I haven't got a temp gun or anything like that but the rocks do Feel warm to the touch. Also I am having a bit of a humidity problem. It's currently right around 70% which is high. How do I lower that ? Do I have to buy a dehumidifier for my room ? http://i62.tinypic.com/55jtqa.jpg

The tank is around 85° where I have the thermometer so I imagine it's cooler in the cool hide and warmer where the rocks are

 

[indyana]

Yeah, you would have to have a really large and deep water dish for your gecko to drown. No worries unless you're building a pool in there.

As long as there is warm rock to lay on outside the humid hide at night, it should be okay then.

I have to highly recommend getting a reptile temp gun to measure the surface temperature of things. It is extremely helpful in keeping reptiles. ZooMed makes one ~$20-25 that you can look for (ReptiTemp), and you may be able to find a cheaper one. Anything with ~1-2 degrees C accuracy will work.

Those little dials are horribly inaccurate... more a general guide. Unless you're watering/spraying the tank, the humidity will naturally drop to match your room over time. I do not worry too much about ambient humidity as long as the cage is heated to the right temperature.

 

[Onify]

If they're a general guide then I think I'm okay because the humidity has dropped to 50 % and I think it was just getting broken in. Also, for the heating pad. What are the hours I should run it ? I have a timer I can hook up to it and I was wondering how long it should be on and how long off. I was thinking 4 AM to 10PM on and 10 - 4 off. Does that sound like too much or too little ? Or should I just leave it online ALL the time?

 

[indyana]

The heating pad should stay on all the time.

 

[Onify]

Alright I'll keep it on all the time. Also I kinda moved the uth to the center more so it heats the flat rock better and the cave more. But I also still was able to fit another hide kinda pinched back in there a little bit. It's really dark so I assume that's where he'll spend his day hours

 

[indyana]

The goal is too usually keep a gradient with one end being the hottest and the other end being the coolest, so that there are places with different temperatures. Just make certain all the caves are not heated.