Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How do you heat the cool side of the vivaruim? Or is it kinda generated by the heat mat on the other side? Thankyou

-Allie

No need really, unless you are leaving them outside in the winter in Alaska. Your normal house temperature will be fine, as long as it is an area of the house that you live in too. I would recommend not putting it in an unfishished basement as it would be hard to heat the hot side to a proper temperature without a huge light or something.

Basically, a gecko, like all herps, needs a temperature gradient. They want a hot side and a cool side. They keep their temperature where they want it by putting themselves in the area of the enclosure that has the proper temperature. For instance, our gecko enjoys spending most of the day about 1/3 of the way back from her hot side. At night she goes all over the place. If she is digesting some good crickets, then she's belly down on the UTH.

For our gecko, she seems to prefer 70-72F on the cold side and her hot side is abut 88F in the day and 80F at night (over the UTH). I believe someone in your earlier post gave the Leopard Gecko Manual's recommended temps, please check those for your own reference, our gecko is a little strange and I'm not sure how closely we match the recommended. I think most of us use some sort of light and UTH combination. Belly heat is argued as good for digestion, the state of the forum lately makes me feel like if I say any more I'll be shunned. Hope this helps!

BTW, you've been asking a lot of good questions, if you are serious about getting a leo, try picking up the Leopard Gecko Manual, usually it is less than $10 and isn't a very long read... still it is something everyone here still refers to and is the best thing to have. It will explain everything from how to set up for a gecko, to how to feed, and how to recognize when something is wrong. Just a thought, good luck!
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

Thankyou sleepygecko, I will search for The leopard Gecko Manual, dunno if I can get it though here in Britain but we shall see (Amazon.co.uk should have it) The small minority of negativity is starting to show in this forum (no offence) but all of the advise that I have been given so far is very well apprieciated

I have 3 20L tanks, each with a thermostat controlled UTH and 50W ceramic heater. The duty cycle (time on vs time off) on the thermostat is running about 50% using this setup.

The warm side of the tank is set to 88 deg F. The cool side floats somewhere between 76-82 deg F depending on the room temperature. Usually, the cool side is about 2-4 deg F warmer than the outside room temps.

Your mileage may vary of course. Very cool room temps may take the cool side of the tank down a bit more.

There may be a small effect on humidity as well. The cooler the room temperature, the drier the room air will become when it is heated back up to around 90 deg F. Generally not a show stopper, but it can cause the humid hide to dry out quicker than expected during the winter months. Since most folks monitor the humidity inside the tank, this is not likely to present much of a problem though.

N.F.