Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So, I'm starting plans for a HUGH display enclosure. I'm pretty handy with the wood working, but I'm getting all confused when it comes to the heating/lighting of the whole thing. Below is my rough draft of what I want to put together. Any suggestions on how I should heat it all? Keep in mind I do live in Florida and my room temp averages about 80 during the day and about 73 at night. SOOO many options out there! My head is spinning!

Is this one solid unit?

If so I would suggest moving those Beardies to the top or risk cooking your snakes above them from the heat needed. You could also move your dragons to the bottom and middle and rely on the basking lights they require to heat the cages above but that's a lot more tricky

Lighting is pretty easy, use the under cabinet florescent for the snakes and a couple ceramic light fixtures for the dragons, these are all pretty straight forward to install.

If you feel the need for supplemental heating for the snakes I would strongly suggest RHP's.

My advice to you is to have the milks on the lowest level, then the corn and sandboa next up, then the beardies.

The milks can use a simple heat pad taped, glued (silicon) or adhered to a piece of tile or expanded foam PVC and put inside the cage. A 6x11 heat pad is plenty, as is a 10gal size ZooMed. Same with the sandboa and corn. Your air temps are pretty high for milks, so be careful not to overheat by having the heatpad full on when the air temp is 80 deg.

The beardies will use ceramic lamp sockets installed in the cage ceiling I would gather.
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Mark

I built a cage thats even bigger it has ten cages.It is 8 x 8 x 2
I put light sockets in and protected them buy putting them in the metal wire molding and ran them out the back and attatched plugs. I then put plug strips on the back that I ran to switches on the sides to turn on and off and then since so big I ran down to the fuse box. It has been working great.
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Tom
1.2.0 Leopard Gecko (dot, spot, casper)
0.0.1 California King Snake (booboo)
0.1.0 Sulcata Tortoise (tank)
0.0.2 Russian Tortoise (tito and lulu)
0.0.2 Red Ear Sliders (bernie and ernie)
0.0.3 Painted Turtles (larry, curly and moe)
0.0.1 Western Soft shell (Squirt)
2.2.0 Bearded Dragon (marshmellow,Bubba,Sparkles,Alfredo )
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor (beef)
1.0.0 Peachfront Conure (kermit)
0.1.0 Love Bird ( KIKI )
1.1.0 Dog (layla and Rosco)
2.1.0 Crazy Cats (babe, sabastian, tinkerbell)
0.1.0 Lion Head Rabbit (daisy)
0.1.2 Ferret (jordan RIP, Cosmo and Izzy)
0.2.0 Guinea Pigs (lilly and petunia)
0.0.1 White Tree Frog (dumpy jr.)
0.0.2 Fire Belly Newts (spork and blaze)
0.0.1 Fire Belly Toad (ferdinan)
0.0.1 Red Spotted Newt ( red)
0.0.2 Bull Frogs (goliath and tubby)
0.0.1 Spectacled caiman (wilbert)
0.0.3 Green Anoles
1.0.0 Bahama Anole
0.0.1 Giant Millipede
Lots Of Fish

ALL great suggestions! I'll be starting this project this month. I'll be sure to post pics along the way! I've got a pretty solid idea in my head! We'll see how it goes! Thanks everyone!