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I have a 10 gallon tank right now with a 40 watt bulb for heating. I am planning to buy one of those 38 gallon mesh vivarium for my anole so that they will be happier. I was wondering how many watts should I use for this vivarium to get an appropriate temperature gradient? Dimensions are 16.5 x 16.5 x 30 and I am going to be standing it up vertically and tall. Anyone have any suggestions?

While you are thinking about heat also think about humidity. The biggest problem with your setup is going to be the escaping heat and humidity. Heat rises and humidity disperses. With a screen cage you are not going to be abel to keep either up. If someone know of a good way you can do this please post, otherwise I would look into a different type of cage. (my opinon as allways should be taken with a grain of salt

Shaon94

For me, I might only be using this type of enclosure for the summer months to come and so my room will be warm most of the time. I won't have to worry about keeping the heat up. I just am not sure if I need a high wattage bulb to keep most of the cage warm or a small wattage bulb just for a basking spot. I will get some type of humidifier to help with humidity issues. Thanks for the suggestion, though. I'll keep that into account.

I see what you are doing now. My room gets REAL warm during the summer months as well, and then it would not be a bad Idea to get one of the mesh cages. I just dont know if I could stand the humidity hehe.

I would then say it is going to vary greatly based on how hot it gets in your room (as to the wats of your bulb) If it is already in the 70-80 you should only need a 60 watt bulb or so. I would also buy a dimmer from home depot so that you can vary the gradient. What I currently have is a 100 watt bulb and it is on a dimmer so that I can just adjust the temp as needed. The hotter my room gets the more I back the bulb power off.

Hope this helps.
Shaon94

Cool. I am happy to hear your response. Now i have a good idea of what bulb size to get. I will get the dimmer because it sounds like the best way to control the temperature in the vivarium. Thanks for the help!

You might look into one of those ceramic heating elements. They are a little expensive but they last for years. I like them because they produce no light.

Also, do remember that you'll need a UVB producing florescent light in addition to a heat source...very important.

Would this be like a wall dimmer that u wire into your house?>
Im confused because dimmmers and high wattage items I thought were not good ideas. ( I guess there not high wattage just high heat emitting bulbs) So if thats the dimmer everyone talks about would I have to do some wiring? I tried asking Home Depot once and they looked at me like I was on crack LOL

Thanks, Please clear this up for me heating is becoming a problem for me

nope. The dimmer that we were talking about was the one that you plug into an outlet and then plug the lamp into the dimmer. There is a dimmer control on the device so that you can control the power of the bulb. I found it at OSH and it sells for about $14. So wiring is not a problem with this type of dimmer. The one that you are talking about is the one that has to be installed into the wall where the light switch goes so that there is an on and off switch along with a dimmer control in it. Hope it answers your question.

Here is a picture of what we are talking about.

The only way to keep the humidity up in such a tank is to get the humidity way up in your whole house, I would think.

It's tough enough to keep the humidity at correct levels in my 55 glass tank with mesh lid.

This is probably the only concern that I had and I am not sure if I will have a tough time doing it. I live in Bay area, California and it usually does not get too dry. It is usually humid when it gets very hot in the summer and late spring months. I wouldn't mind spraying the enclosure a lot too.