Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Pretty soon, i'll be the proud owner of a baby BT. I have a temporary 55 gal cage for it until i get his permanant home built.

So.....i know the dangers of spotlights and i'm going to try and stay away from them and go with a CHE. Now, what type of wattage will i need? I have a screen top, but i'm putting plexiglass over top of it at the hot end to keep mositure in. I'll also have dirt as substrate. Also, what other lighting do i need? Should i use a heat pad? Should i just use a flood light?

The water bowl......which end to put it at, hot or cold end?

I know the ambient temps, basking spot temps and all that type of stuff, no need to repeat it. Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions are welcome.

45 watt should be enough but might not light up the whole cage, no heat pad should be necessary, and put the water on the cool end.

this may not how to do it exactly however it did work for me, so here it goes. I have a 75 watt flood ligt posistioned over the left end of the enclosure, with a heavy log going from the bottom to the top so my bt could get close-far whatever he needed as far as the heat, the temps at the basking site were 125 in the highest part to 85 at the lowest, underneath that log i had a hide spot. On the other end of the tank i had another hide spot with a heat pad on the bottom to provide heat in the colder months, here in baltimore that is from oct-april, i put the water basin smack dab in the middle, whatever enclosure i have no matter what size i use this set up, and it seems to be working great for my bt's, wt's, argus flavi's,sav's, and B&W tegus. All of the cages are different size because some of them are still small juveniles, but i have it set up the same way for my adult WT's and they are in a 6'deep by 4' high and 4' wide cage. once again there is no text book definition of set ups for these animals, it is just what i found to work for mine. Oh yeah, im using screentops for most too, with the spotlight on top, never had any problems. good luck
scott
baltimore MD

i'm not going to load the tank full of dirt, i'll do that with the custom cage. Until thin, what are some decent hid spots? I know of cork bark and the rets stack. I thought about digging a premade hole and then placing a log or something on top of it to make a burrow like hide.

appropriately sized pvc pipe works great, and they make it up to the 12" diameter, so you could use it for a while. Also corrograted drain pipe works really well also, not really pleasing to the eye but it does the job and very very easy to clean. good luck

The best thing you can do for your monitor is to spend the $25 on a temp gun. I went a long time with out one, and I don't know how I had healthy monitors with out it (haha). You can use it to make sure your tank has the proper basking spot and proper ambient temps before you put the monitor in it. It is definitely worth the $25!!!!

Just my 2 cents, take it for what it is worth.
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Ed

There are water dragons, chameleons, frilled dragons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.