Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I built a 13'x 5'x 7' high cage for my monitor lizard in my basement. I used one corner of the basement as the back and right side of the cage. Insulated the ceiling and walls really good with 2" thick dowboard and 4" on the floor. Then covered every thing with 5/8 plywood,and painted.
The front of the cage is all 1/4 plexiglass. Its very tight and seems to hold in heat pretty well.
The oil filled radiator does a good job of heating up the cage.
My problem or question is, being this cage goes from floor to ceiling, most of the good temps I need are about a foot from the ceiling.Theres about a 15 degree difference from floor to ceiling, How can I get more heat down around the floor area?
thanks alot

Try adding a small fan to your enclosure. This will keep the warm air circulating and you won't have such a big difference from top to bottom. A little 6 or 8" desktop oscillating fan mounted up in a remote corner would do the trick nicely.

I did this with the oil filled in my snake room and it made a huge difference. One other addition that also helped was rigging a plastic shoe box on top of my radiator and keeping this filled with water. It helps maintain the humidity and moist air holds heat better than dry.
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BigT
There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. The ignorant can be taught, stupidity is beyond our control.
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As this is already completed (I'm assuming) it's probably not going to be of much help in saying I would clean out the substrate put in about 100' of heat cable and either pour a light weight concrete down for a floor then cover it with substrate again. Actually doesn't sound too bad.. But that's just my two cents. Especially if you were to make a smaller coiled area that has lights for basking. Again just a thought.
-JT

Also, the concrete would be very easy to clean and sterilize periodically with out any of the down sides of wood that can absorb liquids.
-JT