hi ryan,

one of the products i have found to be of great utility is the large black plastic tubs made for mixing cement and mortar. they are heavy duty, yet light weight, and cost about $10. they measure 36x23x8. i must have two dozen of them. depending on where you live, you can get them at Lowe's, Menard's, Home Depot, or other large builder's supply stores.

you can build a wood frame to fit over the top and fix hardware cloth or chicken wire over the frame. i like the low sides for several reasons. you don't need clamp lights, you can put the reflector housing of your heat lamp on the hardware cloth, it allows you to place your UV *tube closer to the torts, and your heat source can be of lower wattage, because it's much closer than you can get with the large rubbermaid tubs.

*it sounds like you're planning to use a fluorescent tube for UV. these have to be very close to your tort to be effective. when i use UV tubes, they are never more than 8" form the torts. if you go with a taller enclosure you may want to look into a mega ray lamp. these put out much more UV, which will be very important for your young tort.

have fun!

matt

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