# Low Temperature, help me!



## HerculesTegu911 (Dec 2, 2007)

I have just purchased a 2 month old red tegu a little under a week ago, and i have been watching the temps, and the basking temperature is about 87 degree's, and the over all enclosure temps range from 73-83. this is way to low, but i dont know what do to get the temperatures up!! People have told me to get a basking light with more wattage, to make it hotter, and people have also told me to get a heating pad to put under the bedding. which one would be best? or both? i dont know what to do!


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## nat (Dec 2, 2007)

what kind of set up do you have ? and what size of tegu do you have ? basking lights usually work really well in most situations, especially without knowing what your set up is like

welcome to the forum btw!


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## Mike (Dec 2, 2007)

Yeah, please give a description of your setup. If you have it in a fishtank, it could be as simple as limiting the ventilation. We need details.


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## HerculesTegu911 (Dec 2, 2007)

haha, thank you! well, It is in a 40 g glass tank, with a screen top, and i do have towels covering up some of the screen, just to keep in some heat, and humidity, but iw as worried about him not getting enough air, idk if that should be a concern or not. but the towels dont seem to be doing too much. would a hotter basking lamp be better, and change the overall temp? or would the heat pad be better to change the overall temp?


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## nat (Dec 2, 2007)

what wattage are you using now ?


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## PuffDragon (Dec 2, 2007)

Ceramic heat emmitters are really good for getting the ambient air temps up to par. I think a 100 Watt would do the job fine and you can find them at most pet shops. Also, you want to try and get his basking spot up to about 100 F. You you might want to try and shorten the distance between the bulb and basking area. Just make sure your within safe limits if using mercury vapor bulbs (usually about a minimum of 12 inches)


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## DaveDragon (Dec 3, 2007)

Halogen bulbs are alot cheaper than ceramic heaters and give off a ton of heat. A 75W should work for you depending on the depth of your mulch. Don't forget to supply UVB. A ZooMed ReptiSun 10 tube covering the length of the tank would be good.


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## redtail2426 (Dec 3, 2007)

Make sure you are taking your basking temps with an infrared temp gun, you can find one on tempgun.com for like $25. I would also go with the halogen spot bulb over the heat pad I think heat pads are cheap garbage but that is just my opinion. Try to get that basking spot to 100-115. Good luck. Also you can hook the halogen bulb up to a dimmer and dim it to what you need so you might want to get one with a little more watts then you need and dim it down that way you can get the temps right were you want them.


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## VARNYARD (Dec 3, 2007)

A basking temp of 90-110 is perfect; I would just get a step up in the watt size of the bulb. You don't want to increase the overall temp, just the basking spot.


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## MMRR - jif (Dec 3, 2007)

I would have to agree about switching to a halogen bulb but I use floods, not spots. A halogen will put out more heat than a conventional bulb of the same wattage. Depending on the distance from bulb to basking surface you could use a halogen as small as a 50 watt. I like to use a bank of halogens that create a basking area as long as the lizard is.


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## Mike (Dec 3, 2007)

MMRR - jif said:


> I would have to agree about switching to a halogen bulb but I use floods, not spots. A halogen will put out more heat than a conventional bulb of the same wattage. Depending on the distance from bulb to basking surface you could use a halogen as small as a 50 watt. I like to use a bank of halogens that create a basking area as long as the lizard is.



Yeah, I use banks too. They work well.


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## DaveDragon (Dec 3, 2007)

Mike said:


> MMRR - jif said:
> 
> 
> > I would have to agree about switching to a halogen bulb but I use floods, not spots. A halogen will put out more heat than a conventional bulb of the same wattage. Depending on the distance from bulb to basking surface you could use a halogen as small as a 50 watt. I like to use a bank of halogens that create a basking area as long as the lizard is.
> ...


With all the reptiles we have using halogen bulbs I've been reluctant to add to our energy problems!


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## ApriliaRufo (Dec 4, 2007)

DaveDragon said:


> Mike said:
> 
> 
> > MMRR - jif said:
> ...



Solar panels are pretty simple to wire up. Panels capacitor and wires. All you need is a soldering iron, some 10awg wire, and a few miscelaneous parts. Look em up, I'm preparing to wire the reptile room with solar panels. I'm gonna put em on the roof with a car antenna motor to move east to west set to the timer relay and the just stud fish the wires into the rep-room with a few capacitors and light timers.


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## DaveDragon (Dec 4, 2007)

ApriliaRufo said:


> Solar panels are pretty simple to wire up. Panels capacitor and wires. All you need is a soldering iron, some 10awg wire, and a few miscelaneous parts. Look em up, I'm preparing to wire the reptile room with solar panels. I'm gonna put em on the roof with a car antenna motor to move east to west set to the timer relay and the just stud fish the wires into the rep-room with a few capacitors and light timers.


Must be the Cable Guy talking!!!


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## ApriliaRufo (Dec 4, 2007)

DaveDragon said:


> ApriliaRufo said:
> 
> 
> > Solar panels are pretty simple to wire up. Panels capacitor and wires. All you need is a soldering iron, some 10awg wire, and a few miscelaneous parts. Look em up, I'm preparing to wire the reptile room with solar panels. I'm gonna put em on the roof with a car antenna motor to move east to west set to the timer relay and the just stud fish the wires into the rep-room with a few capacitors and light timers.
> ...




hahaha. yea that would be me. Shouldn't be too hard though. Just need the money to order the parts. Maybe when I'm done, I'll make a how to guide to save all of us herpers a lot of money.


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## DaveDragon (Dec 4, 2007)

ApriliaRufo said:


> hahaha. yea that would be me. Shouldn't be too hard though. Just need the money to order the parts. Maybe when I'm done, I'll make a how to guide to save all of us herpers a lot of money.


I'm guessing the price of the panels must have come down enough to make it worth while installing them. They used to be so expensive it would take years for them to pay for themselves.

We have alot of trees around us. Would you have a bank of batteries to store power and a switching system if there isn't enough light??


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## ApriliaRufo (Dec 4, 2007)

Yea, I would probably use high farad caps to hold the electricity, and something that would recognize being unplugged. Hmm. I might have to build a circuit board. Oh well. Good times.


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