I promised a photo, so here is Bob
His viv is a balmy 27c and (funnily enough) he's been a lot more active as opposed to always being curled up in a ball always above his heat mat.
- - - Updated - - -
Thought I'd share an update with you all.
My licence was approved on Monday morning
Now Bob was living in a 6ft glass converted fish tank who lived on newspaper and had a heat mat underneath one end of his viv.
Whilst waiting for my licence, Bob was upgraded to shredded coconut as a substrate.
I have installed 2 x 60w CHE's over ⅔rds of his viv.
The heat mat wasn't powerful enough to be of any use through the substrate and I could only get him up around 24c. Eventually I did away with it when my "project" was completed.
Lots of brainstorming later, I came up with a plan to insulate Bob's viv.
Progress shot. Frame built ready to move onto the next stage
I then remembered that I had a heap of spare R20 bats in the ceiling.
We did say insulate, didn't we?
His 2ft light was swapped out for a 4ft batten holder and built into the backboard as the 2 footer was bolted to the centre door of the viv which made removing the door rather awkward.
I then wanted something to slow the heat loss from the glass. A walk around Bunnings later and I find some self adhesive vinyl tiles that were the perfect height of the viv.
They have a stone like print which matches the colour of the new substrate
They had to be trimmed to allow the light to come through the glass.
I present to you the finished product and a happy Bob who was rather curious with his new backdrop
Once he settled down he was presented with an XL thawed rat which he smashed in no time
The project cost me $150 at Bunnings for the building materials, $110 for the CHE's and their ceramic mounts , $150 for the digital dimming thermostat, $50 for the substrate and $41 for the 4ft tube. Total cost, $501. Now I can pay for Bob and do the transfer paperwork
I now have a happy Bob who now is moving around a lot more and seems to like laying sprawled out or hanging on his branch now that he's a lot warmer.
It is now 29c in the first ⅓rd of the viv and 23c at the last ⅓rd of the viv.
I don't yet have a thermometer for the middle, I'll pick one up tomorrow.
Is that enough of a gradient you think?
Thanks for reading, apologies for the lengthy post.