Heating a 6'x2'x2' fish tank for monitors

[Frozenmouse]

I have sold the fish and drained the tank finally i have set up a dessert type setting for some tristis , ackies or a small goulds still have not made my mind up yet . I have 100w infared light globe a 60 w infared lightglobe and a 4' uv batton which generates some heat and also one half of the tank has a 25w heat cord , and still cant push the ambient temp past 25 today its is 15 outside in melbs .
Should i give up on the fish tank idea i have never had this problem with malemine cages for my snakes.

 

[Robo1]

I have a fish tank that I converted to raise hatchie ackies in which works really well. What have you used as the lid/hood? I wouldn't be overly fussed with the ambient air temperature, usually room temperature is ok (depending how warm your room is). Instead, make sure that they have a hot basking spot, 50-70°C.
I'd recommend ackies for the enclosure, I'd want more height for tristis and a lot more room for a goulds.

 

[Sinners121]

I have a fish tank that I converted to raise hatchie ackies in which works really well. What have you used as the lid/hood? I wouldn't be overly fussed with the ambient air temperature, usually room temperature is ok (depending how warm your room is). Instead, make sure that they have a hot basking spot, 50-70°C.
I'd recommend ackies for the enclosure, I'd want more height for tristis and a lot more room for a goulds.

+1
and you dont need the UV batton

 

[Frozenmouse]

Yeah i am leaning towards ackies for those reasons i was told if the ambient temps drop below 20 oC it can be bad for ackies . i have a wooden lid on it.
I have kept big monitors for a while but i am a bit worried about getting everything spot on (ackie hatchlings look very fragile to me)

 

[longqi]

thats plenty of wattage to get temps up

you will have to decrease your ventilation to increase the amount of heat staying in the viv because heat rises

may need to lower the height of the lamps to get higher heat at ground zero

 

[Robo1]

Ackie hatchies are pretty bullet proof so long as you have the right basking spot temperature. For my basking spot temperatures I mainly use 50W halogen GU10 globes. I decrease the distance between the globe and the basking site until I achieve the desired temperature. The rest of the enclosure is just at room temperature. If you're really concerned about low temperatures use the heat cord to create a warm hide.

 

[Frozenmouse]

I have settled on a 25 watt heat chord aluminum taped underneath the tank to the glass which has been running for a week now for 12 hrs on a night time cycle , and a 100watt ceramic for the main basking spot and a 100 watt red globe as the second basking area . it drops to about 20-25 at night and ambient temp during the day is 25-33 and the basking sites are 45 and 59 .
From now on i will stick to my malamine and plywood enclosures glass is terrible for cold climates.

 

[mrs_davo]

I had a pair of accies set up in a large fish tank & all that was required is a 100 watt heat globe or spot light type bulb at one end of the enclosure. I had large rocks built up on top of each other & very stable to create a basking platform for them to get extreme heat & they could retreat below the rocks.

They are extreme heat seeekers & in summer time, the temp on top of the rocks with the light about 15 to 20 cm above would get to about 45 to 50 c in summer & less in winter. But those accies would still come out & bask in that temp for maybe only minutes at a time but they loved it. The heat keeps them active & healthy, no high heat & you have inactive & unhealthy lizards.

Just visit their home site in the middle of summer & you will witness the harshness that they love.

 

[SA_Goannas]

Personally I'd ditch the ceramic heat source & get a basking lamp & have all the daytime heat down one end, that way you'll get more of a temp gradient.

I have a fish tank that I converted to raise hatchie ackies in which works really well. What have you used as the lid/hood? I wouldn't be overly fussed with the ambient air temperature, usually room temperature is ok (depending how warm your room is). Instead, make sure that they have a hot basking spot, 50-70°C.
I'd recommend ackies for the enclosure, I'd want more height for tristis and a lot more room for a goulds.

All good advice.

 

[mrs_davo]

I had a pair of accies set up in a large fish tank & all that was required is a 100 watt heat globe or spot light type bulb at one end of the enclosure. I had large rocks built up on top of each other & very stable to create a basking platform for them to get extreme heat & they could retreat below the rocks.

They are extreme heat seeekers & in summer time, the temp on top of the rocks with the light about 15 to 20 cm above would get to about 45 to 50 c in summer & less in winter. But those accies would still come out & bask in that temp for maybe only minutes at a time but they loved it. The heat keeps them active & healthy, no high heat & you have inactive & unhealthy lizards.

Just visit their home site in the middle of summer & you will witness the harshness that they love.

Our main computure is brocken down at present, but i will see if Paula can get up some pics of the set up we used to have, when she gets home from work. It did work & they even bred.

 

[Frozenmouse]

The 100 watt ceramic will only get the rest of the tank up to 20 so i added the 100 watt infared up the other end in the middle the temps still only go to 20 in the sand so they still have cool areas

It is only letting me post 1 photo per post .

 

[blakehose]

Ditch the Ceramic and give them a Flood light instead. They thrive off having a really hot basking spot and it's very important to their digestion and development. Like has been said, don't stress too much about the ambient temps, provided you give them a spot of 55+ to bask at, they will come and go as they please.

I'm in Vic too and ran a 150watt floodlight with no other heat source when I was housing monitors... They'd just sit under the heat and charge themselves up, run around like wild and repeat the process throughout the day. I never had any issues. (And I never really paid too much attention to the ambient temp unless it was a VERY hot day)

 

[Frozenmouse]

How much past 60oC should i go on the basking site? what type of floodlight do you use?

 

[blakehose]

Just one that can be bought from Bunnings mate, if you go into the lighting section there is a pretty big range of them to choose from. Maybe grab a couple of different wattages to have a play with as they're pretty cheap.

I'd say anywhere up to 70deg at the basking site is fine. Really a range from 55-65 will do the job!

 

[SA_Goannas]

How much past 60oC should i go on the basking site? what type of floodlight do you use?

I buy 75w or 100w Phillips floodlight globes (depending on the size of the enclosure) from Bunnings for about $5 for the pair, the 75w globes give me a nice basking temp of about 60C from a distance of about 250mm. A temp of anywhere between low 50's through to low 60's will be fine, I don't pay too close attention to the exact temp for any of my Goanna's.

 

[mrs_davo]

Here is a couple of pics of one of our ackies that we used to have and their enclosure...

We found that they were extreme heat seekers - 50-60 deg in summer ( sitting on top of their rocks )
and in winter about 10 deg or so less ( due to lower ambient tem )

cheers Ian

 

[Robo1]

The advice that's been given is good. Ceramics don't project heat well, they heat the air around them instead. Most of my enclosures use 50W GU10 globes, but I have some I haven't converted yet. They use 75W Phillips spot globes (30°). I recently found a Nelson 50W halogen globe which has an ES fitting in Bunnings, but I haven't tested them yet.
The wattage will depend on the distance between the globe and the basking spot and the ventilation arrangement. The globe should be of a low enough wattage that it doesn't increase the ambient air temperature too much, even on hot days. The wattage should be high enough to provide the desired basking spot temperature. Normally the ventilation is fixed, restricting the maximum globe wattage in smaller enclosures (not such a problem here). So your wattage will only depend on the distance from three globe to the basking site. For the 75W spot globes I have a distance which varies from about 70 to 140mm. I don't use any other heating, but these enclosures are in rooms where the air temperature doesn't drop much below 15°C on winter nights.

 

[Frozenmouse]

+1
and you dont need the UV batton

Sorry it seems to be accepted on aps that uv is not needed for monitors but there is overwhelming evidence to suggest to the contrary.
Vitamin D is needed by reptiles especially monitors to metabolize calcium correctly and diet can affect the uv requirements of monitors greatly so to play it safe all of you anti uv for monitors people should reconsider.
Unless your monitor has direct sunlight where they are housed you really should have at least uv5.0 for them .
Immediate problems with lack of uv are not evident but it can drastically affect adult size and longevity.

 

[blakehose]

What evidence do you have that suggests UV is needed for monitors?

 

[Sinners121]

i base mine on reading. i am yet to find any conclusive evidence saying they do need uv. they do need a good diet and without do have many problems however i have not yet read any material suggesting that when fed an appropriate diet they still end up with UV based problems. but i have read many posts on here and other forums by respected monitor keepers and they dont use UV and are keeping their collections healthy and in top condition. if i am wrong i would love to read about it or hear from a keeper.

also what do you base their reduced longevity without UV on?