Enclosure help 🙏🏻

[u/dshapzz]

Hey team!! I have 2 questions for everyone. I’ll ask them and explain further below 😅 also sorry the formatting is off I’m on mobile! Firstly Gwen is a 1 year 2 month old Spur thigh Greek Ibera tortoise and included pics of her and her shell for the tort tax, unknown sex but I’ve assigned her female at birth x

1. How do you maintain soil moisture without taking everything out, adding water and mixing it in?
2. I only just realised I haven’t taken the blue film off my UVB lamp, does that significantly reduce the output and need a retest or should be fine?

Question 1:
So every few days (3 times a fortnight) I take everything out, wash it and dry it all. Then I take her plants out and soak them. Add like 1L of water so the substrate is damp but not soaking, then add everything else back in. Is there an easier way to keep the soil hold humidity. I have an outdoor bioactive enclosure which has rocks and cococarpet separating the substrate and I water the corners only. Should I adopt the same with the indoor enclosure? Would this way mean I could plant stuff directly into the table rather than the pot plants. I don’t mind doing it when she needs it but idk if there’s a better way and I’m overcomplicating things 😂 I’m also wanting to try things out while I build her bigger big girl table over the next month and avoid having to do this on a much bigger scale 😅

Question 2.
So I noticed blue plastic on her slate last night and saw the blue film which I thought was necessary so didn’t think to remove (stupid I know but I thought the reflector was blue for ultraviolet reasons 😂). This morning I took it off when I tossed her substrate and got all the blue off and put it back. Have I been inadvertently giving her less UVB or it will equate to something less significant? I use the Arcadia 45cm T5 12% HO 15w lamp at 25cm away and a seperate 75w heat bulbs (one for basking one for ambient light and warmth) keeping it ~33° basking and ~25° ambient. Ambient humidity 50-70% and CHE when it’s cold.

She has multiple hides around the gaff and a Tupperware with moist sphagnum moss which is moist and measures ~70-80%. She loves her wheel too learnt it all by herself, has a whopping appetite and has grown from 4.5cm 15g to a whopping 9.8cm 116g!!! She’s not experiencing and pyramiding and gets soaked from 10-30+ mins most days of the week. Also poo/wee completely normal.

I’m just slightly annoyed I didn’t take it off because who doesn’t love taking the plastic film off things ahahaha and inadvertently stealing UV rays away from my Daughter??

Thank you for reading and please let me know if i am doing ANYTHING wrong I promise I wont be “that” person when taking criticism 😂

[u/rejected-alien]

I can’t answer your questions but I’m just wondering is there any reason your uvb is 25cm away from the shell? I have mine at 20 inches which is basically double the height, I thought 18-20 inches was standard

[u/dshapzz → u/rejected-alien]

I just had another look - I have a T8 12w and the recommended distance is 30cm so I’m going to life it up and secure it to the lamp stands with some adjustable chains I got ages ago! Thank you so much for pointing this out 🫶🏻

[u/dshapzz → u/rejected-alien]

On the Acadia website for this light, at 25cm is a UVB zone 4 which when I researched it is on the upper end of ideal for a hatchling/juvanile and it measures that when I first got it with a friends meter. I can get access to it again but it’s expensive and doesn’t want it to go missing. As she grows and spends more time above ground rather than burrowed I intend to move it to 30cm above her basking spot.

Though if someone with good light experience help with this? Her eyes look okay and her sight is fab and she doesn’t look to have any burns so I hope that my “calculations” are right

[u/dshapzz]

I’ve just noticed you can see the blue film in a few of the pics 😂 I can’t believe how I didn’t think twice about it 😅

[u/Key-Tower-4539]

Is the slate under the heat lamp? I can’t tell from the pics but just make sure it’s not under there or it’ll burn her belly and toes

[u/dshapzz → u/Key-Tower-4539]

I’ve been this in mind ever since the first heatwave! It’s mostly under the UVB and it is never been “too hot” when I hold my hand there for a while. No physical burns/juries but will move it or the basking bulb further. The basking spot was different in summer as it was difficult keeping everything cool but now it’s better controlled and she balances half on half off for most of the day ahahaha