# Lucky Reptile Herp-Tarriums



## MikeO233 (Sep 14, 2014)

Does anyone here have a Lucky Reptile Herp-Tarrium 120x60x100?

I am looking at getting one but not sure on how good they are compared to Exo-Terra (which all my other glass vivs are).

The clear advantage is the size of this monster - But are there any downsides?

Any reviews / feedback would be appreciated. Also if you have one, how much did it cost and from where? The cheapest I can find is £280, which is some £100 more than the Komodo 90x45x60 which is my second choice.

I am interested in what experiences people have of heating such a viv. Lighting I am OK with as I would use an Arcadia D3 90cm canopy on it. Also what humidity challenges are there with it being so big?

Also interested in the build quality and how easy or difficult it might be to get it up one flight of stairs (weight etc).

Thanks!


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## MikeO233 (Sep 14, 2014)

Seemingly no one has used these.

I took the plunge and ordered it - I will report back once I have it and leave a little review on how it is.


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## oscarsi001 (Feb 28, 2011)

The one huge disadvantage with a glass viv this size is the sheer weight of it and the impossibility of one adult even picking it up safely let alone taking it up a flight of stairs ! 
it's for this reason, amongst others, that I'm changing all of mine over to Lanzo's .......


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## MikeO233 (Sep 14, 2014)

Viv arrived yesterday. I will post some photos later but thought I would give my initial thoughts.

It is big. Very big. Big is good.

Funnily enough after the post above, this viv had to go up a flight of stairs with a 90 degree turn at the top. This proved a challenge.

The viv is VERY heavy - About 65kg. The dimensions and the fact it is glass with plastic edging make it all that more akward to lift up.

I had to entrust an equally burly as me neighbour to come and assist as the missus was unable to lift it. We got it to 45 degrees against the stairs and went step by step, sliding it up, until reaching the top. Here we had to get it onto it's end to get it around the bend, meaning balancing one edge at the very edge of the top step, whilst "flipping" it, with the whole thing balancing back over the staircase with me underneath taking the weight. This was the most difficult part and really we should have had three people to do it. I don't recommend anyone try this with just two people, just in case.

Anyway that was the hard part - Now it's in place I am reasonably impressed with the construction of the viv. The lids (split into two) are made very well and have poppable slots for wires. the ventilation mesh is pretty good near the bottom of the viv.

The one dissapointment is the quality of the finish on the plastic around the sliding doors, which I will photo. It's got a kind of resin, like you get on stickers / tape when you pull it off something. I am hoping I will be able to clean it up. The rest of the plastic is coated in protective film which I am yet to remove but hope that will be better....

I will post some more of my experience of heating the damn thing, which I will be testing over the next few weeks.


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## MikeO233 (Sep 14, 2014)

OK so I've got everything all set up with my viv now so thought I would do a mini-review of it for anyone who might think of getting one.

First of all to re-cap the basics:


120(w)x60(d)x100(h) cm Size. Viv comes fully assembled and can not be disassembled. Unless you smash it to pieces of course.

Cost: The RRP is something stupid like £380 and I have seen it selling for that online. I got it in on special order from my local reptile shop for £250.

Be very wary of using this upstairs - Getting it up, especially around any corners is a difficult task which comes with risks!

To give you an idea of the size, here it is on the floor next to my bedroom drawers:









Stand:

The LR stand seemed too tall to me - It would have had the viv too high up so I spent a bit of time looking for an alternative. I found a solid oak table the exact same footprint as the viv, made by Julien Bowen called the Coxmoor Oak Coffee Table for about £70, so also cheaper than buying a stand and being solid oak is sturdy enough to take the 65kg weight of the viv, plus all the decor etc.

Lid(s): With the size of the viv it has two lids, with a strut bar separating the two. The lids are metal frames (which come with a protective peel off plastic pre-delivery), with plastic corners, then mesh with two metal struts. They are robust and I really like the struts as it minimises the risk of damage to the mesh. Each corner has a thumb lock and a plastic cut out for wires, so you can pop out the ones where you will have wires / tubing, then the ones you don't use aren't left as holes:


































Frame/Build:

The general frame is reasonable sturdy - It has to be for something of this size. The plastic seating around the bottom is a little thin however for my liking. There doesn't seem to me much to it and certainly isn't as good as Exo bases. There is also only a very small height to the space making it difficult to slip a heat mat under, but then less heat loss too I guess. There are small cutaways in the two back corners of the viv for your heat mat wires, as there is not enough clearance along the rest of the base for a wire.

I was a bit disappointed with the finish of some of the plastic. I don't know if this is just on mine but the plastic around the doors was marked / worn - The frame doesn't come with any protective film so I don't really know why it was like this:









Ventilation:

As previously said, the lids are mesh. The lower ventilation is a mesh strip below the doors. Probably not quite as advanced as the Exo system, but still decent:










Doors:

Probably the most disappointing part of this viv. The doors are far to small for the size of the viv. They are sliding doors rather than hinged, which I don't have an issue with in itself, but because the relative size to the viv is quite small it makes it more difficult to work inside. Also the left door has an issue closing - I don't know if it the the glass or the plastic, but one of them is warped, so I have to push it in from the inside to get it in the lip of the frame, then close the other side. I much prefer the hinged design of the Exo vivs.









Furnishing:

You should be prepared for the cost of setting this viv up in terms of your decor. I easily spent the cost of the viv again just in decor in order to fill it up. In terms of the substrate, as I need high humidity I have a clay ball layer, then a layer of the large chipped orchid bark. In the photo the clay ball layer is 30L of clay balls, then 15kg of orchid bark and still only took it not even half way to the ventilation mesh. I installed a pipe under the substrate which goes up through one of the pop outs and down the back of the viv, so I can drain the substrate easily when needed. Just used fish tank air pipe, as I do on all my humid vivs.










I then topped it off with a very large 6kg piece of cork bark and some other smaller pieces as well as some branches, plus 7 plants and a few vines, with some bamboo screening around the sides and back to stop reflections and just give it a nice feel:










Heating / Lighting:

This is a big space to heat. I have a 100w halogen on with no stat. This gets 40-42c at the basking spot, but the ambient background temps stuggled to even get over 20c even with that bulb on it.

In the back left behind the bamboo you can just make out a white panel, which is a 425w radiant heat panel, connected to a pulse stat (as recommended by forum member badgerroy). This is a large panel which would have been great as a lid, as it perfectly fits one half of the lid size, however I need that space for my UV. The panel was too large to put on the side of the viv, so I had to use the back. Needless to say with the size and power of it, it does the job very easily of getting ambient temp to 30c (no doubt it would go much higher if needed since these things are designed to heat rooms). This was probably a bit overkill, and a larger tubular heater would probably have done the job too, but this was about the same cost and I already had a pulse stat spare. Some of the tubular heaters have a built in stat - so might be a more cost effective option. I looked down this route after having first looked at putting a ceramic INSIDE the viv, which I tested and got a 75w to get the temps high enough, but was advised against it here on the forum due to the reduction it would cause in humidity. 


With this method I get the great combination of the basking spot heat I need and the ambient. Ambient was my main worry with the size of the viv and being in a room where the window is open all day (and being up North it gets cold!!).

The UV is a Arcadia D3 90cm canopy - They don't make this in 120cm but ArcadiaJohn recommended sticking with this canopy over the shallow 120cm they make as the D3 pushes the UV down much more, which is useful given the height of the viv.

In addition I have a 62w heat mat, to warm up the clay balls to help the humidity.


In summary:

PROs : Size - Great for species needing a lot of space. Good solid locking lid system. Nice cable management on top and bottom.

CONs: Size! Akward for moving / lifting and doesn't break down. Sliding doors are too small. Finish of the plastic poor in places.

Overall:

I would buy this again over the Exo Large-XTall purely for the additional space it offers. If Exo start to make a viv in this size I would more than likely go for that, if it were within 120% of the price of this one (based on what I paid, not the RRP).


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