# Two light canopies fitted to Crested Gecko home?



## Keith 276 (Feb 6, 2015)

Hello,

I am putting together my first Crested Gecko terrarium.
I have a 60x45x90cm Exo Terra terrarium with an Exo Terra 60cm three light canopy fitted.

The light canopy has two Exo Terra 15w night glow bulbs and one 15w Exo Terra day glow bulb.

I live in a detached house, so it gets quite cold with the heating off.
If possible, I want to avoid fitting a heat mat. Will these bulbs give off enough heat for the crested Gecko?

Also, I want a uvb bulb so I can switch it on for a few hours per day to help the plants grow and also to help the Gecko.
The night glow bulbs give off a very small amount of light in this rather tall terrarium, so I want to keep at least two night glow bulbs and could maybe do with a 3rd and I want at least one day glow bulb.
So my main question is this......Can I fit a second 60cm three light canopy so I can fit a uvb bulb and still keep the bulbs I already have?
Will there be enough ventilation with the whole top of the terrarium covered by the two light canopies?

Thanks,

Keith.


----------



## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

Whether the bulbs will be enough really depends on how cold your house gets. It's really hard to tell otherwise. Most houses would not even need any night time heating with a crested gecko. You could have a thermometer in the room for a bit and get an idea of what the temperature drops down to at night.

The exo terra canopies can hold up to 25w/bulb I believe, so if your house really does get that cold then you could have 2x25w moonlight + a 23w Uv bulb. You really don't need a day glow bulb if you decide to add UV anyway.

That being said if you really like having lots of bulbs for some reason then yes you could fit a second canopy although it might not fit snugly. There will still be enough ventilation, because the canopies are a loose fit and not airtight, the air will still rise through, but I do think that a second canopy really should not be needed.


----------



## Scubadiver (Jun 13, 2014)

I use Exo Terras and yes, they are designed to take two light canopies if desired and there will be sufficient ventilation. (If you need LOTS of ventilation, the 60cm canopy that takes tubes and gu10 bulbs has a built-in fan).
I have a daylight canopy and a night/heat canopy on my set ups. The night canopy has moonlight bulbs and is permanently switched on via a thermostat.
The daylight canopy is fitted with UVB and plant growth bulbs and controlled by a timer to give the correct daylight/night hours.
While the 60cm canopy has three bulb sockets so day bulbs and night bulbs can be fitted in the same canopy, the whole thing is on the same mains cable with switches on the side so you need to manually turn on and off the daylight bulb (unless you take the thing apart and add an extra cable to control one of the sockets on a timer).


----------



## Keith 276 (Feb 6, 2015)

Thanks for your help.

Scuba diver, I think I will go for the same sort of setup as you have. Can I ask what thermostat you use for your night time canopy and what timer you use for your daylight one?

Thanks,

Keith.


----------



## Scubadiver (Jun 13, 2014)

I use these thermostats as they are well priced:

90~250V 10A Digital Temperature Controller Thermocouple -50~110 with Sensor UK | eBay

But any of the commonly available ones do the job. As for timer, again any of the plug-in types are much alike, but I use the digital one from B&Q which looks the same as this one:

Brand New Plug-In 7 Day Digital Timer | eBay


----------



## Keith 276 (Feb 6, 2015)

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply.
Good info, Cheers.


----------



## PMA (Jul 10, 2012)

Scubadiver said:


> I use these thermostats as they are well priced:
> 
> 90~250V 10A Digital Temperature Controller Thermocouple -50~110 with Sensor UK | eBay
> 
> ...


Hey, interested in one of these thermostat jobbies, but without the faintest clue how they work... is it simply a case of wiring the heat source to the correct terminals on the controller? The price seems too good to be true, if it does a similar job to a habistat for example!


----------



## PMA (Jul 10, 2012)

Also, does anyone have experience with one of these? Same as the thermostat one above but for humidity?

220V 1% ~ 99% Digital Air Humidity WH8040 Measuring Range Is Control Controller | eBay


----------



## Scubadiver (Jun 13, 2014)

PMA said:


> Hey, interested in one of these thermostat jobbies, but without the faintest clue how they work... is it simply a case of wiring the heat source to the correct terminals on the controller? The price seems too good to be true, if it does a similar job to a habistat for example!


 Yes! There are two terminals for the probe, two for the power input and two which are the switch. Your heat source neutral is wired to the neutral input terminal while the live is wired to one side of the switch. The other side of the switch needs a small jumper wire from the live input. Hope that makes sense (they come with instructions).


----------



## Scubadiver (Jun 13, 2014)

PMA said:


> Also, does anyone have experience with one of these? Same as the thermostat one above but for humidity?
> 
> 220V 1% ~ 99% Digital Air Humidity WH8040 Measuring Range Is Control Controller | eBay


 Yes, I have two of them. Use them to control foggers


----------



## PMA (Jul 10, 2012)

Scubadiver said:


> Yes! There are two terminals for the probe, two for the power input and two which are the switch. Your heat source neutral is wired to the neutral input terminal while the live is wired to one side of the switch. The other side of the switch needs a small jumper wire from the live input. Hope that makes sense (they come with instructions).


Dude, I'm lost already haha, pics?


----------

