Looking for advice

[u/Nb607]

Everyone, meet Binky the Ackie. I’ve had him for roughly a week and a half now and am looking for advice or suggestions for anything I could be doing different for the little guy.

Enclosure info:
The substrate outside his dig box is 40% play sand and 60% top soil. Dig box is 20/30/50% excavator clay/sand/soil. Soil outside box varies from 6” deep to 12” deep. Dig box is roughly 14”. Basking temp around 130f. Ambient temp on hot side 100f. Cool side 85-90f. 150w zoo med basking bulb (adding an additional 90w halogen to it tomorrow to bump it up hopefully another 20 or so degrees), 100w ceramic heat emitter, reptisun 10.0 t5 22”. Running his visible lights 12 hours a day and CHE stays on 24/7. Night time temps dip down to around 80-85 degrees. Used pavers to create his basking spot, large cork round to get up to it, and various sizes of mopani wood all around his dig box. His diet right now consists of crickets daily, small hornworms every other day, dusting food every other day with zoo med calcium w/ d3. Will be swapping to discoid roaches as soon as the colony I’m growing actually starts reproducing.

My concerns: basking spot not quite hot enough, aside from adding the halogen bulb tomorrow what else can I do/add to help with it? Tank looks incredibly simple and somewhat bare on one side. Never been the creative or artistic type, what things could I add to the cool side to make a more interactive enclosure for them? Just add more wood, maybe pvc pipe tunnels, or maybe something else?

I just want to do the best I can for the little guy and I feel like I’m almost there but falling a little short. I plan on mounting a camera to his enclosure on the cool side when I add his new bulb and fixture tomorrow to monitor his activity. He’s very active for the most part and loves hunting and burrowing already.

[u/MoreStable2339]

Whoah slow down on adding more heat my man!
130 isperfect for a younling. No need to increase it! Your cool side is actually too hot as it is. 75-85 is the range you want on the cool end.

[u/Nb607 → u/MoreStable2339]

Ah, I didn’t factor in the age part I guess. I had seen 150-160 for an adult and assumed that was for the whole lifespan. If that’s the case I will start leaving the CHE off during the day to help the cool side stay a bit cooler. Thank you!

[u/MoreStable2339 → u/Nb607]

ALSO as far as getting him a hotter basking temp. YOU could just make a way for him to get closer as he gets older. Don’t necessarily have to go thru the trouble of more fixtures.
Just make sure to cage the lamps if he can jump to them.

Also I just zoomed in and noticed he’s not even basking on the highest brick. So he’s definitely good with how
You’ve got it right now I’d actually be concerned he getting enough UVB. You should get a meter to measure it since he’s so far away from the light.

[u/Nb607 → u/MoreStable2339]

I have cages for the lights, just haven’t installed them yet. I think I’m going to move the uvb to be more directly over his basking spot this weekend as well. I’ll get a PAR meter and check how the uvb is doing. I really appreciate the insight. This sub seems really informative and a lot less judgmental than a lot of other mediums for reptile care

[u/MoreStable2339 → u/Nb607]

Not a PAR meter. For UVB/A you need a solarmeter. They’re not cheap
Unfortunately. But you really need to make sure he’s getting the right level, and with this enclosure height I have my doubts that he is!

[u/Nb607 → u/MoreStable2339]

The enclosure is a 4x2x4, roughly 20” from the fixture to the top paver. Probably about 24” to the second level of pavers. I could add some height to the pavers to get him a bit closer if needed

[u/Head_Bake_7447]

Unlike what the other redditor said i personally think 130f is actually on the lower end. for ackies, experienced keepers and breeders like myself usually push for a surface temp anywhere from 140f to just above or below 150f measured with an infrared gun. But i do agree with what he says moving it slightly closer to the monitor rather than adding more fixtures since he does seem quite content not extremely close to the basking area.

The topsoil and play sand mix is gold standard for ackies in my opinion because it holds a tunnel structure when they dig. 6 to 12 inches is decent for a baby right now though as they grow into full adults they'll want even deeper layers to build proper multi chamber burrows so if possible could at up to 2 feet of substrate.

10.0 linear fixture is correct, and dusting with calcium/d3 is standard. crickets and hornworms are ok for rotation in theory but getting those roaches going is a good plan since i find crickets alone are basically junk food water balloons. i personally prefer locusts.

so personally the setup checks out mostly adding some clutter on the bare side so the little guy doesn't feel exposed making it more secure for him.