Equipment Review and Discussion :: heat things up

[ColeweezY23]

my basking area is semi large and is not covered by anything. i have two lights on it..one being uvb and one being just a regular light. its definitely not hot enough for the turtles. i am not sure what to do about it. should i put something on top of the basking area to heat it up or should i swap out the regular light with a heat light? if so what kind of heat light would i be looking at?

[Chrisbarnett]

Just your average Incandescent bulb for heat. You will need anywhere from 60-100 watts.
Like this

[mike hill]

What ever you do with lighting, don't over heat the basking area. Keep it at about 90 to 91 degrees. You may consider a water heater. m.

[TheComputerGremlin]

Yeah, try out a few different wattages and measure the temps they produce. It will differ based on how much distance is between the basking area and the bulb.

I would start out around a 60W, and if that's what you are using, try a 75W next. You optimally want somewhere in the 90s, though you can have it a bit warmer as long as there is a gradient, so the turtle can move further away from the direct beam when it wants.

[Azfar]

What or How or Different of temperature between the basking area and the water should be?

Example like my turtles water temperature is at 28-30 celcius and temperature at basking area is around 39-40 celcius. So the average different in between like 10 Celcius.. is dat ok?

I know the water is warm but I live in Malaysia, we have lots of sunlights and rains and for the basking area I used regular household bulb 60 watt.

[marisa]

A water temp that's roughly 10 degrees cooler than the basking area temp is good.

[Kemul]

Azfar,

10 degrees in Fahrenheit equals to about 5.5 degrees in Celsius.

So, if your water temp is around 30°C, basking temp should be around 35°C.
I think 39-40°C is way too hot...

[Azfar]

Ehmm?? So which one?

My water temp is always near 30 celcius and basking temp near 40 celcius.
So the water temp is okay right?

Kemul - I'm using regular household 60 watt bulb and put at 12 inch from basking area. Maybe I can pull up a bit the bulb at 15 inch see what the temp will be. Thank you for your advice.

[ColeweezY23]

thankk youu. i switched to a 60 watt regular bulb and it got a little hotter ill have to try a little bigger wattage

[TheComputerGremlin]

Azfar - The water temp is obviously too warm (~86 degrees F), but you can only do so much to cool it off. Optimally, you would want your basking area to be about 35 Celsius, but that may be too close to the water temp and may not entice basking. You ultimately need to decide what's best for your turtles. Are they basking at 40 Celsius? If they are, then don't worry about it, they'll self-regulate and move when they get too warm. If they aren't basking, you may want to try lowering the temp to see if they are happier with it.

[Azfar]

TheComputerGremlin - Thank you for your reply.

I know the water is too warm, I'll try to make it cool a bit at 25 celcius by putting ice bottle in the tank but it wont last long. I want to buy the water cooler but its too expensive.

Yes, currently my turtles are basking at 40 celcius and never had any problem not to go basking and they can stay longer than 2 hour on the basking area. Like you said, if my turtle can bask at 40 celcius and happy with it so I think theres no problemo aight? and yes the water temp is always at 30 celcius.. nothing else I can do to cool off the water unless if the day is raining and the water temp will drop a bit at 28 celcius.

[Azfar]

TheComputerGremlin - Thank you for your reply.

I know the water is too warm, I'll try to make it cool a bit at 25 celcius by putting ice bottle in the tank but it wont last long. I want to buy the water cooler but its too expensive.

Yes, currently my turtles are basking at 40 celcius and never had any problem not to go basking and they can stay longer than 2 hour on the basking area. Like you said, if my turtle can bask at 40 celcius and happy with it so I think theres no problemo aight? and yes the water temp is always at 30 celcius.. nothing else I can do to cool off the water unless if the day is raining and the water temp will drop a bit at 28 celcius.

[mike hill]

A-far -- I like a difference of 12 to 14 degrees F. You can do the math on the C. I keep my water at 77 and the basking at 91 with uvb and it does just fine. Good Luck! m.

[Azfar]

77 F = 25 C
91 F = 32.7 C
Thats your temp in celcius.. hihi.. aight.. I will do the best to adjust my turtles water temp or maybe their basking area temp.. at this moment my turtles had no problem with their temperature anyway thanks for you comment~!