Learn Something New Every Day

Huh, so I just learned that the brand I've been using, All Living Things, is actually owned by PetSmart. Cool. Though I find that Exo-Terra makes more esthetically pleasing terrarium decor, there's just no beating those awesome suction cups on the ALT Critter Branch! Solid!

Prepping my Terrarium (part 3)

Step 3: Lighting, Heating and Humidifying

So now that I have all my branches and bushes exactly how I want them, I'll turn my focus to the mechanic aspects.

It's important to note that I have been keeping my heating and lighting in mind as I place my decorations in order to create the desired hot and cool spots.

Heating:
After doing a bit of research, I find again that there aren't concrete rules for these guys.
Taking into account everything I've read so far, I would have to say that cresties need a day-time temperature of about 80 to 82°F (27 to 28°C) in the hot spots and somewhere in the mid 70s in the cool spots (about 24°C), unless you plan on breeding them. Though the brochure provided by PetSmart indicates a maximum hot-spot temperature of 85°F (30°C), some of my other sources (namely Crested Gecko Canada) state that temperatures above 83°F (28°C) can increase your gecko's stress, and temperatures any higher than 85°F can in fact be fatal. So none of that.

Also, I mentioned that breeding would require different temperatures. Since I don't have immediate plans on breeding, I haven't looked into it with much detail, but again, Crested Gecko Canada has some good knowledge on it.

To help control these varying temperatures, I bought an extra thermometer (product of All Living Things) to go with the thermometer and hygrometer provided in the Exo-Terra starter kit. The first I place up in the basking zone of the terrarium to make sure I never get into those deadly ranges. The second (which I may have botched), I stuck lower to the ground near the cool spot, just to make sure things stay cool but not cold.

To be fair though, this might be overkill, as I have read that cresties can take temperatures in the mid 60s (about 16 to 17°C), but I don't really want to push my luck, as these guys need heat to grow and to help them digest.

Lighting:
In terms of heat lamps, I was advised to get a 60W Neodymium daylight bulb (Sun Glo 60W by Exo-Terra). The literature I found online backs up my choice, indicating that a low wattage heating bulb is all that is necessary. Cresties are nocturnal after all. I have even been told that an infra-red bulb way serve too, as I could leave that on day-round since it sheds no light, but I prefer it this way... so far.

I also run a Repti Glo 5.0 UVB 26W bulb by Exo-Terra in the lamp that was included in the starter kit to provide my cresty with necessary uv levels. This bulb has a high uv output, which may affect my choice of cricket calcium powder in the future (since my current powder is fortified with vitamin D3, a possibly redundant additive in light of... the light).
This bulb would be very necessary if I were running a natural terrarium, however, given that plants require this light to grow as well.

The effect is as follows:

This image shows my terrarium bathed in uv light alone,

















while this image shows both the uv light and the heat lamp in full glow.















Also visible on the second image is the placement of my thermo/hygrometers; at the top and bottom.

Humidity:
Last factor to consider is humitidy. This is a tricky one, since a hot humid environment is a breeding ground for moulds and mildews, some of which can be kind of nasty for both myself and the cresty. This means regular cleaning is essential.

But I digress; humidity! Recommended to be between 50% and 80% by the people at PetSmart, 60% to 80% by Crested Gecko Canada. I'm thinking somewhere in the low 70s is where I'll be. This is so far the only factor I haven't tried to control in my environment since I don't want to add the coconut husk substrate till about a day before I get the gecko to avoid wasting it. Considering that no animal wastes will be contaminating it, however, I'll probably get around to setting it up over the course of next week.

Coconut husk seems like the right choice, since it's gentle on the animal, it holds moisture and has a very pleasing natural look, to boot. Added to this is the Exo-Terra Rainforest Heat Wave I have affixed to the bottom of my terrarium. I've had mine plugged in since I set up and I must say; it's not very hot. Weather or not this is normal, it will in any event help release the moisture in the substrate, giving me my humidity.

To keep the substrate moist, misting is required. Once again, I've found about three different solutions. To average them out, I'm going to mist about once or twice a day, or as required to hit that humidity g-spot.

In terms of misting to provide the cresty with water (rather than a dish, as they lick dew off themselves and their surroundings), I'll probably continue to provide a water source, unless I see that the gecko isn't using it at all.

Also, I plan on treating the water with a cleanser, even though I will be using distilled water. I'm taking no chances of poisoning my gecko with chlorinated water, afterall.

Prepping my Terrarium (part 2)

Step 1: Cleaning

After opening the Exo-Terra Rainforest Habitat kit, I gave everything a good wash-down. The starter kit manual suggested the following :

Soak all plants and decoration with a solution of 1 part bleach to 30 parts water for about an hour once a month, which I did, except for the foam background and the jungle vine. I thought they might be too absorbent.

I find this kind of high on the bleach. One of the PetSmart reps said I could definitely get away with a smaller amount of bleach, but I decided to get Fluker's Super Scrub, which is an organic cleaner that "cleans and sanitizes" tanks, branches, rocks, vines, and bowls. To be fair, I did try to the bleach solution on my first batch of plants and decor, but I left them rinse well and sit for, so far, four days.

A point here regarding the Exo-Terra Jungle Vine (show in the image to the right):
I let my vine soak, not in the bleach solution though, for well over an hour to get the excess dyes out. This would be especially important if I were going to have it in an aquatic environment to avoid discolouration of the water, and maybe even negative effects to the critters.

Once everything was clean and free of the smell of plastic and bleach, I cleaned out the tank with a 50/50 mixture of water and vinegar (also recommended in the manual). The vinegar smell goes away pretty quick, too.

Weather or not I will continue to use these two home-brew solutions now that I have Fluker's Super Scrub, I haven't decided yet.

Just for the record, this is also when I installed my Exo-Terra Heat Wave, since it adheres to the bottom outside of the tank. (See Step 3)

Step 2: Decorating

So next, I added the Exo-Terra Rock Background in and placed my plants more how I wanted them to be in the final product.

I'd like to point out here that, although I do like Exo-Terra products, the suction cups that were provided for the Exo-Terra Croton and the Exo-Terra Amapallo were pretty useless, which suited me since I wanted to have the stems wedged into the background foam. Also, you have to kind of take all advertisement with a grain of salt; the rock background shown here on their website looks MUCH more realistic than the actual product, which is still nicer than having a picture taped to back of the tank.

You'll notice in the picture to the left, the jungle vine has been removed temporarily.

This is also when I placed my two thermometers and hygrometer. (Step 3)

Also, I want to add how much I really like the Boston Fern included in the kit. All the plants really, I found to look very good for plastics.

The final result was something to this effect:



Notice in the close-up what I mean about the background looking a little less rocky and a little more foamy. Still though, like it!



The last step of decorating was the addition of a small fake branch by All Living Things. You want suction cups? This thing has two, and combined, you could raise the Titanic with these them! I added it to the left-hand side of the tank to assure an artistic look of symmetry that my future gecko will have plenty of things to climb on. I'm not sure what plant the branch tries to emulate but it looks like ivy to me.

Huzzah, the final product! Please note that I will be waiting till the last minute to add the Exo-Terra Plantation Soil Tropical Substrate, which was also included in the kit.


To be continued in part 3 (because it's starting to take too long to upload these damn images into one post.)