The Tortoise Table

Hello I'm new here and I've been reading all this great advice and putting it into action.
So I've built a tortoise table for my Hermann Elliot, to replace a Viv, but I don't get the temperatures. I've got a uvb stripe bulb and a 60watt ceramic lamp, 12 inch above substrate but I can't get the basking spot above 29 degrees. Do I need a higher wattage ceramic?
This has also worried me about the cool end of the inclosure. during the day it was at 23 degrees, so does this mean it will be too cold at night( have yet to check night temps as Elliot was sleeping the the thermometer ).
Elliot was sleeping under the heat lamp last night.

The table is 170cm by 56cm
Thank you in advance.

Hi Victoria and welcome to The Tortoise Table! And thanks too for the compliments! That is brilliant that you have built Elliot a table, and I thnk that with just a few tweaks we can get it perfect for him.

Just to make sure I am understanding you correctly: your sources of light and heat are a UVB fluorescent strip bulb and a 60W ceramic lamp. Is this ceramic lamp one that gives off heat but not light? That is the problem then. The UVB strip bulb gives off some light (but not a lot) and almost no heat, and a 60W bulb will give off some heat, but if it is ceramic and gives off no light then that is a problem too. We recommend the use of these ceramic heat emitters only if your table falls below about 14C in winter and you need a bit of extra heat at night. In the daytime they are of little use, unless it is super cold.

Tortoises need as bright a light as possible in order to function well, and a bulb needs to be of high enough wattage to produce the heat necessary to get the temperature up to about 30C directly underneath the bulb at the height of Elliot's shell. The UVB bulb is really just to provide UVB and not a lot of light or heat. If you change that ceramic bulb for a higher wattage ordinary household spotlight (say 75W or 100W) then that would be sufficient.

The problem is that you might not have an old fashioned household spotlight because most bulbs sold nowadays are the low energy ones that don't produce enough heat. If you can't get an ordinary household spotlight then there are lots of bulbs for sale for reptiles that do produce heat and good light. For example, something like this would do https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets ... p-100-watt In hot weather you will need to raise the lamp higher to get the temperature in the table down, and in cooler weather you can lower it. You might not need a 100W lamp and could get away with a 75W or 80W -- it depends on the temperature of the room.

If you could send us a photo of Elliot's set-up that would be great.

Finally, here is our article on indoor enclosures, and about half-way down there are sections covering lighting. https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/tor ... xF87ed7m9s

Nina