First BTS, tank modification / suggestions?

[Reximus]

Hello everyone, here's Rex's set-up in a 55 gal long. A friend of mine gave me this big fella for my 5-year-old's first pet. Well, I've kind of gotten obsessed with him and rearranging his tank, buying more hides, lights, etc... he's just so cool that I want him to be happy! I guess my question is, do you think his tank is too cluttered and how can I ensure he's warm enough? I have a 100 UVB light on the right and a heat lamp on the left... but it never seemed to get over 80. I put a lizard heating pad under the tank (glass) placed directly under his left hot-hide with the substrate about 2 inches deep and he definitely takes to that quite a bit. The frog moss on the log tunnel keeps my humidity right where it needs to be, so long as I mist it daily. He gets pretty restless sometimes and tries to climb out -- I take him outside and he never wants to come back in! I can't afford a bigger tank right now, so which is more important? Hides and decor to keep him entertained, or open spaces to pace around? Any other first time BTS suggestions definitely welcome! Thanks and I look forward to being a part of this BTS community!

[hurricanejen]

Try picking up some cork flats or similar flat items you can stack up to get closer to the heat light.

You'll get differing opinions on UVB, but if you're using one of the exoterra UVB100 bulbs (which I think are the only ones referred to as UVB 100), I'd highly recommend switching to a tube fluorescent or scrapping your current lights entirely in favor of a mercury vapor bulb.

Rather than moss or other decorative items, the skink needs more stuff to climb on to get up closer to the light. One of my personal favorite ways to raise a basking area without having to spent $50+ on cork is to get a half log hide, and then get just one big flat piece of cork, and prop it up using the half log underneath. This'll give you a significantly raised area and greatly increase your basking spot temp without you having to dump a ton of unnecessary heat into the cage.

If you are using large, flat pieces of rock or wood, then you really can't over crowd the cage. They'll go under the wood and on top of it; if you stack things well enough, you can actually add even more room for your skink to be moving around in.

Good luck and enjoy; northerns are fantastic pets, I'm sure your kid will love him!!

[timisimaginary]

the one thing i would recommend is replacing the dial thermometers, which can sometimes be inaccurate, with digital ones. i like to use the acurite thermometers like this one, one each on the warm side and the cool side. also i like keeping them at ground level since that is where the skink spends most of its time, and there can be temp and humidity differences at different heights. i also like that it shows a min/max temps since i'm at work during the warmest part of the day and asleep the coldest part of the night, so it shows me the highest and lowest temps that each side of the cage gets to.

in addition, if you don't already have one, you'll want a temp gun to measure the surface temp of your basking site. the thermometers only measure air temps, and i often see a 10-15 degree difference between air temps and basking site surface temps.

[Reximus]

Thanks for the advice so far. I think I might invest in a large basking ramp and put both lights over the same spot. I I will definitely look into the UVB situation. I know the care sheet attached to this site says UVB is beneficial bit not crucial.

Another question I had was about mixing substrates... I have seen someone take a piece of plywood and separate their tank so one section is substrate and another part is eco earth for moisture and burrowing. I this beneficial enough to actually try, or is it more hassle than what it's worth?

[hurricanejen]

For a northern, more hassle than it's worth. They don't really need much additional humidity 99% of the time.

For a beginner, I highly suggest using a good source of UVB. While yes, the caresheet here says it is beneficial but not essential, far more people screw up without it than they do with it.

Not to say you're gonna screw up, just sayin - it helps give you a bigger buffer zone for error.

[Reximus]

Anyone use Excavator Clay Burrowing Substrate? I'm thinking about adding a mound to my cool side.

[hurricanejen]

Yes. I do not recommend it for a bluey until you test run it first. Until it dries, it'll gum up under their claws, in their eyes, their mouths, all over them. I used it to set up my tibetan frog eyed geckos - worked well, but I needed 15 lbs just to set it up in a 12 x 12 x 18 size enclosure. It gets prohibitively expensive for a skink sized area.