Leopard Gecko Setup

Building your Gecko Setup

It is very easy to set construct this terrestrial gecko setup. The vivarium and cabinet come with instructions and should take around 20 minutes per unit to construct. They mostly use locking screws so don't worry if you make a mistake, they can be taken apart and re-built. Once the vivarium is constructed you will want to seal the joints inside with aquarium sealant. This will extend the life of your vivarium and keep the joints water resistant. Make sure the panels are all clean and dry as possible before applying. Once applied you will want to leave the enclosure for 6 hours so the silicone can set and the fumes can disperse.

For the following sections cables for each piece of equipment will be fed through the vents at the top of your enclosure's back wall. The Vivexotic range now include removable vents large enough to fit the entire plug through so you should not need to re-wire any plugs.

Creating the Basking Area

This enclosure is designed to get to 90 Fahrenheit on the hot end but still leave the other side cool. To do this you will need to choose one end of the enclosure to be your hot end and one end to be the cool end. All of your heating equipment needs to be placed in the hot end.

We provide our daytime basking temperatures using an intense basking spot lamp controlled by a dimming thermostat. The bulb should be fixed to the centre of the ceiling close to the warm side. Ideally we want 1/3 of the enlcosure to be warm so we would usually fix the bulb about 3 inches from the side wall.

Once fixed in place the bulb can be plugged into your thermostat outside of the enclosure. The dial on the thermostat should be set to 90f and its sensor should be placed 1/3 of the way from the warm end inside the enclosure. You could leave the sensor on the floor but we prefer to have it attached to the back wall a couple of inches above the floor and facing the warm end.

Night time Heating

At night this setup is designed to allow air temperatures drop while keeping around 1/2 to 1/3 of the floor space warm. To achieve this we bury a heatmat under the bedding and control it with a simple on/off thermostat. The heatmat should be placed on the warm end, directly below the basking area. We bury the heatmat in 1-2 inches of bedding.

Once in place you can plug it into your thermostat outside of the vivarium. The dial on the thermostat should be set to 75F the thermostats sensor should be rested on the bedding above the buried heat mat.

Controlling Temperatures

This set up includes a thermostat for all of its heating equipment so it should keep the correct temperatures automatically but it is best to have a thermometer to make sure that the hardware is working. In the day time your basking lamp should be on and your basking temperature should stay around 90f on the warm end. At night your basking lamp and UV tube go off, the vivarium will slowly cool down and the heat mat will take over. It will keep the floor at 75f throughout the night.

Setting up the UVB

UVB is very important for reptiles as it allows them to produce their own vitamin D and use the calcium in their diet. Without the correct UVB levels some reptiles can become very poorly. All of the UVB in this kit is provided by a 30cm self contained unit. Simply attach it to the ceiling on the warm side and turn it on with the basking lamp during the day. It can be mounted horizontally or front to back on the top panel. It is best to keep it as close to the warm end as possible.

Running the Enclosure

This setup is designed to provide an intense basking area and UV throughout the day and switch to complete darkness with some warmth at night. The basking lamps and UV tube should be on for 10-12 hours per day and off all night. When the basking lamps and UV tube have been turned off the vivarium will begin to cool down, when it gets below the set temperature your thermostat will turn on the heatmat and keep one side warm for you.

If you have any concerns or need any further advise please let us know.