your UVB bulb is over the mesh? as in shining through the mesh? yes, NONE of your UVB light is getting through. The holes in the mesh have to be at least 1/4" big. Cut holes in the mesh and replace with something bigger, like deer fencing you can find at home depot. Then get yourself some plexi to cover half of what is left of the screen top to keep in humidity.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

so the uvb is fine to penetrate plexiglass????

no plexi, it pretty much needs a straight shot. Chickenwire would work good. has to have LARGE holes.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Ok hang on here a minute.
The problem with screen is the fine mesh window screen type which shades out a lot of UVB. If it is the top I think it is its not too bad.
What is the measurement of the opening in your mesh?

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

the screen lid is 2 pieces because there is a support in the middle of the tank

the mesh openings are no more than an eigth of an inch(i would say closer to a 16th of an inch) it is a very fine mesh

i am looking for a steel lid because it is just bars opposed to criss cross mesh but I cannot find one big enough

there has to be something I can buy that will work!!!! there is no way the only way to do it properly is to custom make it

this tank is not going to be around for very long so I would much rather just find something to make it work for the time being

someone suggested using chicken wire but I am already finding that the crickets are making escape routes!!! with chicken wire it will be a cricket fest in my apartment

just cut the mesh and put the chickenwire where the light is ONLY. I'm guesing you have a hood? That will leave no room for them to escape. if you donj't want to spend the money on plexi to cover up some of the rest, you can use plastic.

Plus you should only be putting in enough crickets for your dragon to be eating at one time. If you have crickets running around, they will actually start biting your dragon.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

it is not really a money issue, i will do what it takes to keep my dragons happy as I knew it was not gonna be cheap when I started.

my first issue is ; i have a 48" bulb. covering half of the tank with plexiglass would make make 24" of my bulb useless and I was told my uvb should span the whole tank.

second; i could cut holes inthe mesh but that is not going to fix my humidity problem and crickets are sure to escape as they already are with no holes in the screen


and as far as the crickets go, i tried feeding them from bowls but the rarely eat them before they die and the last few weeks the pet store as been sold out of medium and large crickets so I have been buying 1/2 crickets by the 500 opposed to 100 batches which forces me to put in more than usual



i will deal with the escapee crickets if I have to, i am just trying to find a way to keep my humidity up with equipment I have until I have the space to build them there final enclosures which will be in about 6 months if all goes well

i guess i'm having a hard time pictureing what you have. Is there anyway you can snap a photo of your hood/lid/light setup? I could help better with construction if you posted what you have, because i'm apparently not imagining what you have right.

Or

Do you have a hood that the florescent tube goes into? thats what I picturing. Mine is about 6" wide by 24" long. My tank is 12" wide by 24" long. So would yours be 48" long x 6" long? Therefore the missing element is how deep is your tank?

yours would be like this, only longer

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

I don't know if this suggestion will help, but I always kept my crickets in a special tank all their own. When feeding time came, I'd either put Kono into their cage and let him go to town, or move both the crickets and Kono to a nuetral cage where he could feed easily.

Doing this could allow you to use to correct material to allow the UVB through, while not allowing the crickets to escape.

If you have hood lights across your tank, keeping the humidity up shouldn't be too hard. Just cover whatever portions of the top of the tank that don't have a light with something solid. Then you still have your lights, you're just covering the area around them. You can even get something cut to the exact dimensions you need. (Make sure whatever you use allows proper airflow, of course.)

I don't know if I explained that last part well enough. I can send you an illustration of what I'm talking about if you need it.

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"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.

sorry

i have a 75 gallon long( 48" long 18" wide 20" tall


i have a 48" balast which I bought at home depot which I saw alot of breeders using at the reptile show I went to recently. it is a chrome (diamond plate) balast which is meant to house 2 T8 fluorecent bulbs. i have found that it works perfectly fine with t12 bulbs so I have a reptisun 10.0 and a plane fluorecent just for added light(both t12)
i have a seperate fixture for my 150 watt heat lamp