I have my BP tank set up like earthwormjim but I have my CHE set in the middle. Basically I just cut a single piece of thick cardboard to fit over the whole top of the screen. Then I cut a circle in the center that was about 1 inch bigger than the size of the dome. That gives me enough gap for air. Then I wrapped it all in tin foil. Then I just put a 100 watt CHE on a lamp dimmer and adjust as needed. I'm using aspen and actually recently I've been having too much humidity. I'm sitting at around 70% with just the water bowl in there as well as 86f on the hot side and 83f on the cool side. Granted it isn't the prettiest set up but it works very well which is what you are really after.
You want to set the UTH temp based off the glass temp, not the top of the substrate. My BP actually pushes all the aspen aside and sits right on the glass in her warm hide. That's why I used my temp gun and set the glass temp above the UTH to 90f.
You need to get rid of that desk light you got and just buy a ceramic fixture 8 or 10 inch dome. You can still use that plexi top you got but I would cut the circle out bigger, around an inch or so bigger than the dome as you don't want the plexi to start melting.
As for enough airflow, how is the humidity? You only want to make enough holes to achieve the humidity you are after. You can also cover up some holes if you have too much airflow(low humidity). I like the plexi look but again as I mentioned, you want to make sure the circle is big enough as the plastic company I talked to and explained what I wanted and needed as they do custom work told me the same thing of make sure you add an inch or so on the dome circle as you can melt or warp the plexi from the heat of a CHE.
Reply With Quote