Post by RedDr4gon333 on Mar 2, 2005 12:50:17 GMT -5
Alright, so this whole egg thing is proving to be one lesson to learn after another.
{Skip this paragraph if you already know how to set up a homemade incubator}
For those of you that don't know, I set up a homemade incubator using a 10 gallon aquarium, 2 bricks, a 50 watt underwater aquarium heater, a plastic shoe box, perilite (vermiculite substitute), sphagnum peat moss, a thermometer {preferably digital}, some water, and a second 10 gallon aquarium to go on top because I didn't have anything else. You put the 2 bricks in the 10 gallon aquarium spaced out a little bit and lying on their long side, then you put some water in to where its about a centimeter from the top of the bricks, insert your aquarium heater between the 2 bricks, I had to cut a small hole in the side of my shoe box so that I could insert the lil probe for the thermometer because you want the thermometer about an inch above the eggs and you will have about 2 inches of perilite/shaphnum peat moss so the hole was cut about 3 inches from the bottom, put some perilite in the shoe box, burry your eggs about 2/3 in being careful not to turn or disrupt the eggs too much, then surround all the eggs with the sphagnum peat moss, cut some holes in the top of the shoe box lid, gently put on the lid but don't close it all the way because it is rather difficult to get off without shaking the conatiner all about, place the container on the bricks, and then cover the aquarium with something but leave a gap. Here are some pics since pics are always nice
Click on the pics to see them full sized!!!
{Skip this paragraph if you don't want to learn from my REALLY STUPID mistakes}
I had the same setup going for my first clutch, but instead of using a 50 watt underwater aquarium heater, I had used a 100 watt because that is what I read to use. Not a good idea. I was replacing the water in the incubator everyday. 100 watts is meant to heat a lot of water, but you don't need but 4 inches of water, so why mess with the bigger heater? I also was using plain potting soil. Big NO NO. Soil is one of those things that can get to moist or too dry and then likes to harvest critters/bugs/bacteria. Third, I couldn't find anything suitible to place ontop of the aquarium. You need something on top of it becuase you want to trap in the heat and moisture. I tried all kinds of things like an extra thick peice of card board {man, I am an idiot}. That worked okay for a while until it started to cave in and kinda shred. {That was a blonde moment... thank god I am a red head, sorry for anyone that gets in the wrath of my anger though.} Then I tried a peice of wood like a lot of people said to do. OMG NO! I had mold growing on that bad boy in less than 24 hours! Last but not least, I tried a plastic. That seemed to work out the best. But, it was a rather large peice of plastic {my laundry basket actually... clothes were just thrown on the ground for a while, makes for a messy house}, so I didn't want to go with that again. So this time around I used just another 10 gallon aquarium becuase it's what I had lying around. You could also use a peice of plexiglass or styrofoam. I am pretty sure you can get either of those cut to size for you at Home Depot or something. It's amazing how many things you can think of in retrospect. I just wish I thought of all of this the first time.
Now what I am learning this time around...
Keeping the temperature constant is proving to be a lesson in itself. The underwater aquarium has a temp gauge just saying - to +, so - means colder and + means warmer. That's all fine and dandy, but it doesn't shut off once its reached a certain temp. I find that during the day the aquarium gets too hot and at night it gets too cold. So, easy solution: just widen/shorten the gap from the lid. The incubator is in the same bedroom as my 2 dragon enclosures, so during the day with the heaters for both tanks on the room itself gets pretty warm. I don't run my airconditioner at all {I am a college student, thus I am cheap}, so the room itself is like always a nice 80 degrees, add the heat lamps and you get it a bit warmer. So I just open the gap to about 6 inches during the day. At night, all the heat lamps are off, so the room is colder than it would be during the day. In addition to that, it has been raining non-stop here and cold fronts keep moving in, so the temperature outside drops dramatically at night too. Doesn't cause much of a temperature change in the room or the enclosures, but it does change the temp of the water a good bit. So at night, I just close the lid on the dragon cage to just a 2 inch gap. Not too much of a formula involved. Night -> small gap, Day -> big gap. I am recording the temp every so often and measuring how big of a gap I have left the tank. So I will kinda relay that off to yall as soon as I make sure this little system is working. I had to replace the water today, about 2/3 of a gallon of water. Which is excellent since the incubator has been set up for a week and that's all the water I have lost. Compared to putting in close to 2 gallons of water every day with the first set up, I am in excellent shape. The eggs all look healthy from a glance through the side of the aquarium and plastic shoe box, I haven't opened the lid to the plastic shoe box as I don't want to disturb them too much in their first few weeks. I think I am on the road to success!
Sorry I give so much detail, it's just that I find all of this information to be important. I have a major problem with just being brief. I'll work on it though.
{Skip this paragraph if you already know how to set up a homemade incubator}
For those of you that don't know, I set up a homemade incubator using a 10 gallon aquarium, 2 bricks, a 50 watt underwater aquarium heater, a plastic shoe box, perilite (vermiculite substitute), sphagnum peat moss, a thermometer {preferably digital}, some water, and a second 10 gallon aquarium to go on top because I didn't have anything else. You put the 2 bricks in the 10 gallon aquarium spaced out a little bit and lying on their long side, then you put some water in to where its about a centimeter from the top of the bricks, insert your aquarium heater between the 2 bricks, I had to cut a small hole in the side of my shoe box so that I could insert the lil probe for the thermometer because you want the thermometer about an inch above the eggs and you will have about 2 inches of perilite/shaphnum peat moss so the hole was cut about 3 inches from the bottom, put some perilite in the shoe box, burry your eggs about 2/3 in being careful not to turn or disrupt the eggs too much, then surround all the eggs with the sphagnum peat moss, cut some holes in the top of the shoe box lid, gently put on the lid but don't close it all the way because it is rather difficult to get off without shaking the conatiner all about, place the container on the bricks, and then cover the aquarium with something but leave a gap. Here are some pics since pics are always nice
Click on the pics to see them full sized!!!
{Skip this paragraph if you don't want to learn from my REALLY STUPID mistakes}
I had the same setup going for my first clutch, but instead of using a 50 watt underwater aquarium heater, I had used a 100 watt because that is what I read to use. Not a good idea. I was replacing the water in the incubator everyday. 100 watts is meant to heat a lot of water, but you don't need but 4 inches of water, so why mess with the bigger heater? I also was using plain potting soil. Big NO NO. Soil is one of those things that can get to moist or too dry and then likes to harvest critters/bugs/bacteria. Third, I couldn't find anything suitible to place ontop of the aquarium. You need something on top of it becuase you want to trap in the heat and moisture. I tried all kinds of things like an extra thick peice of card board {man, I am an idiot}. That worked okay for a while until it started to cave in and kinda shred. {That was a blonde moment... thank god I am a red head, sorry for anyone that gets in the wrath of my anger though.} Then I tried a peice of wood like a lot of people said to do. OMG NO! I had mold growing on that bad boy in less than 24 hours! Last but not least, I tried a plastic. That seemed to work out the best. But, it was a rather large peice of plastic {my laundry basket actually... clothes were just thrown on the ground for a while, makes for a messy house}, so I didn't want to go with that again. So this time around I used just another 10 gallon aquarium becuase it's what I had lying around. You could also use a peice of plexiglass or styrofoam. I am pretty sure you can get either of those cut to size for you at Home Depot or something. It's amazing how many things you can think of in retrospect. I just wish I thought of all of this the first time.
Now what I am learning this time around...
Keeping the temperature constant is proving to be a lesson in itself. The underwater aquarium has a temp gauge just saying - to +, so - means colder and + means warmer. That's all fine and dandy, but it doesn't shut off once its reached a certain temp. I find that during the day the aquarium gets too hot and at night it gets too cold. So, easy solution: just widen/shorten the gap from the lid. The incubator is in the same bedroom as my 2 dragon enclosures, so during the day with the heaters for both tanks on the room itself gets pretty warm. I don't run my airconditioner at all {I am a college student, thus I am cheap}, so the room itself is like always a nice 80 degrees, add the heat lamps and you get it a bit warmer. So I just open the gap to about 6 inches during the day. At night, all the heat lamps are off, so the room is colder than it would be during the day. In addition to that, it has been raining non-stop here and cold fronts keep moving in, so the temperature outside drops dramatically at night too. Doesn't cause much of a temperature change in the room or the enclosures, but it does change the temp of the water a good bit. So at night, I just close the lid on the dragon cage to just a 2 inch gap. Not too much of a formula involved. Night -> small gap, Day -> big gap. I am recording the temp every so often and measuring how big of a gap I have left the tank. So I will kinda relay that off to yall as soon as I make sure this little system is working. I had to replace the water today, about 2/3 of a gallon of water. Which is excellent since the incubator has been set up for a week and that's all the water I have lost. Compared to putting in close to 2 gallons of water every day with the first set up, I am in excellent shape. The eggs all look healthy from a glance through the side of the aquarium and plastic shoe box, I haven't opened the lid to the plastic shoe box as I don't want to disturb them too much in their first few weeks. I think I am on the road to success!
Sorry I give so much detail, it's just that I find all of this information to be important. I have a major problem with just being brief. I'll work on it though.
) just so that the temperature has balanced out and everything appears to be working right. That is, if the temp ever does balance out. Of course, I set mine up the day of the hatching ( Laying 
) the second time because Oscar laid the eggs sooner than I thought she would. 28 days inbetween the clutches... kinda like a woman, perhaps we are on the same cycle??? The first time I had the incubator going before she laid them... but as you know, I was on tippy toes waiting for her to lay them. Such stress! Haha, you know, I think you're right... I have gone through as much as Oscar. 
