[getmealemon]

In a weeks time i will be getting some electric blue geckos, one male and one female.

I have setup my tank already but have a few questions. The setup so far is a 18"X18"X24X exo terra. Lighting is both exo terra repti glo 5.0 and a 2.0. As for heating i've got a night glo 40W moonlamp mounted just above the viv.

My first question relates to temps. Currently the basking spot is 90F which is ideal, but the rest of the tank only measures 75F(I've read it should be into the 80's). At night time with everything off the tank drops to about 68F. Is this going to be too cold? Should i stick a small heatmat to the side wall of the viv to raise the ambient temp slightly? I'm aware you should drop the temps at night which is why i don't want to keep the night glo on.

My second question relates to probably my biggest mistake so far. The viv is planted with top soil and eco earth as a substrate however i didnt start with a layer of stones or similiar to allow for drainage. Is this likely to be a big problem? If so it's best for me to rectify before i get the little blighters.

Apologies for the lengthy post!

Chris

[Marckip86]

Ive been looking at getting a small colony of these myself, and made the same mistake as you when i came to pricing everything up i kept forgetting the drainage issue so i would rectify this before you get them if its not to late to do so as i was also looking at getting some form of water feature in there as well.
with regards to your temp stick a heat mat to the back or side and put it on a stat for the night time temp that you need that way it will stop the heat dropping to low

[getmealemon]

I've now got one male and no female due to a mix up with the sexing which is quite common with these. The setup seems to be working well and i've no issues so far.

You mentioned a water feature, i have the small exo terra waterfall and it looks quite good. My Williamsi goes down to drink out of it. He is also feeding very well on fruit flies, calci worms and Clarks Gecko Diet which he seems to love.

I've been told by others that the drainage layer isn't massively important as long as you don't water the plants too much.

Goodluck with your colony

I've included a pic of my setup, since this was taken i've added a load of jungle vine and bamboo for him to hang out on.

[Marckip86]

That looks excellent. yea i was looking at a water fall and one of those drippers that can create a mist in the morning which i thought would look quite nice in there