My homemade incubator

My manager of my Work placement at my local reptile shop built me a homemade incubator as a 'thank you' for all the hard work I did!

• Styrofoam Box

• Aquarium tank heater with a built in thermostat

• Cricket tub with vermiculite

• Slate block (to stop the tub getting wet)

so... What do you think?

Think it'll be interesting to see how it works. That aquarium heater scares me tho. Only ones I know are suppose be used in/under water. They'll shatter otherwise.

The incubator has water in it thats why there is slate in there! Stops the tub being submerged and the heater will be completely underwater

That is the set up I had before I bought a real one. It worked perfectly!

I have just plugged the tank heater in, how long will it take to get to the correct temps or will the water stay "feeling" cold?

It actually doesn't end up feeling too warm. The important thing is to put a thermometer with a probe in the container of vermiculite so that you KNOW the temperature that the vermiculite is....it doesn't matter what the temp of the water is. If the vermiculite is too cold then turn up the tank heater.....if the vermiculite is too hot....of course turn it down. I usually gave it several hours before I considered it to be a TRUE reading.

Ok. The pix didn't come up last time. Stupid phone is slow sometimes when there's s lot of 'em.

Just a note on how many hours until temps are reading true... remember it's going to take time for that rock to heat to temp and you're going to have temperature. Fluctuation until it is. Usually I like to give any set using natural rock a good 12 hours to heat equally with the other elements of the habitat. Water heats faster than stone.

Just curious but you don't have that heater sitting directly on that styrofoam do you?

looks good, smilar to my set up now, though mine is a bit simpler.

Mine is just a heatmat under polystyrene box on a thermostat. For temp reading, i have a dummy tub set up with thermostat probe and thermometer probe in. No humidity in the actual incubator is created all the humidity comes from the incubation substrate in the tub which you inucbate in.

I had the heater on all night at the max temps it will go, and I have put a probe attached to a thermometer and put into the tub with the vermiculite... Its at 82.9F atm and I think it will be still going up.... What temps are good to produce females?

females I usually put it at 83 or 84. What I found is if you can't get the heat high enough at another rock in, even if you don't have anything to put on it. It just reduces the amount of space the heater needs to heat.

How does it reduce the amount of space it had to heat if you add another rock? Its still going to heat that 2nd rock and anything else that sits in that water. Don't forget the general laws of thermodynamics. There may be less water to heat but theres more solid mass to heat rather than water.

Well, maybe it was just a coincidence then.

Woo cool incubator. it looks great I can't wait to hear if it works well

the rocks don't need to heat though... sure the tubs are sat on the rocks but the water is essentially what heats tub up and the ambient air in the incubator.

I understand the rocks don't need to be heated but they will regardless. You get more stable temps heating rock over water as it is. I'm just saying...anything in that water is going to be heated, whether it needs it or not. In all actuality jordan it it's an equal mix, in that type of set up, of ambient temps and the temp of the rock that is going to heat your bin.adding another rock, rocks hold heat better than water so I'm not surprised you got better temps adding another. I'm just saying

how is this working for you??
We need an update :P :P

Shes still not dropped her eggs yet! Its getting a tad annoying! ahahaa

awww Well I hope she pops them out soon for you

Could the babies that you're incubating not climb up the sides?
(I'm not even sure that you incubate babies or just eggs :S)

Well the eggs will be in a tub so when the babies hatch they will be in a tub surely.

But yes polystyrene is reasonably easy for gecko's to climb up.

But babies can't stay in the tub for long can they? There wouldn't be enough room?

They are very very tiny Jess and when you are incubating eggs you tend to check on them frequently when you know they are getting closer to hatching. When they have hatched then you move then to a hat box sized container and keep them just like other leos.

Ohh....

I can happily confirm that this incubator works and I had my first egg hatch EVER :D

wooooo!