Eco Zone Vivarium Control

[summoner12]

I was just looking at buying this today.

I've been reading the site description, am I right about what this can do? It monitors the temperature in the cage and if too hot, dims/turns on/off lights to lower/raise the temperature? If the humidity is too low, turns the mister on to raise it? During peak hours of sunset and sunrise it will dim the lights up and down to recreate the sunset and sunrise effect?

To me, that is just amazing. I think I will tally up the cost today and see what I need to spend.

Will a dimming standard 60w house light bulb work in the basking area, so if it gets to hot the basking light will dim down rather than turn off like mine does now?

You pretty much understand it correctly. this is a wonderful device.

You can program the temp you want for the basking and it will dim the heat lamp as needed. Tony has written some awesome algorithms that make the lamp increase and decrease smoothly. It isn't an on off or 'digital' thermal regulation. It is more complex and thought out.

With a dimmable ballast you can have your uv lamps dim in and out like sunrise/sunset. You can have a moon lamp that will wane and wax with the real moon to simulate the lunar cycle. You can program your humidity level and the mister will operate to maintain humidity.

It is very much worth the money! I have two!

 

[Jammonlee]

I lie, I have more questions when you find the time to answer.
To make it easier, I'll add the questions from above too
EDIT - Sorry, this was posted before I seen you responded to my last


1) Does the Eco Zone manage temperature and humidity by turning on the mister to reach relative humidity levels? Turn Down or Dim the basking lamp to maintain exact temperatures?

2) If I had a dimming 60w light bulb, would the controller dim the light to keep the temperature in range, or will it simply shut the light off like my thermostat does now?

3) The dimming fluorescent light is used to recreate sunrise and sunset, so it dims the UV and Basking light to simulate this?

4) The setup instructions list AC Line 3 for a basking light or mister, using both of these where do you hook each up?

5) Lunar light, simulates moonlight, do you use this and is it recommended?

 

[Jammonlee]

So, the controller has been purchased as well as a dimming florescent light to go along with it. I'm assuming that the included temperature gauges should be enough, so I stalled to buy more.

Can't wait to get this in and set this thing up. Looks to be a really amazing piece of equipment.....

So, I've had Waldo since Feb and already spent well over 1000$ on him....

 

[summoner12]

So, the controller has been purchased as well as a dimming florescent light to go along with it. I'm assuming that the included temperature gauges should be enough, so I stalled to buy more.

Can't wait to get this in and set this thing up. Looks to be a really amazing piece of equipment.....

So, I've had Waldo since Feb and already spent well over 1000$ on him....

Wow, awesome!

I think you'll be ok with the one probe for now. You might need a second one to do a better control with the misting. I think it will work best if you have a heat probe for basking and one more for ambient. If you just have the one for basking, it won't give you a good feel for the overall cage temp.

$1000, thats it? LOL!!!! In 4-5 years now I have spent soooooooo much I can't/wont/don't want to know the actual number!

 

[Jammonlee]

Wow, awesome!

I think you'll be ok with the one probe for now. You might need a second one to do a better control with the misting. I think it will work best if you have a heat probe for basking and one more for ambient. If you just have the one for basking, it won't give you a good feel for the overall cage temp.

$1000, thats it? LOL!!!! In 4-5 years now I have spent soooooooo much I can't/wont/don't want to know the actual number!

Its funny really, because before getting a chameleon I considered a dog, but I didnt want to spend the 300$ pet deposit for the house I am renting. 300$....way too much. and here I am sitting in my living room with a homemade chamelon cage that is 6' tall and 1000$ put into it...

 

[Jammonlee]

Been playing with the EZ400 as of late. I moved away from the temp controlled basking lamp control and just put the basking lamps on a ramp on/off mode (dawn/dusk). The reason I did this is because the temps have been mild. Another reason is that I wasn't liking how if you set the ramp for a long time the heat lamps come on and off as the cage slowly is ramped up to the preset temp. The controller is working as it should... but imagine... you tell the controller to ramp up the temp in the cage over the course of an hour? well if you were using a heating element you wouldn't notice the device turning on and off. but with a heat lamp you see it turning on and off as it controls the temp of the cage. This didn't look right to me. So I went to the dawn to dusk mode where the lamps just slowly ramp on over a set time, by the user. This looks way better. The only down fall is that the temp in the cage won't be changed by the controller unless you set a 'over temp' action to turn off the heat lamps. In the 'heat control' mode, the lights are only as bright as they need to be to maintain heat.

With the temps starting to climb here in SoCal. I decided to switch back over to the 'heat control' mode of the basking lamps. This time instead of ramping up over the course of an hour I set the time to 5 minutes. This avoids the issue i mentioned before. So the Veileds get light a slow ramp up of the UVB lamps in the AM and then once at full the heat lights have a 5 minute ramp. this is less noticable for the chams. It is kinda funny to watch because as the lights come up slowly they chams wake up..... climb from their sleeping spots and move to their basking spots. They relax for a bit and then over 5 minutes the heat lamps come on. The veileds have set up their routines around the lights dimming. It is so natural looking to watch them get ready as the lights go out. I seriously believe they feel more at 'home' with the lights dimming vs. clicking on or off. When lights turn off and on without dimming the chams seem to guess what time to get ready for bed... they end up in different places. I have noticed that my veileds with the dimming light are in their spots ready to sleep by the time lights out.

I posted this image in another thread but wanted to post here as well so I could 'get the word out' about it.... it is important to have UVB and heat in the same place so a chameleon can process it's calcium better. It is a good idea to place a UVB lamp down the center of the cage and place the heat lamp at an angle so that the cham can get both UVB and heat/UVA rays at the same time.

So, myself having the UV light on one side and the basking light on the opposite side is bad. or not necessarily bad, but to give Waldo a better chance at processing calcium, i should have the UV light over, or closer, to the area where he normally spends his time basking

 

[summoner12]

So, myself having the UV light on one side and the basking light on the opposite side is bad. or not necessarily bad, but to give Waldo a better chance at processing calcium, i should have the UV light over, or closer, to the area where he normally spends his time basking

UV and heat should be in the same area. If you are using a Zoo Med 5.0, be sure the basking branch is about 6-8" from the lamp. It is very wise to us aluminum foil as a reflector, even if you have a 'reflective' material in the fixture. I lined the EcoZone 24" fixture with foil to increase output.

Check out the UVGuide website, there is some good reading.

Also use a 6500K lamp along side of your UVB lamp, it will increase the spectra for the animal and keep your plants alive.

 

[Jammonlee]

Yeah, i'm working on rearranging the lights as we speak, keeping the basking in the original spot and positioning the UV to cover the same area.

6500K light is something I've definitely looked into, and I guess for the hell of it I will get some sort of moonlight lamp to mimic the lunar side for the ecozone. I'll probably place it in a corner that he rarely travels though

 

[summoner12]

Yeah, i'm working on rearranging the lights as we speak, keeping the basking in the original spot and positioning the UV to cover the same area.

6500K light is something I've definitely looked into, and I guess for the hell of it I will get some sort of moonlight lamp to mimic the lunar side for the ecozone. I'll probably place it in a corner that he rarely travels though

I would place it high up... so the output is very little.... it's more of a nightlight I guess... and you dont want it giving off heat. I haven't played with that part of it yet... I suppose I could with my leopard gecko. I have her setup with the standard ecozone at the moment.

 

[Jammonlee]

the night light for the lunar feeling should be placed higher up?

So I've managed to move my short UV lamp to the same side as the basking light, it leaves the complete other side of the cage dark, no light source what so ever. This sound okay with you?

Sure cant wait to get the new stuff in

 

[Jammonlee]

EcoZone has just shipped! I am TOO excited for this....just hope my bulbs arrive sooner or at the same time

 

[Jammonlee]

Received EcoZone today! Too bad I dont get home from work tomorrow. But I've had all night to read the manual and pre-plan my settings to use.

I've noticed...I don't think you can set different misting duration's for your different time of days. say I want a good long misting in the morning 30 minutes after waking up and then a few 5 minute mistings after, I cant do it. On mist duration's per month can be changed along with what time of day you want it to go off for each month

 

[Monzon]

I could see that making the programming slightly more involved, but that is a feature I would, for certain, want.

 

[sdheli420]

ive been wanting one of these for sooo long now..and now that i see a full review on it in use with chams..i may have to finally take the jump..i would love to see my free range dim before nightime, and slowly warmp up to basking temps for the day..i feel you would be right about them feeling "more at home"..thanks for all the work posting this!!

 

[summoner12]

Received EcoZone today! Too bad I dont get home from work tomorrow. But I've had all night to read the manual and pre-plan my settings to use.

I've noticed...I don't think you can set different misting duration's for your different time of days. say I want a good long misting in the morning 30 minutes after waking up and then a few 5 minute mistings after, I cant do it. On mist duration's per month can be changed along with what time of day you want it to go off for each month

I will resolve my network connection and take a look at what your talking about. Off the top of my head I am not sure. I need to repair the network connection I have with the EcoZone because I think I made some changes and it's been so long I forgot what I did haha. nothing to do with the EcoZone really... just the wifi bridge it's connected to is all messed up.

 

[Jammonlee]

My ideal was to give a good 20 minutes misting 30 minutes after the "sun rises" and then 4 hours later, a good 5 minutes misting, then 4 hours later a good 5 minutes misting, and then 2 hours before the "sun sets" a 10 minute mist.

I'm curious about imitating seasons with this controller.

Should I make the summer temps hotter then the winter temps, July being at 100% (85 degrees) and January being at a lower % (80 degrees)?
Should I make the wetter months of September and January in Yemen mist more in the cage then the other months, and the drier months of April and June mist less (all while keeping the humidity in the 50% range)?

I have this for my pre-planned basking temperatures according to climate changes in Yemen. I kept the temperatures in a safe range of 80-85 degrees, the coldest months being 80 and the hottest being 85

Temp Hi:
Jan - 80
Feb - 80
Mar - 81
Apr - 82
May - 83
Jun - 85
Jul - 84
Aug - 84
Sep - 84
Oct - 82
Nov - 81
Dec - 80

It takes roughly 24 minutes for the sun to peak at the horizon and fully rise over the horizon, so thats what I set my ramp time for the dimming lights, to go from 0% power to 100% power in 24 minutes for the UV lights same for the UV lights to dim down.

I'd regulate the temperature according to Yemens climate but I want my basking light (heat producer) to only be lit with the UV light is lit. So I will begin my ramp up and down on my basking light to go from 0-100% the same time the UV light is, 24 minutes, so they all dim and increase at the same time.

 

[summoner12]

Update, hooked up second EcoZone to a terrarium

I have a small update right now. I finally set up the second EcoZone Controller that has the humidity control. At the Reptile Super Show this past weekend my GF and I bid on a small ZooMed terrarium at the USARK auction and then on Sunday we purchased a couple of frogs.

What is connected at the moment to the EcoZone:

• Humdity/Temp probe
• AquaZamp Premium misting system
• Dimmable 6700K CFL
• Soon to come: a small computer fan

I have the EcoZone A/C output #1 set to auto mist. The unit checks humidity every 30 minutes and will run mist for 15 seconds if the humidity reading is less than 80%. The CFL is set on a dawn to dusk mode on A/C output #2. The CFL only goes to 50% power with a 30 minute ramp. I will most likely change this to an hour or more... but for tomorrow while I get ready for work I want to watch 'the sun rise'.

I don't expect the automist mode to activate very often. The humidity in this little terrarium stays very high. Once I hook up the computer fan I expect to see more swings in humidity. If anyone has any input on my frog care... please feel free to PM me, I am new to them and if I am doing something wrong here, let me know lol.

I will update again soon!

Photos of the setup in it's temporary location (bathroom counter )

 

[Stanly]

Nice, I want some (darts and eco zone). did you get the network issue resolved? Keep us posted.

p.s. What's the plan with the fan?

 

[Sodbuster]

So I was just reading up on this thing and it sounds awesome to say the least but I do have one question. Since the device is ran off of an internet software program does it automatically update dawn and dusk times or do you have to still manually adjust the settings as the seasons change?

 

[summoner12]

Nice, I want some (darts and eco zone). did you get the network issue resolved? Keep us posted.

p.s. What's the plan with the fan?

The fan will be to keep air moving through the terrarium. I have not read a whole ton up on terrarium design and operation... but my understanding is that you want air movement. I can also put one or two fans on the terrarium that are connected to the EcoZone that operate based on temp. Say the temp gets too high I can power the fans on to cool the inside. This seems like it might not really be too effective since a terrarium depends on the ambiant temps... But the CFL does put off some fair amount of heat, so air movement could help cool the terrarium.

So I was just reading up on this thing and it sounds awesome to say the least but I do have one question. Since the device is ran off of an internet software program does it automatically update dawn and dusk times or do you have to still manually adjust the settings as the seasons change?

The device is programmable via ethernet/internet... but does not source data from the internet, other than time and date via DNS server (but I could be wrong on the DNS statement). As far as the time of sun rise/set durration... you program this. Because the sun doesn't rise and set the same for everyone, you set the times. The time is settable by month. Each month can have it's own time of rise/set and durration.