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I'm buying one bulb for heating a terrarium, just heating, I don't need UVA or UVB, so I'm discarding halogen and mercury vapor for that matter.

Now I'm dubious between incandescent, infrared and ceramic. Should I be inclined towards any of these 3 options for some particular reason? I'm thinking about buying the ceramic one because they are supposed to generate higher heat emissions than the others, but I don't even know if that's true.

Which one would you recommend?

It's for your turtle? If not, what's in the tank?

Halogen doesn't produce UVB. Between the choices, I would go with incandescent. I don't see what benefit infrared gives you. You can't visibly see when ceramic heat emitters stop working and they seemed to have a short life-span.

steve wrote:It's for your turtle? If not, what's in the tank?

Halogen doesn't produce UVB. Between the choices, I would go with incandescent. I don't see what benefit infrared gives you. You can't visibly see when ceramic heat emitters stop working and they seemed to have a short life-span.

I finally bought a ceramic bulb because I didn't want to have any light during the night.

The Exo Terra webpage states that it should be used with a wired fixture to avoid overheating due to heat concentration inside the fixture, this one:






However, I'm using it in a closed type like this:



Could it be dangerous?

Why do you need it for the night?

steve wrote:Why do you need it for the night?

Because it gets really cold during the night here, and I have observed that she tends to go up to her basking zone sometimes during the night, so I need to keep it warm or she will end up getting neumonia. Also, I don't want to be turning on an off the lamp everyday, I just want to leave it on 24h.

Do you know if it's safe using a ceramic bulb in regular dome-type fixture instead of a wired one ?

Are you using a submersible water heater? What's the water temperature? Will you still have a uva/uvb lamp during the day?

Why not have two separate timers, one for daytime and the other for night time?

As for the fixture, you will probably have to get the wire one. The ones with the dome are removable but a cage gives YOU a bit of protection.

steve wrote:Are you using a submersible water heater? What's the water temperature? Will you still have a uva/uvb lamp during the day?

Why not have two separate timers, one for daytime and the other for night time?

As for the fixture, you will probably have to get the wire one. The ones with the dome are removable but a cage gives YOU a bit of protection.

Yes, I'm using a water heater, I try to keep the water at about 77ºF/25ºC. During the winter I cover her enclosure with transparent plastic for wind and thermic isolation, so the UVB from the sun is not really reaching the turtle, that's why I need a UVB bulb during the day too.

I do not entirely understand the last thing you said, what do you mean with 'The ones with the dome are removable'?, when you say 'cage' do you refer to the wired fixture? if so, why do they offer few protection?

If your turtle is indoors, any sort of window glass will block UVB too.

The dome and cage shown above are removable from the ceramic/porcelain socket. So you can use the heat emitter and remove the dome if you think it will hurt the longevity of the bulb.