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Hi everyone,

I have a light fitting which holds two light tubes. Today, I installed a new UVB light tube into the fitting and fitted the other slot with a regular light tube. Do you know if the regular light tube emits enough heat to replace the lamp I had in place before purchasing the tube fitting. When I put my hand underneat it, it seems it does emit heat, but I'm just no sure whether that is enough.
Also, does my turtle have to be basking to obtain full benefit of the UVB or do the UVA and UVB waves also penetrate the water.

Thank you for your help.

tube bulbs do not emit enough heat. What you will need is just a standard household bulb. Depending on how far away it is going to be placed will determine whether you get a 40 or 60 watt. It's a lot of trial and error to discover where it will work best and get the desired temp.

If the regular light tube is also a flourescent, then it's not giving off enough heat to bask under. You could check the temp by placing a thermometer under it where your turtle would bask (putting the thermometer on an object about the height of your turtle's shell would make the reading more accurate), leave it there for about 20 min. and see what the reading is. You want the temp in the range of 88-90F. A regular house bulb is fine for producing heat (clamp it over the basking area next to the UVB light. Since the UVB light is a tube, you want to position the fixture as much over the basking area as possible.

What kind of UVB light are you using? The strength of the UVB rays emitted by the light drops dramatically the further away the light is from the turtle, so to get maximum benefits, your turtle should be basking under it. If you're using a Reptisun 5.0 tube, for example, having the light about 6-8 inches from your basking turtle would be good.

Sunlight can penetrate water a few inches down, but with a UVB light (much weaker), this would obviously be much less, if at all.

Thank you very much missibu and marisa.

I have turned off the regular light tube and put the lamp back on and the change is drastic. Gamerra went to bask straight away. You were right, the light tube didnt emit enough heat. As a result, he was swimming most of the time without basking.
I am using Reptisun 5.0 (I didnt go for the Sera Terra UVB I queried in another post). Marisa, I do try to place it directly over the spot where the light bulb is shining so that Gamerra gets UVB exposure as he is basking under the heat.

I have also monitered the water level so that the UVB tube is about 6inches from the basking area (even though Zoomed says it can emit down as much as 12inches). I do have a question though.. what would happen if the turtle is too close to the UVB tube. That is, at anything closer than the 6inches I see often recommended by everyone. Is there any danger in that?

Thank you for your help.

I wouldn't put the 5.0 closer than 6 inches, especially if it's new. UVB rays can affect the eyes. I don't recall anyone here recommending that the light be placed closer than 6 inches...