Habitat - Indoor :: Someone Talk To Me About Lighting

[EdieOnline]

Currently I have a dome light for heat and a florescent tube fixture for UVB. Is it possible to use one florescent fixture with a bulb for heat and UVB? I read on the main readearslider.com page about a Mercury Vapor Bulb. Is this bulb the way to go, as it covers both heat and UVB? Basically I don't want two fixtures (dome and UVB florescent). What setups do you all have? My turtle is about 8 months old and has an ATBA on top of a 20GL long. Curious if anyone is using the Mercury Vapor Bulbs.

[Jeremiah]

MVB's are the only way to provide all basking requirements in one fixture. MegaRay and Arcadia are popular brands. These kinds of bulbs do need to be farther away than regular bulbs; they cannot just sit "on top of the cage" unless you have a large distance (14"-16" is good) between the basking surface and the bulb. Just be sure to keep the basking spot at 90-95F.

[EdieOnline]

Or what about a florescent fixture with one bulb for heat, one bulb for UVA, and one for UVB? So 2 or 3 bulbs in one fixture. Is this even an option?

[Kansasslider]

That's not really an option because fluorescent bulbs don't provide enough heat. I use them to start vegetables indoors. What don't you like about your setup?

[steve]

MVBs are powerful and usually start out at 100w so most keepers don't use them with smaller enclosures and turtles. You can but need to take extra care, and you need to start with a larger dome w/ceramic base.

Any particular reason you don't like having two lamps? Your tank looks pretty nice.

[EdieOnline]

My UVB light was cheap (PetSmart - All Living Things brand) and am not sure it is doing a thing other than acting as a light. So I want to buy a new one (UVB), but kind of want to get rid of having two fixtures. Been thinking about buying one of those double dome setups that I can hang off a stand or something. I'll be upgrading to a bigger tank this summer though, so maybe I should wait until then to upgrade my lights too.

[steve]

Reptisun 5.0 tubes are considered to be very good, maybe use that until you upgrade. You need to replace UVBs 2-3 times a year, depending on how much they are on. A UVB meter can tell you if it's really working or not. Those devices cost about $200 though. I heard people take their bulbs to reptile shows and have them read there. Maybe a local reptile store will do the same for a customer? How big is the turtle? If you can ID the sex, you will have an idea of the tank you should get. Males are smaller, so you won't need as large of a tank.

[Kansasslider]

When you get a bigger tank I would tell you to consider a 100 watt MegaRay mvb. They are considered the best mvb and only need 1 good quality fixture. Ceramic socket! And only need replaced yearly from what I understand.

[EdieOnline]

think frank is 8mths old. Still pretty little. I think he is a male based off of his claws and anus (giggle) placement farther back on the tail. The logical step would be to go up to a 50 or 55 gallon, but a large tank is always appealing. What lights do you use Steve and Kansasslider?

[ljapa]

i use the MegaRay 160 watt on a 55 gallon tank.

I went with that because it lets me set it higher and provide a larger uvb footprint, which I hope gives my turtle an opportunity to choose exactly how much she wants.

I love that it provides heat and UVB. Though, i've not had a good shed for a long time. My plan sometime this year is to move to a larger tank. I'm seriously considering two basking platforms, one with the MegaRay and one with CFL + heat.

[steve]

I take my RES out a few times a week during the spring/summer/fall, so I don't do much indoor UVB. I have UVB tubes to use if I need them. I'm considering MVBs for year round use though, but that depends on a future tank upgrade.

@ljapa - Do you think the CLF worked better for Tobi's shedding?

[ljapa]

@ljapa - Do you think the CLF worked better for Tobi's shedding?

I don't know. She shed multiple times the first year, and hasn't really shed her main scutes since. There has been minor shedding on the marginals and the sides. The top scutes have had air bubbles underneath for months.

The shedding had stopped before my move to an MVB, and I first went with a powersun. Once I got a UVB meter, the powersun was putting out less UVB than a CFL.

The shift in shedding also corresponded to the reduction in pellets as her growth slowed.

She basks. She gets very little natural sunlight. Work hours mean its only weekends that she can go out, and she's so skittish the few times I did take her out. So between that and the frequent lousy weather this past summer, she maybe got six or seven hours outside the entire summer.

She's not pyramidding, just severely retaining scutes.

[steve]

Has those air bubbles gotten larger? My RES are very irregular shedders, so it could take a year or more for a complete shed. Any lifting around the edges?