General Care Discussion :: Lighting!!!

[elindros97]

I've decided to do the plain incandescent bulb for heat and a UVA/UVB bulb for that...

I have a 1 and 1/2 '' RES and I'm curious about which bulb to get him... PetSmart.com has UVA/UVB of 2.0 and 5.0

Which one should I get?

[kmichael55]

The 5.0 and it should be placed about 12" away from the basking spot.

[SpotsMama]

If you get a Reptisun 5.0 compact fluorescent, be sure and follow the guidelines below (pdf file) for breaking in the bulb and for correct distance from the basking area. If this particular bulb is too close to the basking turtle it can cause eye irritation:

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewt ... t=reptisun

[elindros97]

The 5.0 means 5% UVB? I will have to get a long 18'' flourescant because I have that length casing which holds up to 15 Watts and T8 bulbs... so the compact bulb is out. Would I still need to keep it more than 12'' away? My setup is that I rest the fixture on the screen which is around 4-5'' above the area. How do I make that distance greater without lowering the water? My tank is flush against the wall but on the narrow side, it comes out from the wall length wise, and so does the light. How can I mount the light this way without it falling? I cannot move the tank to be length wide against the wall.

Are there other long fluorescent fixtures/clips, etc. that can help me do this?
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I've since purchased a linear flourescent with a UVB output of 8% and a UVA output of 30%. Am I correct in assuming that despite the metal screen, my turtle will still get at least 5% UVB output? (I've read the screens block app. 30% of UVB output).

It is a Repti-Glo 18'' T8 15 Watt bulb which I got from www.herpsupply.com. The reason I did not get the ReptiSun 10.0 (not the compact one) is because it only mentioned 10.0 UVB output and did not have specs for UVA. Not even on the Zoo-Med website did it even have a picture of a ReptiSun 10.0. The only 10.0 there was the COMPACT bulb which looked more like a miniature linear with it's own ballasted end built in, etc. So I was confused, and didn't bother.

I still have the issue of the fixture, however, as described above. I'm trying to not have to rest it on top of the cage because A.) it takes away from the UVB output and B.) it is only around 3-4'' above the basking area.

[DavidY]

What I've done before with one of my tube flourescent light fixtures was drill two holes through the top plastic near both ends. Make sure to check that you're not drilling through anything electrical on the other side. Then I screwed two eye-hooks into the holes and hung the fixture from two chains hanging from the ceiling. You can cut the chains to the desired height that you need and you're all set.

[marisa]

If you're using a tube flourescent and it's 5% UVB, 6-8 inches from your basking turtle would be good.

[SpotsMama]

Yes, the tube fluorescents can go much closer to the basking area than the compact fluorescents. And yes, 5.0, for example, does mean 5% of the light is UVB. And it would be good to cut the screen between the bulb and the basking area so the turtle will be the full benefit of that good bulb.