General Care Discussion :: Is a "Full Spectrum" light a good idea?

[Kiranin]

Hey guys I've been looking for stuff for my baby turtles and I found a good shop, here's the thing though, the shopkeep showed me a full spectrum light when I asked about a light for my turtles, and he frowned upon an UVB light saying all that did was kill bacteria. I'm not sure and I honestly want some tips on this. I just wanna know if this light is good, or If I should get an UVB.

Also, I wanted to know a good brand and type of filter, he showed me one from a brand called "sunny" that looked pretty good, which I noticed he had in his turtle aquarium, and he had about 3 pretty big ones which seems to me like he's doing well.

Please any thoughts would be nice. Thanks

[TheComputerGremlin]

On the light, you need to have both UVB and a heat bulb. The heat bulb can be a regular incandescent bulb from home. You'll need to find a good wattage for your tank, I'd start around 60W and see if you need more or less. The UVB is a must, just as it is with humans. Turtles and humans need UVB light (at least 15 minutes of direct sunlight a day) to convert calcium to vitamin D. Otherwise, all of us will be vitamin D deficient. We provide our turtles with a UVB bulb so they can bask whenever needed, but if it is warm outside, you can still do the direct sunlight method. Far as I can reason, the amount of UVB we subject our turtles to isn't strong enough to kill bacteria, in my lab we use a really high powered UVB bulb for that, like 100% UVB, not the 5% we use for our turtles.

For the filter, you optimally want one that will change over all of the gallons in your tank 3-5 times per hour. So if you have a 30 gallon tank, you want a filter rated as 90-150 gph.

Can you describe your setup and the filter you are thinking about better? That will help us decide if your setup needs more work and where you can improve upon, and we'll be able to figure out the filter. I've not heard of the brand Sunny ...

[Kiranin]

Ok here's the tank set-up:

Tank:
- Height 11.6"
- Length 20"
- Width 10.3"

- Water height: 6.7"

- Plastic floating island.
- Log
- plastic cave-like ornament


And here's the filter i was talking about (at least I think it was this model) ((the page is in spanish sorry))
http://www.sunnyaquarium.com/es/index.p ... d_padre=89

[steve]

A UVB bulb needs to say UVB on the packaging. A "Full Spectrum" bulb can mean anything these days.

[TurtleLover_S&B]

Yeah,I have a Repti Glo 5.0 UVB bulb that's 26 watts,but it doesn'y say anything about "Full Spectrum".

[AerianaEve]

Yea, I have a full spectrum light, (it was prescribed last year for SAD, I don't see a mood difference but it does make my headaches go away...) and it doesn't do anything for turtles. No UV of any kind. In fact, when my doc found out that Speedy has the Repti Glo 10.0 and it has UVB he told my mom go to stand in front of it. XD That bulb is pretty expensive, but it lasts for pretty long too. And it good for you AND your turtle!

[cchipres]

Keep Baby Turtles warm. They need UVB full spectrum light to help with their bone and shell growth. Always give them a dry and water choice, and a light and shade choice. Don't let them "cook" under hot lights, but they do like to bask. Right now it's cold weather, so they should be kinda sleepy. But they're babies so keep their water warm and give them little protein treats like dried gammarus (shrimp-like food). Make sure they're pooping normal. KEEP THEIR WATER CLEAN! That's the key to keeping them healthy. I love baby turtles.