General Care Discussion :: lighting question

[LaurL55]

How close can the turtle be to the light? I want to add more water in the tank but am afraid that will put my turtle too close. ???

[TheComputerGremlin]

Depends on the light source being used. An incandescent (heating) light, I wouldn't get much closer than 12 inches because the turtle is likely to splash it and potentially short circuit/electrocute/etc. Water + electricity never equals a good thing! A compact fluorescent should be between 12-18 inches I believe away from the turtle. An MVB should be 18-24 inches if I recall.

In other words, raise the water height, raise the bulb height.

[worldpeace]

Are you sure about that? My 60W heat bulb doesn't even heat up the basking area at 12 inches.

[marisa]

I'm going to assume that you're talking about a heat light (incandescent bulb). You don't want the turtle so close to the bulb that she can touch it and you want the bulb close enough to the basking area so that the temp is in the range of 88 - 90F.

Does your turtle have both a heat light and a UVB light?

[LaurL55]

I thought the heat lamp has uvb in it. It's a turtle tuff bulb made to be okay if they splash. I have a night red bulb and another blue one that I don't use. ??

[planet.caravan]

if the package does not say it has uvb then it does not have uvb

I don't think turtle tuff bulbs do

The heat lamp unless you buy something like a solar glo will have only uva as far as I know

They do not need red and blue bulbs

[LaurL55]

So there are 2 lights? Do they both go over the basking area?

[planet.caravan]

Your heat lamp should go over the basking area and your uvb (depending on the kind you have) can go anywhere on the tank (having some pointing towards the basking spot wouldn't hurt though)

[LaurL55]

Ok. Thank you. I'll get a uvb lamp right away.

[marisa]

The UVB light really shouldn't go anywhere in the tank, and ideally as much as possible should be positioned over the basking area (next to the heat light) for your turtle to really benefit from it. The strength of the UVB rays decreases dramatically the further the light is from the basking area.

[TheComputerGremlin]

Your turtle will receive little to no UVB if they are in the water, so the UVB needs to go over the basking area as well. Water causes the UVB to scatter in the same manner as glass or screens.

And if your 60W doesn't heat up the area at 12 inches, buy a stronger bulb. You can use an 80W if you need to. Wattage will be directly proportional to temperature. If it is too close, your turtle may splash it (I know my turtle easily splashes 8 inches above the water surface) and that can cause a fire.

[Ganesha]

Be warned... if you have a filtration system that splashes, it can splash up into the bulb when you change your water depth! And picking pieces of UV light bulb out of the tank at 5am is no fun. Not that... I would know...