Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:52 pm
Welcome. For any mercury vapor bulb, you can go to a place like Home Depot or Lowes and buy a 10-inch brooder lamp (just a dome fixture with a socket) that has a ceramic base and is rated for 250 watts (this is good just in case you decide to buy a higher wattage UVB light in the future). This is somewhat cheaper than buying a fixture advertised specifically for reptiles. (I've used one for a few years now and it's worked fine). In another tank I'm using a 10-inch ESU dome fixture, also rated for 250 watts. It's working fine as well. Just find a fixture that has similar specs to the ones I mentioned. You need to hang the bulb vertically, so you need some sort of lamp stand (Zoo-Med makes them---if you get one, get the regular size, not the smaller size) or you need to fashion something of your own to hang the fixture from. I have one of the Zoo-Med stands for one tank, and I'm using a flag stand for another. They both work well.
Pay attention to the mfgr's instructions as to the distance the bulb needs to be from the basking area and check the temp of the basking area.
"You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." -Antoine de Saint Exupery-
