which bulb is best?

[rafael lopez]

im planing to make a 4 x 2 x2 ft closed chamber for a single baby sulcata tortoise, and i was wondering which bulbs would be the best to use, i was thinking about a zoomed powersun mvb 100w and a ceramic heater, but i can´t seem to find a proper review of them, specialy the powersun, a lot of people say its the best and other say that it causes eye problems to the animals.

 

[Tom]

A Powersun will be too hot in a closed chamber.

You need:
1. A regular incandescent flood bulb for basking. I use 65 watt ones, but you might need something lower wattage in your smaller chamber. Set this on a 12-13 hour timer.
2. A CHE set on a thermostat to maintain ambient above 80 day and night.
3. A florescent tube to light the whole thing up. Something in the 6500K range will work best. A 10.0 UV tube will work too, but you won't get any UV benefit from it at two feet high. This can be set on the same timer as the basking bulb.
4. If you live in a warm area where your tortoise can get sun most of the year, then you don't need UV. If your tortoise is indoors most of the year due to cold temperatures, then you need some UV. I like the newer "HO" bulbs from Arcadia. Many types to choose from here: http://www.lightyourreptiles.com

 

[rafael lopez]

im from hermosillo sonora, here it gets pretty hot, its going to be indoors for the majority of time as long as it is a baby, i don't want to let it outside too much alone, i need to find a website that ships to Mexico to buy the bulbs, also whats a CHE?

 

[JoesMum]

A CHE is a Ceramic Heat Emitter. It provides heat without light and needs to be used with a thermostat.

It is no good for basking heat or UVB , you just use it to raise the ambient temperature of the enclosure.

A CHE looks like this (you can get black ones too - they're no different)


Try Amazon for your purchases.

 

[rafael lopez]

how mani watts do you recommend for the CHE for a 4 x 2 x 2 ft enclosure?

 

[Killerrookie]

how mani watts do you recommend for the CHE for a 4 x 2 x 2 ft enclosure?

Probably just one 100 WATT CHE to have the entire enclosure heated up enough to keep the animal safe and not get sick.

 

[rafael lopez]

and for uvb a zoomed reptisun 10.0 T5-HO 24w from 20 to 24 inches away from the animal would work?

 

[Tom]

and for uvb a zoomed reptisun 10.0 T5-HO 24w from 20 to 24 inches away from the animal would work?

I have not used that particular bulb, so I cannot say for sure. Only a UV meter can answer this question with any certainty. If you are going to be relying on indoor UV bulbs for several months of every year, I highly recommend a UV meter so that you can check your bulbs to be sure they are producing enough UV, and so that you will know when to replace them. Like this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html