Can a ceramic heat emitter be used as the main heat lamp?

[Marker9898]

Reason being is that my room gets pretty cold at night, so I think I’d need one anyway. However I don’t have much space to add yet another light to hang on the wooden bar I’m using to hang his current lights (uvb and heat). I was wondering then can I just use a che all the time? Use it to provide the basking temp through a thermostat and just keep it on all day. If my tortoise gets too hot he can go to the other side of his enclosure which is 6x3. I guess the two concerns about this would be:

Is keeping it on all day at a high temp dangerous? It would be hooked up to a thermostat so it wouldn’t go over that temp

Do tortoises need light to be directly on them when they bask? Ceramic heat emitters don’t produce light

 

[ZEROPILOT]

If the CHE setup gets you into your ideal temperature range, then yes.
When I had tortoises indoors I had simply a strip florescent UVB and a CHE. It provided my day light. My UVB and my heat.
Especially at night. You need darkness and warmth.
What species of tortoise do you have? Some types, like Redfoot, don't require bright lights or high heat at all.
Most tortoises that bask will probably associate light with heat and basking.
I do not keep a species that basks very often.

 

[Marker9898]

If the CHE setup gets you into your ideal temperature range, then yes.
When I had tortoises indoors I had simply a strip florescent UVB and a CHE. It provided my day light. My UVB and my heat.
Especially at night. You need darkness and warmth.
What species of tortoise do you have? Some types, like Redfoot, don't require bright lights or high heat at all.
Most tortoises that bask will probably associate light with heat and basking.
I do not keep a species that basks very often.

He’s a Russian. You think it’s fine to keep it at like 100 degrees day and night? I mean the spot directly under the che
At night it can get to 63 degrees but mostly it’s 68-69. Right now his substrate is really moist because it was coconut coir bricks that had to be submerged in water. Worried that he might get a respiratory illness from that combined with the low temperatures at night

 

[Tom]

Reason being is that my room gets pretty cold at night, so I think I’d need one anyway. However I don’t have much space to add yet another light to hang on the wooden bar I’m using to hang his current lights (uvb and heat). I was wondering then can I just use a che all the time? Use it to provide the basking temp through a thermostat and just keep it on all day. If my tortoise gets too hot he can go to the other side of his enclosure which is 6x3. I guess the two concerns about this would be:

Is keeping it on all day at a high temp dangerous? It would be hooked up to a thermostat so it wouldn’t go over that temp

Do tortoises need light to be directly on them when they bask? Ceramic heat emitters don’t produce light

You can use it in addition to, not instead of. You need all four elements.

Here is a breakdown of the four heating and lighting essentials:

1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
2. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. In most cases you'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night. Some people in colder climates or with larger enclosures will need multiple CHEs or RHPs to spread out enough heat.
3. Ambient light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in LED bulb types are both fine.
4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. In colder climates, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. I like the 12% HO bulbs from Arcadia. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html A good UV bulb only needs to run for 2-3 hours mid day. You need the basking bulb and the ambient lighting to be on at least 12 hours a day.