infrared light on glass canopy

[un-loco]

Hopefully I am posting in the right place. Sorry if not.

I have an infrared heat light over a vivarium glass tank. I have a glass cover to help with humidity for a red-footed.(going to build a wooden hood to solve this next week on payday)
Now I know glass can block infrared by watching a military show on discovery channel awhile back.
does that include glass canopies or is it certain type of glass. right now my heat light is precariously perched over an opening in the glass cover that I have moved out of the way. I am worried that if I put the light on the glass, the heat will be reflected back and bust the bulb or cause some kind of fire hazard.
I have done some research and found nothing regarding this kind of light, and honestly do not believe this is actual infrared technology, and most likely the bulb is just a heat lamp bulb that blocks all other colors of the spectrum so its red in color. Still if the glass reflects the heat back, im in a fire hazard area again.

Any ideas of how I can defeat this without my wifes dang cat burning the house down? the way it is placed now is safe as long as nothing touches it, but her cat has a fascination with the tortoise and has caused a fire before with this lamp; we also have 3 and a 4 year old kids. recipe for disaster =) with as little as a bathroom break for me.

any ideas or solutions that anyone uses in this kind of situation is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[StudentoftheReptile]

Not sure on the type of glass, but depending on the wattage of the bulb, I would worry about the heat being enough to actually break the glass.

 

[ripper7777777]

Yea that sounds bad. What I did on my tanks was make a lid out of plastic (coroplast) I cut a hole for the light, I used angled aluminum from lowes to rest the lamp on. I than used black gorrilla tape to seal the lamp around the plastic. The heat stays in and the lamp can't move. I also have the lamp on a dimmer to control the amount of heat.

It may sound complicated, but it's actually a really simple setup and there is nothing in the way of the lamp to collect heat and all the heat from the lamp is trapped in the tank which is insulated to help reduce the electricity needed.

 

[wellington]

For safety reasons all the way around, I would do away with the glass hood. When you get the wooden one built next week then get the humidity back up. I don't think one week will hurt to have lower humidity. Soak and spray more often and keep moist substrate in the mean time. I would rather you be on the safe side for one week than worry about the humidity for one week.

 

[Redstrike]

I used plexiglass to top my enclosure, cutting a circle out for my MVB to shine through. I then hung the lamp from a wooden arm attached to the table. Sounds similar to Ripper's setup, but not nearly as secure, which you'll need given the cat and kids.

Here's an old picture of just my basking light (pre-MVB), this might not be much help:

 

[Madkins007]

UVB does not penetrate any glass or plastic well, except a few specially made versions (that are both expensive and seem to be hard to get.) Your guys are not getting a lot of useful UV or heat from that set up. The heat on the glass is also not a real great idea.

 

[lynnedit]

I agree with Barb, just get rid of the glass for now. make the light as secure as you can. spray the substrate.
The wood hood (with lexan or plexiglass, less breakable?) sounds great, and you can have it secured to the base with hasp locks, even a carabiner looped through it.

 

[un-loco]

Thanks for the help!