Lighting

jnirvello

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Sep 12, 2017
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fort myers, florida
so I use the zoomed daylight blue bulbs and they’re expensive... they also burn out easily. I also use another bulb that’s just a basic house light bulb. Can I use the house light bulb for both spots in his dome lamp? When I bought him, they gave me a set up with a blue light bulb. Is there anything specific about it that i need to keep it?
 

Braden Overstreet

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Dec 27, 2017
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Exton Pennsylvania
I suggest the reptisun basking lamp which is recommended by most tortoise websites. I don’t suggest using house lights because they don’t allwaus provide sufficient heat for your tortoise. Best wishes.
 

Markw84

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so I use the zoomed daylight blue bulbs and they’re expensive... they also burn out easily. I also use another bulb that’s just a basic house light bulb. Can I use the house light bulb for both spots in his dome lamp? When I bought him, they gave me a set up with a blue light bulb. Is there anything specific about it that i need to keep it?
Those double dome fixtures are pretty useless. They trap heat and heat is the enemy of most any type bulb. I causes them to burn out prematurely. I would recommend replacing the fixture with a wide dome - like a 10.5" brooder lamp. The heat dissipates better but the reflector hood still directs most light and heat downward. A standard household incandescent flood is my bulb of choice for basking heat. I use 65 watt bulb and it gives plenty of heat for any basking area. I add additional fluorescent about 6000K to balance the ambient light. A UVB tube fluorescent is then added for about 5 hours midday for UVB and UVA. Since you are in Florida, you probably can get adequate UVB by giving your tortoise some outside time at least a few times a week, so UVB is not an issue for you. However, good UVA is very beneficial to your tortoise and a good UVB light gives off really good UVA as well. So I personally would always have one for good peak midday light in an indoor enclosure. I believe that is the best combination for daytime. Do not use any colored bulbs. For nighttime = A CHE on a thermostat to maintain your minimum of 80° in the coolest part of the enclosure will take care of heat at night with complete darkness. Your other bulbs during the day will provide all the heat you need and the CHE will not even kick on.
 

jnirvello

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fort myers, florida
This is what I use
I also searched for a UVA lamp and I’ve been told that the halogen lamps are bad for the babies. He’s outside at least once a day for an hour+
 

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Markw84

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That fixture is the one I would avoid. It will really burn out bulbs faster than normal.

If you search for UVA bulbs, you will get bulbs that emit fairly low levels of UVA and mostly the higher end UVA - just under 400nm. They market those as UVA bulbs and work fine for grow lights. But Since tortoises see light as visible light quite a way down into the UVA wavelengths, the bulb of choice is going to be the one marketed as a reptile UVB bulb. A 10.0 UVB bulb is going to emit about 10% of it's energy as UVB and 30% as UVA. Most of the rest as visible light. (some as heat). So it fills the spectrum all the way from 295nm to 400nm as far as UV is concerned. A "UVA" grow light will normally have a max of about 5% UVA and that is UVA from about 380-390nm up.
 

Speedy-1

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If you are in Florida , a few hours out side daily will give him his UV . Go to a hardware store buy one of these and take off the clip . They work fine ! Make sure you get one with a ceramic fixture !

lite.jpg Put a 65 watt floodlight in and your Basking / heating problems are cured !


download (1).jpg
 

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