Lighting for Lizards (from another thread and category)

lowcountryfire · #1 (**permalink**) 01-29-2009, 02:37 AM

hmmmm, so do you use a heatlamp? like a 50 watt exo terra? or just a high watt incandescent?

froggsong · #2 (**permalink**) 01-29-2009, 02:57 AM

A 50W exo terra? Is it a special bulb somehow? I never look at the bulbs at the pet store, so I really don't know. I use incandescents from wal-mart for heat lamps. It's all you need. There's no point in paying extra money to do the same thing.

Ok, I just did a search for the exo terra bulbs... The "tight spot basking lamp" is just a glorified flood/spot lamp, the "moonglow lamp" (from what I can tell) is a black light (although the glass could be dark blue), and the infrared lamp is just a red flood lamp... It does say in the description that the infrared bulb uses a special filament, but even so, you could use a regular bulb either painted red or buy a red bulb to get the same effect.

Incandescents produce quite a bit of heat, so you would only need probably a 60 or 75W bulb. We've been discussing paints that will work to paint bulbs in another thread (I can't remember which atm), so you might want to take a look a that.

lowcountryfire · #3 (**permalink**) 01-29-2009, 08:15 PM

Well, I just used the example "50 watt exo terra" off the top of my head.... I personally use basking and heat lamps from petsores or offline.... But what you are saying is that I can use incandescent lights in place of those?

froggsong · #4 (**permalink**) 01-30-2009, 03:50 AM

Most definitely. Some brands package regular bulbs and call them something different, lol... I have opened a neodymium basking bulb only to find a reveal bulb in the box... Of course, the reveal bulbs are neodymium bulbs. The only bulbs you need to buy at the pet store or online are your UV lights (which should always be a strip light, not a CFL). The herp specific bulbs actually are incandescent bulbs (or at least most of them). Sometimes if I need a higher wattage red bulb or something for night heat I will buy one from the pet store, but I bought so many black lights at halloween that I doubt I'll need to do that again. If you need a lamp that makes a really warm spot that is tight and doesn't cast the heat over a large area, you can also use a halogen bulb (more heat, less watts, but only good if you need that tight spot area).

lowcountryfire · #5 (**permalink**) 01-30-2009, 09:31 AM

Cool, you learn something new everyday huh! So I would use a halogen for the basking, and just a regular bulb for the rest of the viv.?

froggsong · #6 (**permalink**) 01-30-2009, 01:41 PM

Sure, that would work great. Thing is, you'll need to play with wattages for the halogens unless you are already familiar with how much heat they produce. They get much hotter than incandescent bulbs.

Does anyone know if a halogen can be used on a dimmer? I would imagine so, but you never know... Check the packaging, and if it can be used on a dimmer, then buy a cheap light dimmer and a higher wattage halogen and then adjust it until you get the perfect basking temp. Also, if you raise it over the tank a little higher, it will lower the temp as well as widen the beam of light a bit to make the basking area larger. With two beardies in the same tank, you might try two halogens to produce to basking spots, which may in turn heat the enclosure sufficiently so that you don't need a regular bulb. You should be able to operate both bulbs on a dimmer switch (if you buy the type that is a cord instead of building your own dimmer switch, you can use an outlet expander so that you can plug them both into it. I have used those dimmers on at least 250W without harming the dimer, so it should be more than able to handle two halogen bulbs).

Now, halogen bulbs are still more expensive than incandescent, so for those of us trying to be thrifty (at least as far as initial cost goes, since the running cost of a halogen with be lower), an incandescent may be the way to go. That's why we were discussing ways to paint the bulbs, so that we can get cost effective night time heat.

Chu'Wuti · #7 (**permalink**) 01-30-2009, 02:22 PM

Hmm . . . deja vu strikes again! I just posted a link for info about dimmers with halogen lamps.

I use a ceramic heat lamp but plan to change that in the future to another UTH. But I'll have to do extensive revision of my BP's enclosure that I don't currently have time to do, so the heat lamp will have to do for now.