Exo Terra Light Cycle Unit

[bringseis]

I'm setting up my 1st cham terrarium and was curious about experiences/opinions on the Exo Terra Light Cycle Unit w/ dimmer.

also are there any equivalent alternatives out there?

 

[VeiledOwner87]

stupid stupid stupid invention lol. no offence. i was desperatly JUST about to get one because i couldnt find a fixture for my flourescent tubes. you cant attach them to anything, you "lay them on top" of your cage, and it has no dome or any means of reflecting it throughout your cage. unless you get crafty take your chances. but save your money, you can buy a T8 fixture for less than 20$ and they look more professional. haha

hope this helped you out

 

[xanthoman]

there two models. one is just a timer/ ballast. the other (actual light cycle unit) has a built in auto dimmer that supposedly mimics sunrise to sunset. it takes about 1/2hr to ramp from 50%-100% i had one of the latter about a year ago, the biggest problem was reptisuns were still t-12 and the light cycle unit only went to t-10 so if you wanted to use it you had to use other bulbs so i sold it. now of course reptisuns are t-8 so they would have worked fine. another issue was the dimming, fluorescent bulbs do not dim all that well, and the unit doesnt start out at 0%, it starts out at 50%,now i didnt check things out with a uvb meter, but visually, what is supposedly 50% looks almost as bright as 100%, you couldnt really tell any significant difference between the 50%startup and full power. i thought the end caps fit fairly well , but the fairly heavy guage wires were unruly and had to be wire tied together and like an earlier poster said, there is no reflector,and the bulbs are really easy to break when not secured or mounted in a fixture. it might not be a bad setup if somebody wanted to build a really large cage and build the lights into the cage, but for a regular cham cage i think i prefer the double t-8 fixture with electronic ballast from home depot for $20 (2ft) or $30 (3ft) jmo

 

[bringseis]

this actually helps a lot. it seems that these bulbs look a lot better on paper than they do in practice.

thanks

 

[charliebrown]

Thanks dude your complete information is really interesting.

 

[ajb28221]

I got both of the models about 4 months ago and they works ok. The dimming feature isnt much of a dim at all but it is cool that it has a built in timer and you can change between 10,12, & 14 hour light cycles, but whenever you want the cycle to start is when you turn it on, so if you want it to turn on at 8am then you need to hit the switch at 8 am. And there is also no reflector but I made a reflector for like $1 out of a car windshield sun reflector and coat hanger. Funny that I saw this today, because last night I moved my day gecko cage that I use it for and when I reconnected the lights this morning they would flash on and then nothing... so it might be broken.... exo-terra doesn't have the most reliable products so it doesn't surprise me if it is broke... I just thought the dimming feature was cool so I bought it. But if i had to do it all again I'd do something else. Hope this helps

 

[summoner12]

Here is a thread I did for replacing the ballast in a DIYCages fixture. The ballast is a dimmable ballast. You buy this ballast and a source that can dim lights....

https://www.chameleonforums.com/diycages-ballast-change-65121/

You could use the EcoZone to control the lights, basking temp, humidity and send you email alerts.... if you had more than a couple of cages you plan to put the ExoTerra unit on, the Ecozone would be WAY MORE value for your dollars than buying 3-4 of the ExoTerra units.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/eco-zone-vivarium-control-36446/

 

[Hoj]

i have them and use them on all my cages, i like them far more than any other fixture/balsat out there.
the dimming does leave a lil to be desired, but being able to adapt with diferent buld lenghts makes all the difference as i am constantly adding remivng and rearanging my cham room.