Help with lighting.

[ReptileFan81]

Good Afternoon everyone,
My apologies if I dont fully adhere to forum protocol, this is my first post.

I have just built a new habitat for my 14 month old Veiled. It a real mixture of wood glass and screen mesh. 24 x 36 x 48 so he has plenty of room.

I want to ensure that he gets adequate UVA and UVB lighting and my idea was going to be to use a reptisun 5.0 vetically within the enclosure behind a garden mesh.

This may be completely wrong so please dont hesitate to tell me so, I wont be offended. I am just worried that at 4 foot tall he wont be within the 12 inches of the tube.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[carol5208]

What is the top of the viv made up? Most of us have the screen enclosures which we just lay the fixture with the bulb in it on top. The UVB lights do not really give off much heat so I think it would be ok to have inside at the top. You would not need any mesh over it then. The mesh may block some of the UVB and it will not be necessary to cover it. As far as it being too far away, why not Just suspend your branches of vines within 8 inches or so of the basking and UVB bulb? Most of us don't have our uva inside the cages either as those do get hot! If you can find a way that your chameleon cannot get within reach of the bulb and get burned, then you should be ok. maybe make some type of covering to go around that.

 

[eisentrauti]

If you want to give your chameleon a good UVA and UVB source, buy an HQI radiator. Reptisuns can cause eye problems and they emit UVC too !

 

[carol5208]

If you want to give your chameleon a good UVA and UVB source, buy an HQI radiator. Reptisuns can cause eye problems and they emit UVC too !

are you talking about the Reptisun 5.0 tube lights? That is all we use in the states here. That is the number one recommended bulb. No problems over here!!!

 

[eisentrauti]

are you talking about the Reptisun 5.0 tube lights? That is all we use in the states here. That is the number one recommended bulb. No problems over here!!!

at least the compact ones are very problematic:
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor.htm
https://www.chameleonforums.com/repti-sun-10-0-bad-13376/

 

[Hoj]

i had the same problem with the biger cgaes what i have done i sort of creat a whole area up at the top where my cham can get up nice and close to the lights within 10-12inches. i used bird laders and run them across the cages with fake vines running through them, ( if thats any help ) they can still venture down to cool off but spend most of their time up under the lights.

 

[Venutus1]

at least the compact ones are very problematic:
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor.htm
https://www.chameleonforums.com/repti-sun-10-0-bad-13376/

That was true with the mostly the 10.0 ones a while back, but now they have been corrected.


Thanks.
Todd

 

[bradley]

If you are going to be using the light above mesh I would use a 10.0 reptisun as you will atleast be geting 5.0 throught the screen