Large Enclosure Lighting - Deep Foliage, bioactive

WuTangCham

Member
Would love some opinions on lighting. I currently have a 24" Reptisun UVB LED combo hood. It's been great in his 30" wide cage. However, I'm about to upgrade to a much larger 40" wide, 70" tall, and 20" deep cage. Any thoughts on best combo for penetration of UVB and LED for plant growth? Either a combo fixture or mix of both.

This is my second cage build, and really looking for best penetration and coverage. I have 6" of covered canopy to use for housing/hiding and mounting the lights as well. This is kind of my "sistein chapel" cage I'm trying to build. The one. Any help here would be appreciated!
 
So you actually do not need a 12% unless you have plant coverage that goes all the way to the top screen... If the basking area is open and free of plants then you would still stay with the 6% and put the highest basking branch 9 inches down from the uvb.

Keep in mind that your fixture length on the T5 will be 2 inches larger then the actual bulb length. So if your getting a 36 the bulb is 34inches. Next size up is the 48 which is actually a 46 inch bulb.

I have heard great things about the jungle dawn but do not have hands on experience with them. I run multiple T5's two with 6500 daylight bulbs and one with a 6% uvb. this is for a 4 foot tall enclosure my plants are in the top 3 feet.

Depends a lot on what type of lighting you need. I have Draceana, pothos, and Money trees in mine and they have been growing like crazy.

Keeping in mind that with a 70 inches height your going to need to put enough light on it but not so much to be harmful to the cham in the top level.
 
I looked at Jungle Dawn, and they seemed more hype than substance (and they don't make a 46/48" bulb). They also seem overpriced.

Check out this thread: LED bar recommendations
My conclusions are in post #18

For UV-B, either Reptisun 5.0 or Arcadis 6% are fine. For a 40" enclosure, you could probably get away with a 36" fixture. As long as the basking perch is near the center of the enclosure, the cham will figure out where it needs/wants to be.

For basking, a household incandescent (not LED) is fine.
 
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