Lighting Questions

[RobSquared]

I thought I read somewhere that people are now going to 10.0 UVB's instead of what I know to be the best of the reptisun 5.0. It's been a long time since I have been in the forums but and setting up 4 more enclosures and am due to replace the bulbs in the 4 enclosures I have now and get new fixtures for the 4 new ones. In addition I have the 18" enclosures as these will be my "pre adult" cages for breeding. What fixture do you all recommend for 18"? I don't want to go 24" and be way overy and also do now want to go like 14". Any recommendations? Anyone try the "growers" websites? Thanks in advance.

 

[nightanole]

A 10.0 is fine for an 18" cage if there is enough cover. They are useful till 18", which makes them useful for the top 1/3 of a normal 48" tall "big" cage.

Since you just crawled out from under your rock, we now have Arcadia t5 HO's with reflectors in 6 and 12% strength. the 6% puts out about 3x more than the normal 10.0 bulbs and is great for 4ft cages. My readings at 24" are the same as my readings at 6" from a 10.0.

 

[Andee]

I don't recommend anything stronger than a 5.0 uvb for young ones. I wouldn't go passed a 5.0 unless they were 4+ months. Though I have no ability to say whether Arcadia are safer or not. I know reptisun uvb can be dangerous for reptile eyes in general. I have heard better things about arcadia whether they are stronger or not.

 

[RobSquared]

Awesome. Thank you for the updates. I'll look into some arcadia's. I know I need to invest into a solar meter. Just haven't come up with a good excuse to buy one as they are extremely expensive. I need to do some research on those too. Thanks

 

[Peachypink]

Awesome. Thank you for the updates. I'll look into some arcadia's. I know I need to invest into a solar meter. Just haven't come up with a good excuse to buy one as they are extremely expensive. I need to do some research on those too. Thanks

I would suggest shooting Todd at Light Your Reptiles an email. He sells the Arcadias and the Dude knows his stuff! If you tell him your cage specifics he can give you reccomendations on what is the best to use for your set up.

 

[Andee]

I agree Todd gave me a very good recommendation for my light sensitive adult male panther. I have yet to buy it but am saving up for it. I originally was going to buy a quad system, but since his eyes are so touchy with lights I decided to ask about a good two bulb system.

 

[PJK]

I don't recommend anything stronger than a 5.0 uvb for young ones. I wouldn't go passed a 5.0 unless they were 4+ months. Though I have no ability to say whether Arcadia are safer or not. I know reptisun uvb can be dangerous for reptile eyes in general. I have heard better things about arcadia whether they are stronger or not.

Arcadia are great lights. I have used both them and reptisun and while I have not real problem with reptisun I feel like my cham prefers the arcadia (Scientific I know!). As for their UVB output, its very similar to reptisun. The numbers are the percentage of the light that is in the UVB spectrum. So 5.0 is 5% 10.0 is 10% so Arcadia choices just tend to be a percentage point or two higher than their reptisun equivalent.

 

[nightanole]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/solarmeter-readings-help-please.154529/#post-1317532