Please help! UVB Lighting

shauni1002

New Member
Hello everyone! I have a 1yo male Veiled. He is basically a rescue. His previous owner worked at a commercial pet store and thought what he was doing was correct. Since we’ve gotten him we have changed his life completely around and he seems to be thriving except one area. As of now I’m still using the lighting given to us with him. 5.0 reptisun coil. However, he has a new custom built cage roughly 6ft tall. I talked to a vet and she recommended I get a 10.0 T8. We were going to use 5.0 but the vet told us with the screen aprox 50% would be filtered out. I have both products in my shopping cart ready for purchase, will this lighting fixture and bulbs be okay for my Cham?
 

Attachments

  • 12CC3156-E512-4779-BAFD-6614F0F6DC9E.png
    12CC3156-E512-4779-BAFD-6614F0F6DC9E.png
    138.3 KB · Views: 95
  • B4063936-6122-4F12-94EC-AF72E41EDDEB.jpeg
    B4063936-6122-4F12-94EC-AF72E41EDDEB.jpeg
    79.6 KB · Views: 67
Hello everyone! I have a 1yo male Veiled. He is basically a rescue. His previous owner worked at a commercial pet store and thought what he was doing was correct. Since we’ve gotten him we have changed his life completely around and he seems to be thriving except one area. As of now I’m still using the lighting given to us with him. 5.0 reptisun coil. However, he has a new custom built cage roughly 6ft tall. I talked to a vet and she recommended I get a 10.0 T8. We were going to use 5.0 but the vet told us with the screen aprox 50% would be filtered out. I have both products in my shopping cart ready for purchase, will this lighting fixture and bulbs be okay for my Cham?
Hi Hun. Welcome. So no to the T8. You need a T5HO fixture and if it is a single bulb you need a 5.0 or 6% arcadia T5 bulb then his basking level needs to be 7-8 inches below the fixture with the fixture sitting directly on the cage top running the width of the entire cage. .

You may want to consider a quad fixture though because with a 6 foot tall enclosure your not going to get much light with a single bulb fixture. If you do a quad then the UVB bulb needs to be a 10.0 or a 12% arcadia if all bulbs are using the same reflector.

Here is a link to where I bought my quad. http://www.lightyourreptiles.com/fixtures/t5-high-output/
 
T
Hi Hun. Welcome. So no to the T8. You need a T5HO fixture and if it is a single bulb you need a 5.0 or 6% arcadia T5 bulb then his basking level needs to be 7-8 inches below the fixture with the fixture sitting directly on the cage top running the width of the entire cage. .

You may want to consider a quad fixture though because with a 6 foot tall enclosure your not going to get much light with a single bulb fixture. If you do a quad then the UVB bulb needs to be a 10.0 or a 12% arcadia if all bulbs are using the same reflector.

Here is a link to where I bought my quad. http://www.lightyourreptiles.com/fixtures/t5-high-output/
thank you so much! I will browse and make a purchase this evening! Thanks again for fast/detailed reply:)
 
T

thank you so much! I will browse and make a purchase this evening! Thanks again for fast/detailed reply:)
Your welcome. All his quads are single reflector so if you go that route get the 12%. They come with all the bulbs you just pick the one with the correct UVB bulb. The Arcadia brand bulbs are the best. They also only need to be replaced every 12 months.
For any single or dual bulb fixture your going to get the 6% version.

For any of these you will have basking at 7-8 inches below the fixture with the fixture sitting directly on the top of the cage. This will give him the perfect UVI level at basking for optimal health and D3 production.

Let us know if you have other questions :)
 
Your welcome. All his quads are single reflector so if you go that route get the 12%. They come with all the bulbs you just pick the one with the correct UVB bulb. The Arcadia brand bulbs are the best. They also only need to be replaced every 12 months.
For any single or dual bulb fixture your going to get the 6% version.

For any of these you will have basking at 7-8 inches below the fixture with the fixture sitting directly on the top of the cage. This will give him the perfect UVI level at basking for optimal health and D3 production.

Let us know if you have other questions :)
would you happen to have a picture of how I should roughly set up both fixture and basking? Sorry for being so complicated just want my boy to be as healthy and happy as possible.
 
Not a problem. So I run my quad across the front of my cage. I have my basking in the back corner but I have it angled so that he gets heat and UVB at the same time. Having it lifted off the screen also protects against thermal burns. You can see the bottom of my T5 fixture. In the farthest back position is where I have the UVB bulb the other 3 are all daylight bulbs for brightness in his cage. Here are three pics then the last one shows his cage and how bright it is with the quad. :)

This is what I bought to hold the clamp lamp fixture then I just drilled holes in the plastic mounting piece to screw it into my cage frame with self tapping screws.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007D1BUJY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1


lighting3.JPG lighting1.JPG basking hooked in1.JPG cage front 6-21-19.jpg
 
Not a problem. So I run my quad across the front of my cage. I have my basking in the back corner but I have it angled so that he gets heat and UVB at the same time. Having it lifted off the screen also protects against thermal burns. You can see the bottom of my T5 fixture. In the farthest back position is where I have the UVB bulb the other 3 are all daylight bulbs for brightness in his cage. Here are three pics then the last one shows his cage and how bright it is with the quad. :)

This is what I bought to hold the clamp lamp fixture then I just drilled holes in the plastic mounting piece to screw it into my cage frame with self tapping screws.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007D1BUJY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1


View attachment 241151View attachment 241152View attachment 241150View attachment 241153
Yes! Thank you again so much! I’m already so excited for my Cham! Would be so lost without this site!
 
You can also check reptilebasics.com for fixtures and bulbs. They have individual T5 HO fixtures that can be tied together and you can get the Arcadia 6 or 12% and use the provided 6500k plant bulbs if you have live plants. I prefer to use a few lights to give a more natural look.
 
You can also check reptilebasics.com for fixtures and bulbs. They have individual T5 HO fixtures that can be tied together and you can get the Arcadia 6 or 12% and use the provided 6500k plant bulbs if you have live plants. I prefer to use a few lights to give a more natural look.
Yes I always forget about their info. I will pick your brain another time but if I build Beman a new huge cage I may want to switch up my lighting to do something with their individual T5's
 
I used to have a quad fixture, but wound up switching when it started having issues.
That is my only concern with mine. It appears that two bulbs run off one ballast. So if one goes then it would have to be replaced as a whole since I am not good at fixing electrical stuff. It was a great starter fixture for me though and I have not had issues so far. I just think if I invest the time into building a 5 foot wide enclosure for Beman, I want more specific lighting that will be easily switchable to a different fixture should one have an issue.
 
That is my only concern with mine. It appears that two bulbs run off one ballast. So if one goes then it would have to be replaced as a whole since I am not good at fixing electrical stuff. It was a great starter fixture for me though and I have not had issues so far. I just think if I invest the time into building a 5 foot wide enclosure for Beman, I want more specific lighting that will be easily switchable to a different fixture should one have an issue.

Yep, that is what happened to mine. It lasted for 6 years with no issues though.
 
Back
Top Bottom