Tell me what you think

[adrouin]

I want to know what you guys think and be honest I have a 8 week male ambilobe panther chameleon. This is his starter cage, once he gets a little bigger he will be going in a 24"24"48 screen cage.

For UVB/ Heat he has a NEW 5.0 repti- sun compact UVB and a 60 watt daylight blue light bulb for heat. I know in the past there were problems with reptiles eyes and the compact UVB bulbs. This problem was defect and from what I have read is now fixed. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF IM WRONG!!! the last thing I would want to do is blind my little guy! The basking site at it's very hottest is 95 F but the majority of the basking site is 90 F. The rest of the cage stays at about 78-80 F.

For live plants I have a 4" pothos and Chamaedorea. They help to keep the RH at 60-70% between mistings.
Thank you for your input!!

 

[adrouin]

Here another because I'm new

 

[Leslie11]

answer

Looks like you did a great job.

 

[BKFritz]

Looks really good! I think the whole UVB compact bulb issue has been resolved as far as harming the chams eyes goes. Most people still recommend the tube style because they offer more area coverage. I would upgrade to an 18-24" UVB setup once you move him to a larger cage. The UVB you have right now should be ok based on the size of your cage.

 

[adrouin]

Once I moved him I was thinking about trying a 100W power sun UV/Heat combo. I'm assuming that if it's far enough away from the cage the heat shouldn't be a problem. Is the UV they put out to intense?

I almost forgot to say thank you for the complements! I'm really looking forward to his bigger cage. I love live plants! ( let's just hope they don't die)

 

[Psychobunny]

I agree, tube UVB are the way to go. They provide much better coverage.
I also recommend a high output tube, because with regular 5% tubes, much of the UVB gets lost going through the screen, so you will be lucky to get an actual 2 or 3% at the basking spot, maybe 6'' below, through the screen of the cage.
With the high output tubes, little or no UVB is lost.
This can be verified with the use of a Solarmeter to measure the actual output.

It's also recommended to use a good quality digital thermometer with a probe to monitor the basking temp.

Temps can vary greatly, but I get 90F using a regular house incan 60w bulb in a reflective dome fixture, measured at about 10'' below.

You shouldn't need anything higher then 75w, unless your cage is really big, and the basking branch is far away.

I have switched from 6% HO to 12% HO. Just lower the branch a few inches.

I use my Solarmeter to find the exact right distance from the UVB tube to place the branch (usually about 8 to 10'').

If you don't have a UV meter, you are just guessing, and you would be surprised how little of the UV actually falls on your cham

Using the reptisun regular 5%, I would have to place the branch directly under it, by only a few inches, to get a good UV reading. After 3'' distance, the readings drop quite a lot, and at 8'' you are almost getting no % UVB at all!!

Another thing I don't like about the reptisun tubes is that they are inconsistent from bulb to bulb.
I get different readings at 3'' (no screen) when comparing new bulbs.

I do not see this inconsistent outputs with the 6 and 12% Arcadia tubes, and that is why I recommend them over the reptisun.