Ok, Still researching for the perfect setup. If I get one of those mercury bulbs that has the heat, uva and uvb rays that I have read about in here do I need a seperate bulb for the night time heat or does a hide log work and leave the other bulb on all the time? I read that reptile supply is the best place to get these, any other places to order online that may be better or cheaper or have more. Thanks in advance for all your help. Soon to get a redfoot finally yay

No you do need to turn it off at night. Even in the hide, they can see the light on outside.

How warm is your enclosure for them at night? Since night time temps in the wild drop any how, must of us can go without extra heat at night. Usually we might only need the extra heat source in the winter, if at all. I use a heat emitter when I need extra heat. Some folks use the red light bulbs. Just kinda depends first off on if you need any added heat at night and if so, how much.

This is my first Tortoise, so I am not in a position to give too much advice. I keep my Cherry head in a planted vivarium, to keep the humidity high. On the top, I have a heat emitter on one side, and on the other a long tube 10.0 UVB. The screen filters out much of the light. I made a hole in the screen, so the heat emitter hang's down into the viv. Under the heat emitter, I have his hide. I put long fibered moss in there to hold the humidity. I covered most of the top with clear mailing tape to hold in the humidity too.
From everything I have read, they don't like too much light. I do know some people who had mercury bulbs combination , uva and uvb, and the enclosure was too bright, and their Redfoot never came out of the hide. Why don't you try going to Redfoots.com and look up how his enclosures are? Good luck.

Here are some sites for the mvb
http://www.russiantortoise.org/uvb.htm
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapypho...ummary.htm
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/mercuryvapourlamps.htm
http://www.reptileuv.com/
Check on http://www.Redfoots.com and http://www.Turtletary.com for more info on Redfoot care