Ambient light question

[ZarZar]

Hello,

I’m wanting to understand the purpose of having ambient light within a baby sulcata’s indoor enclosure. I’ve read Tom’s guide to caring for baby sulcatas and the 4 types of lighting to use. I currently have a 50 gallon tank and have an Arcadia flood light attached as a fixture to the ceiling of the enclosure. It is designated to the left portion of the enclosure. If enough light is being emitted from the flood light across the entire enclosure, is it still necessary to install ambient light such as LED 5000-6500k color range? If so, why? I just want to have a well rounded understanding of this.

Thanks so much!!!

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hi! It’s a very good question, one might presume with the basking light on that’s more that enough lighting for a night&day cycle, especially when the uv is on.

The reason folks(myself included) tend to recommend having some ambient lighting, is because t5 uvb only needs to be on for 4hours a day, so once that switches off, your basking bulb is mounted further one end of the enclosure for your heat gradient, only one end of your enclosure remains better lit, granted it’s not as big an issue in a smaller set up in a well lit room, but still, ambient lighting really does help with activity levels, nature is entirely lit up by the sun, shade created by foliage&hidey spots, so it makes sense when emulating that in captivity, keeping one side of the enclosure darker doest’t really encourage them to make use of the entire space during the day, and like I say it can effect their activity levels.
Hope this makes sense, I’m sure others can offer a more in depth answer

 

[ZarZar]

Hi! It’s a very good question, one might presume with the basking light on that’s more that enough lighting for a night&day cycle, especially when the uv is on.

The reason folks(myself included) tend to recommend having some ambient lighting, is because t5 uvb only needs to be on for 4hours a day, so once that switches off, your basking bulb is mounted further one end of the enclosure for your heat gradient, only one end of your enclosure remains better lit, granted it’s not as big an issue in a smaller set up in a well lit room, but still, ambient lighting really does help with activity levels, nature is entirely lit up by the sun, shade created by foliage&hidey spots, so it makes sense when emulating that in captivity, keeping one side of the enclosure darker doest’t really encourage them to make use of the entire space during the day, and like I say it can effect their activity levels.
Hope this makes sense, I’m sure others can offer a more in depth answer

This is great, thank you!! I think it makes total sense to mimic nature and impact to activity levels. I appreciate the insight!

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

This is great, thank you!! I think it makes total sense to mimic nature and impact to activity levels. I appreciate the insight!

No problem, happy to help