Best lighting options?

[Mofuknduck]

Hi guys my son is looking at getting a russian, or red foot tortoise. So I've started my doing a good amount of research through pet stores, websites, and forums.......and feel more confused than when I started! Moving on.......

So I've started the process by building a wooden indoor open top inclosecure that measures 4' x 2'10" and 16" high with out substrate/bedding. My question is what would I want for the best uvb Florissant bulb/ what type of fixture and the same question would apply for my heat options?

 

[Tom]

First you've got to pick a species. Russians and RedFoots, have very different heating and lighting requirements.

Second, unless the whole room is the correct temperature and humidity for the species (and age), open tables are no good. Yes, many websites recommend them, but this is old outdated info from the days when we all thought that all tortoise species are form a desert and they all need it all dry all the time. We were wrong, but some people haven't kept up. All species need at least moderate humidity, and babies tend to need more humidity than adults. You will not be able to mimic warm humid conditions in an open table in a cool dry room.

Also, 4x2 would be a good size for a hatchling, but it will too small for most tortoises before they turn a year old.

Here is a heating and lighting breakdown I did for another member a while back:
"Let me break down the heating and lighting thing. You need three or four elements:
1. Heat. During the day this is best accomplished with 65 watt flood bulbs from the hardware store set on digital timers. These also give some light. Move them higher or lower to get the basking temp under them correct. I buy them in 6 packs, so if they burn out I always have a spare on hand.
2. Light. Sometimes the basking bulb and ambient room light are enough. If not, use a tube style florescent strip light form the hardware store. Run it on the same timer as the heat lamps. Try to get a bulb in the 5000-6500K color range. The more common 2500K color range bulbs look yellowish.
3. Ambient temp maintenance and night heat. Tortoises need it dark at night, but still warm. This is best accomplished with the use of a CHE in a ceramic based fixture. Get the 11" ceramic based domes from Home Depot for all your heat lamps.
4. UV. Best to sun them for an hour two or more times a week. Its okay to skip a few weeks over winter and this will do no harm. Since you live in the frozen North (Okay, Midwest, but its a figure of speech…), you will need to provide some artificial UV. Several options for this:
a. Use a mercury vapor bulb, like the power sun for your basking bulb. Use this in the Home Depot fixture I mentioned, not in a small pet store dome or deep dome. Replace it every fall.
b. Use a long tube type 10.0 florescent bulb. These MUST be mounted no more than 10-12" from the tortoise to be effective.
c. Get an Arcadia 12% HO bulb from lightyourreptiles.com. These are great, but they make a lot of UV. Mount it at least 18" and as much as 26" away from the tortoise and put it on its own timer for only about 4 hours a day."

This was for a sulcata. For a russian, you wouldn't need night heat. For a RF, you might need to do this a different way. I don't keep RFs so I don't like to advise on how to care for them specifically.