Dimmed basking spot

[johnreuk]

Evening (here anyway!) to everyone!

I am in the process of setting up my stars vivarium. I have a 75watt arcadia halogen spot, and the 5.5" clamp lamp, and a habistat dimming thermostat to control this. However, having been fiddling with the bulb for ages.....
At about 15" high, at full power the bulb produces a spot of around 52c!
So on the dimming thermostat, it is over 50% dimmed to achieve a spot of 34c.

I just wanted to run this by people... I can only raise the bulb maybe another 2", which won't make much difference to the degree the bulb is dimmed to create the correct basking spot temps.

So I need a smaller bulb instead? (eg the 50watt halogen spot)

Just thinking aloud, and any comments would be very much appreciated!!

John

 

[ascott]

If you have your bulb at its near max for effectiveness and the temps are way to high...then yes, I would change the bulb to a lower power bulb....save that bulb perhaps for larger/upgrade when your tort grows or if the weather gets cold and you find the lower bulb is falling short as winter fully sets in...

 

[johnreuk]

If you have your bulb at its near max for effectiveness and the temps are way to high...then yes, I would change the bulb to a lower power bulb....save that bulb perhaps for larger/upgrade when your tort grows or if the weather gets cold and you find the lower bulb is falling short as winter fully sets in...

Perfect, thanks for the reply! That's what I was thinking, but you know when you feel like you could be missing something really obvious... Lol!