Lighting for new enclosure 31"x31" enclosure

[Gonad]

Just made a 31"L x 31"W x 14"H, linoleum-lined, aquarium sealant-sealed enclosure for my Russian Tortoise. I have been using exo terra lights from the pet store but I am planning to upgrade to a mega-ray bulb.

Question - is a Mega-Ray SB 100W (
http://www.reptileuv.com/megaray-sb-100-watt-self-ballasted-flood-uvb-lamp.php) in one corner of the enclosure sufficient? Should I put two in separate corners considering the enclosure size so at least half of the cage is in direct light/heat? Is that even the right bulb I would want for this situation? As I said the enclosure is 14"H so with substrate would be about a foot away give or take I suppose and clearly I could raise it up a little if it was too hot. I need to get a thermometer as I've always just used the "hand test"... not good I know. I guess I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that if a tortoise was too hot he would back up from the heat source on his own and not just sit there until he got burned...

Follow-up: considering this is the "age of specialization", why wouldn't I want to use separate lights for UVB and UVA/heat as I do now? I have an exo terra 100w "Daylight Spot" and a compact fluorescent UVB bulb (used to use exo terra for UVB too but last time had to buy some other brand that I can't recall the name of...).

Thanks,
Jacob

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Jacob:

I don't think you need to go into "over kill" drive. One UVB is just fine, then if your habitat is too big, you can add another light fixture on the other side, but just put a regular light bulb in it. I've heard stories that "they" are phasing out the regular incandescent bulbs and trying to force us into using the spiral bulbs. I hope its just a rumor. I use the regular bulbs all the time for heat.

Also, I think that UVB is more important than UVA. The UVB aids in the tortoise making the vitamin d3 that it needs to make the calcium work. I'm not totally sure what exactly the UVA benefits are, but I know it goes deeper into the skin on humans than UVB and causes skin cancer. Seems like I heard that UVA might make the tortoise see different spectrums of light???

 

[Gonad]

Thanks for the advice Yvonne. Perhaps this is not one of those "the more the better" situations... you use a regular incandescent bulb as a heat lamp? That's so crazy it just might work. I will definitely consider that if I find my temps are too low.

I'm going with the 100W SB Mega-Ray bulb. People seem to speak highly of it across the internet (Mega-Ray and T Rex are the best from what I gather?) and having a single light that concentrates the UVB right where they lay for basking seems ideal. Right now it's tough to do with the two clip-on lights I'm using. Anyone have a compelling reason why I shouldn't go with the 100W Mega-Ray SB? I'm not interested in the external ballast version since it doesn't produce heat and am not worried about it's potential to save me a small amount of money over time if it does in fact make bulbs last slightly longer and so forth... I only have one tort so it's not going to kill my budget and it means I don't have to buy a separate bulb for UVA/heat. If the UVB output actually decreases less over time than other UVB bulbs as they claim that also seems like a big plus.

Is it not important to supply UVA to a russian tortoise? Is it more just about basking heat and UVB? Also I thought UVB was the one that was bad. I think UVB is possibly bad for the eyes?