Lighting question

[saraheast96]

hi,

I'm getting a Russian hatchling tomorrow!! I've been reading up on tortoise enclosures and lighting forever but I still can't figure out which lamps to get. I know I need a uv and a basking lamp but I can't pick specific ones because I'm paranoid about getting it wrong. Could any of you recommend the lighting I need for an indoor enclosure (and possibly some Amazon links)? Also, should I be worrying about fire hazards from leaving lamps on all day?

Thank you!!

 

[wellington]

I like the power sun bulbs and us it with w big domed fixture with a ceramic socket. Do not use hay or straw for bedding and do not use the clamps that comes with the lights, they fail to hold sometimes.
Depending on where you live and how cold your house gets at night, you won't need night time heat. However, if you do get a ceramic heat emitter and use the same kind of dome light with ceramic socket.

 

[Tom]

Here is a heating and lighting breakdown. 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 enough. Most russians don't need night heat, but if your house gets really cold at night then 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. Run this on a thermostat to keep night temps where you want them. Usually around 65-70 for a small russian.
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.
If you need indoor UV due to your climate, there are 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. Apparently, these mercury vapor bulbs are only producing UVB for three months now. I used to recommend them as a good option, but in light of this new development, I now recommend the florescent tubes instead.
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.

 

[Gillian M]

A very warm welcome to the forum!

 

[Yvonne G]

I use one or the other of these in my different tortoise habitats:



In the tort tables where I'm using the tube type fluorescent bulb I also have to have heat (the PowerSun bulb provides UVB plus heat in one bulb), so you need one of these:



The PowerSun bulb and the Ceramic Heat Emitter (that white thing in the last picture) should be mounted in a fixture with a ceramic base like this:



but don't use the clamp feature, but rather hang the light so it's straight down.