Lighting Question

rayzzfish

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Ok I have a question of lighting. My Sulcata is only about three months old. I have a 16" t5 uv light. On my Tortoise house I also have a flood light with uva&b basking light. I'm just wondering if that is to much and how long they should stay on. Right now I do about 10 hours a day both lights. Any comments would be great. 👍
 

Tom

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Ok I have a question of lighting. My Sulcata is only about three months old. I have a 16" t5 uv light. On my Tortoise house I also have a flood light with uva&b basking light. I'm just wondering if that is to much and how long they should stay on. Right now I do about 10 hours a day both lights. Any comments would be great. 👍
Here is a breakdown of the four heating and lighting essentials:
  1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
  2. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. In most cases you'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night. Some people in colder climates or with larger enclosures will need multiple CHEs or RHPs to spread out enough heat.
  3. Ambient light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in LED bulb types are both fine.
  4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. In colder climates, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. I like the 12% HO bulbs from Arcadia. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html A good UV bulb only needs to run for 2-3 hours mid day. You need the basking bulb and the ambient lighting to be on at least 12 hours a day.
The heat lamp for basking needs to be on for at least 12 hours every day. This bulb should not be a mercury vapor bulb that gives off UV. It should be a flood bulb. Arcadia sells these.

Your ambient heat should be set on a thermostat and on 24/7.

LED lamps to make it look bright should be on the same timer as the basking lamp, or you can stagger them a few minutes to make a "sunrise" if you want.

Your UV tube only needs to be on 2-3 hours mid day to simulate the spike in mid day UVB that happens outside every day. This will make the times last for years, as an added benefit.

More here:
 

Tim Carlisle

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Oh and the uvb&a basking light is not good to use ?
If you're talking about the mercury vapor type bulb, none of us recommend those due to the desiccating effect it has on the shell. Since you're using a T5 bulb, all you need for basking heat is a plain old 65w incandescent flood bulb. For ambient heat, we recommend a ceramic heat emitter (CHE) connected to a thermostat and set for the proper temperature.
 

Tom

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Oh and the uvb&a basking light is not good to use ?
What Tim said. :)

Also, there is such a thing as too much UV. There is no need to be using a MVB and a HO UV tube at the same time. That could burn their eyes.

Even further, you only want UV in the enclosure for a few hours mid day, but they need basking heat for 12-13 hours each day. You don't want the tortoise to be under strong UV every time it wants to bask and warm up. Outside in the sun, there is zero UV in the morning and evening, even in full sun. The UV level begins to build later in the morning, peaks mid day, and then gradually drops back to zero in the late afternoon or early evening. At 4:30pm I can stand in full warm sun, point my meter directly at the sun, and get a reading of zero UVI.
 

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