New Tortoise Lighting Help

[Tammycal]

Hello. We have recently acquired our first tortoise, a Russian tortoise. He is doing well, however, I keep reading about them and am getting very different opinions concerning proper lighting. Help! He is living in a 68 gallon tank. He has a UVB bulb and a infrared heat bulb hanging about 12 inches over his tank. I keep the infrared bulb on all the time for warmth.
Should he have a basking light (that gives off light) instead of the infrared? And will he be warm enough at night if we turn it off?
If so, which type of basking bulb is best?

 

[jsheffield]

A picture of the setup along with temperatures at tortoise-level will help people give you better feedback.

Jamie

 

[snivloc16]

Yes get rid of the infrared bulb. I like regular incandescent flood bulbs for basking. You want a hot spot of about 95-100. Russians can handle cool temperatures at night. As low as 60-65 should be fine. As long as the tortoise can warm up the next day. If you need night time heat get a CHE. They put off heat but no light.

 

[Tammycal]

Ok, here’s his tank. The warm side of the tank is usually about 82 degrees.

 

[XxtortoisexX]

Hello. We have recently acquired our first tortoise, a Russian tortoise. He is doing well, however, I keep reading about them and am getting very different opinions concerning proper lighting. Help! He is living in a 68 gallon tank. He has a UVB bulb and a infrared heat bulb hanging about 12 inches over his tank. I keep the infrared bulb on all the time for warmth.
Should he have a basking light (that gives off light) instead of the infrared? And will he be warm enough at night if we turn it off?
If so, which type of basking bulb is best?

Okay so yes get rid of the infrared light and at night u can turn it off or put on a red light bulb

 

[Tammycal]

Ok! Infrared bulb is gone. I put in a regular 75 watt basking bulb that I will turn off at night. Will see how he does without a heat bulb at night. Thank you all!

 

[snivloc16]

What kind of UVB bulb are you using? I’ve never seen them put off a blue glow.

 

[Tammycal]

Really? Since this is my first go at this, I wouldn’t know. The bulb came with the lamp and it’s 75 degrees.

 

[snivloc16]

Yeah I’m not sure the one blue bulb is a uvb. Is it coil shape? You will definitely need one. The zoomed 10.0 strip one is what I use. The coil ones are not recommended as they can cause eye problems. Also you may have gotten some bad advice from the place you got him from. He looks like he is an adult and definitely needs much much more space. 8x4 is best. You can build an open top table. The bark is a great substrate. I don’t know how to post the links but if you search under Russian tortoise you’ll find an excellent care sheet on here.

 

[Kent B.]

Even though I am fairly new to owning a tortoise, I might can help.
I use a mercury vapor bulb. It has uvb, heat and uva. There is one on amazon called a mega ray. It is really good and is fairly cheaper than other mercury vapor bulbs. Definitely no infared or coil bulbs. The basking area should be 95-100 degrees and it should be fine to turn of at night. I would recommend getting a fullers sun dome with a 100 watt mega ray mercury vapor bulb. Turn it of at nights and that should be everything for lighting.

 

[Kent B.]

Even though I am fairly new to owning a tortoise, I might can help.
I use a mercury vapor bulb. It has uvb, heat and uva. There is one on amazon called a mega ray. It is really good and is fairly cheaper than other mercury vapor bulbs. Definitely no infared or coil bulbs. The basking area should be 95-100 degrees and it should be fine to turn of at night. I would recommend getting a fullers sun dome with a 100 watt mega ray mercury vapor bulb. Turn it of at nights and that should be everything for lighting.

 

[Tammycal]

What is a fullers sun dome? I searched online but can’t find anything. Thanks for the info on the bulb you mentioned!

 

[Kent B.]

What is a fullers sun dome? I searched online but can’t find anything. Thanks for the info on the bulb you mentioned!

I’m sorry! It auto corrected to fullers but it is called flukers*. Yeah it is a flukers sun dome.