recommended basking light?

[tortoiseepic123]

i am new to looking after a tortoise and i want to know the best basking light there is
the tortoise is roughly 7-9months old and is a marginated tortoise
i have seen lots of them on and i cant tell what one is the best so i thought why not ask the experts

 

[Tom]

i am new to looking after a tortoise and i want to know the best basking light there is
the tortoise is roughly 7-9months old and is a marginated tortoise
i have seen lots of them on and i cant tell what one is the best so i thought why not ask the experts

Hello and welcome to the forum!

For basking, you want a regular incandescent flood bulb. No mercury vapor bulb, no spot bulbs, no halogen bulbs. Arcadia makes the flood type bulbs that you need in a variety of wattages to help you get the correct basking temperature under it.

All of that and much more is here:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

Questions are welcome!

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

i am new to looking after a tortoise and i want to know the best basking light there is
the tortoise is roughly 7-9months old and is a marginated tortoise
i have seen lots of them on and i cant tell what one is the best so i thought why not ask the experts

Taking into account you are new to all this, consider that artificial light has a few purposes. Heat from the Infrared (IR), not visible, range of the spectrum, Ultra Violet (UV) also not visible, and finally visible light. Tortoises need all of this. There are ever finer gradations of light in terms of wave length and there are people dedicated to both the study and application for captive animal keeping.

The 'basking 'light Tom suggested covers the need for visible light an much of the IR, which the tortoises experiences as heat. Bulbs and tubes that produce visible light should be cycled on and off, a photo period, so the tortoise experiences night and day. There are a few products that can heat without light.

The UV spectrum can also be supplied by Arcadia products, best applied to your enclosure with a T5HO linear tube. So far LED fail rigorous testing by animal lighting techs, and the compact flousecent light (CFL) have their own suit of problems. Stick with linear tubes.

You can wing it by placing the tube as recommended by Arcadia, they have a one or two page guide indicating what size tube and wattage and fixture. A bit more invested in the lighting would require getting your own light evaluation tool to make sure the tube is placed well and has not diminished in output to the point of no UV value, even though it still produced visible light.

 

[tortoiseepic123]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

For basking, you want a regular incandescent flood bulb. No mercury vapor bulb, no spot bulbs, no halogen bulbs. Arcadia makes the flood type bulbs that you need in a variety of wattages to help you get the correct basking temperature under it.

All of that and much more is here:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

Questions are welcome!

thanks! i wil try to get one for him

 

[tortoiseepic123]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

For basking, you want a regular incandescent flood bulb. No mercury vapor bulb, no spot bulbs, no halogen bulbs. Arcadia makes the flood type bulbs that you need in a variety of wattages to help you get the correct basking temperature under it.

All of that and much more is here:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

Questions are welcome!

may i ask what type of wattage should be good? i did some research but i feel like i went wrong somewhere

 

[Tom]

may i ask what type of wattage should be good? i did some research but i feel like i went wrong somewhere

It depends on several factors. How large is the enclosure? What type of enclosure? Open topped or closed chamber? What size tortoise? How cold is the room? What species of tortoise?

I use 65 watt bulbs for most of my applications, but in a large enclosure with an open top in a cold room, you might need a 150 watt bulb, or a couple of them.

Your thermometer will best answer this question for you. Try one. Check the temp under it. Adjust as needed.

 

[tortoiseepic123]

It depends on several factors. How large is the enclosure? What type of enclosure? Open topped or closed chamber? What size tortoise? How cold is the room? What species of tortoise?

I use 65 watt bulbs for most of my applications, but in a large enclosure with an open top in a cold room, you might need a 150 watt bulb, or a couple of them.

Your thermometer will best answer this question for you. Try one. Check the temp under it. Adjust as needed.

i hate to be a bother but can i ask if you could send me a link to a bulb you would use? i know you are a verry busy person but i keep stressing over this every day
if you need the size of his enclosure/details of him i would be happy to give them to you (if you need/want them)

 

[Tom]

i hate to be a bother but can i ask if you could send me a link to a bulb you would use? i know you are a verry busy person but i keep stressing over this every day
if you need the size of his enclosure/details of him i would be happy to give them to you (if you need/want them)

Sorry I don't have a link. I stocked up on cases of these bulbs when they were banning them, so I haven't had to buy one in years.

Also, only your thermometer can tell you what wattage is going to work in your enclosure. I use 65 watt for many applications, but 100 or 150 is needed for some enclosures. Even in my enclosures that use 65 watt bulbs, I often switch to 45 or 25 watts in summer, and depending on the temperatures. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Every enclosure is a custom job. If you locate a source for Arcadia flood bulbs, I'd get at least a couple of them of different wattages, and then try them out over your enclosure.

 

[tortoiseepic123]

Sorry I don't have a link. I stocked up on cases of these bulbs when they were banning them, so I haven't had to buy one in years.

Also, only your thermometer can tell you what wattage is going to work in your enclosure. I use 65 watt for many applications, but 100 or 150 is needed for some enclosures. Even in my enclosures that use 65 watt bulbs, I often switch to 45 or 25 watts in summer, and depending on the temperatures. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Every enclosure is a custom job. If you locate a source for Arcadia flood bulbs, I'd get at least a couple of them of different wattages, and then try them out over your enclosure.

i see thanks for the help ill test many bulbs