MoreCowbellAz
Member
My 18 month old DT lives in the below enclosure, 3‘ x 4‘. Eventually she will have an outdoor habitat but for now it’s indoors, although I take her outside nearly every day for as long as she wants to be out there, that’s usually 30 to 60 minutes per day. The lighting in her enclosure is good (I think), but I’m thinking of making some refinements. It’s probably “ok” now with no major deficiencies, I just want to make it the best I can as I learn.
Pics are below: The enclosure is in a pretty bright and sunny room, and the lighting fixtures L to R are incandescent basking bulb, LED bulb, and CHE for the winter. The black thing is a 24” Zoomed UVB T8 10.0 tube on aluminum rails so it’s movable. So basically the enclosure has a warm and a cold side, a basking spot, and an area that gets UVB from the tube. I leave all of the lights on 12 to 14 hours a day.
My issue with the above set up is the existing UVB tube doesn’t cover the majority of the area in the enclosure, so depending on where my DT goes she may or may not be getting UVB. I’d like a larger area. Also I don’t like having to keep the UVB hood so low to get the proper reading, it obstructs my view and it is cumbersome when I need to do something in the enclosure. I’m thinking something that I could raise higher would fix both issues.
My idea is to replace the existing 24” UVB tube with an Arcadia 35” T5 HO which i would have on IDK maybe 4-6 hrs a day, and along side it a similar size LED strip for regular lighting on all day since the UVB would only be on part time and I don’t want the enclosure to be too unlit. I see Arcadia has LEDs asimilar size to the UVB, but maybe that’s overkill.
With this type of set up it would seem I’d have a much larger area that gets UVB, and would have nice bright lighting throughout the enclosure for when the UVB is off. And as a side benefit everything is raised up a bit and I can enjoy a better view looking into the enclosure. There would still be shady spots, and I’d still use the basking bulb all day every day, and the CHE in the winter.
Ok, does this sound like a reasonable idea, and what other options should I consider?
Pics are below: The enclosure is in a pretty bright and sunny room, and the lighting fixtures L to R are incandescent basking bulb, LED bulb, and CHE for the winter. The black thing is a 24” Zoomed UVB T8 10.0 tube on aluminum rails so it’s movable. So basically the enclosure has a warm and a cold side, a basking spot, and an area that gets UVB from the tube. I leave all of the lights on 12 to 14 hours a day.
My issue with the above set up is the existing UVB tube doesn’t cover the majority of the area in the enclosure, so depending on where my DT goes she may or may not be getting UVB. I’d like a larger area. Also I don’t like having to keep the UVB hood so low to get the proper reading, it obstructs my view and it is cumbersome when I need to do something in the enclosure. I’m thinking something that I could raise higher would fix both issues.
My idea is to replace the existing 24” UVB tube with an Arcadia 35” T5 HO which i would have on IDK maybe 4-6 hrs a day, and along side it a similar size LED strip for regular lighting on all day since the UVB would only be on part time and I don’t want the enclosure to be too unlit. I see Arcadia has LEDs asimilar size to the UVB, but maybe that’s overkill.
With this type of set up it would seem I’d have a much larger area that gets UVB, and would have nice bright lighting throughout the enclosure for when the UVB is off. And as a side benefit everything is raised up a bit and I can enjoy a better view looking into the enclosure. There would still be shady spots, and I’d still use the basking bulb all day every day, and the CHE in the winter.
Ok, does this sound like a reasonable idea, and what other options should I consider?