MistakenMexican
New Member
Hi All,
I wanted to hear peoples opinions on UVB Lighting. I'll ask the question concisely, and then I'll elaborate.
TL;DR: What UVB Lighting solution do people use to achieve a "Dusk til Dawn" dimming effect?
The elaboration:
We took our Tortoise (Ferrari) to a reptile Vet on Thursday. There's nothing wrong with him, we just wanted him to have a check up as that's what the breeder recommended. It also sets us up for quicker appointments in the future. The vet recommended a UVB lamp to provide Ferrari with UVB in the shorter and darker winter days. Our Vet doesn't really rate MVBs for a few reasons, but his primary reason after seeing our set up, if the focal point of the light. We're planning on using the MVB in combination with a UVB strip light so that Ferrari gets UVB even when he's out of the lamp focal point. In summer, it's not an issue as the window gets plenty of natural sunlight on the lamp side of the table. But in winter, he'll be getting a lot less light, hence the UVB strip lamp. His room is set up to automatically emulate the natural day light, both in intensity and colour. So lights turn on shortly after sunrise and turn off shortly before sunset, with the light colour changing depending on the light temperature at that time of the day. This is mostly aesthetic, as our room lights don't provide UVA or UVB. The Mercury Vapour Blub (MVB) turns on for 12 hours a day, but it's on/off, no dimming. There's a thermostat to regulate the room ambient temperature and a thermostat to manage the temperature in sheltered areas. Theres also a thermostat to keep us aware of the temperature under the MVB.
After some feedback on here, we've made some changes to our Table - mainly we've removed the reptile water bowls and changed the substrate to pure Coir. Our vet doesn't rate coir, but also said that every tortoise is different, and Ferrari seems to be quite happy in Coir.
As a result of our Vets feedback, I've been researching UVB bulbs, and I always come back to T5 or T8 fluorescence bulbs.
I would have liked LED UVB bulbs, but they don't provide the intensity of UVB that Ferrari needs (typically only 2.5% UVB). Also, the Zoomed units are like £250 fixed units - screw that.
As a result, I've been looking at T5 bulbs. I've been doing some reading but not really found any useful resources that explain how you might dim a fluorescent T5 bulb. I understand vaguely that you'd connect the bulb to a ballast unit. However, after looking online for dimming ballast unit, I haven't found any units that explicitly support dimming.
The alternative solution I've found is the T5Pro kit, which is appealing because we can daisy chain the lamps. In addition to a T5 UVB bulb, you can link a Jungle Dawn LED light, to aid in plant growth. Ferrari currently has a couple of plants in his table that would benefit from a grow light. This being said, there's no guidance on how/if the T5Pro can be set up to dim.
After all this reading and thinking, I'm curious what other people do in terms of simulating the day/night cycle?
Photos attached for curiosity mainly.
I wanted to hear peoples opinions on UVB Lighting. I'll ask the question concisely, and then I'll elaborate.
TL;DR: What UVB Lighting solution do people use to achieve a "Dusk til Dawn" dimming effect?
The elaboration:
We took our Tortoise (Ferrari) to a reptile Vet on Thursday. There's nothing wrong with him, we just wanted him to have a check up as that's what the breeder recommended. It also sets us up for quicker appointments in the future. The vet recommended a UVB lamp to provide Ferrari with UVB in the shorter and darker winter days. Our Vet doesn't really rate MVBs for a few reasons, but his primary reason after seeing our set up, if the focal point of the light. We're planning on using the MVB in combination with a UVB strip light so that Ferrari gets UVB even when he's out of the lamp focal point. In summer, it's not an issue as the window gets plenty of natural sunlight on the lamp side of the table. But in winter, he'll be getting a lot less light, hence the UVB strip lamp. His room is set up to automatically emulate the natural day light, both in intensity and colour. So lights turn on shortly after sunrise and turn off shortly before sunset, with the light colour changing depending on the light temperature at that time of the day. This is mostly aesthetic, as our room lights don't provide UVA or UVB. The Mercury Vapour Blub (MVB) turns on for 12 hours a day, but it's on/off, no dimming. There's a thermostat to regulate the room ambient temperature and a thermostat to manage the temperature in sheltered areas. Theres also a thermostat to keep us aware of the temperature under the MVB.
After some feedback on here, we've made some changes to our Table - mainly we've removed the reptile water bowls and changed the substrate to pure Coir. Our vet doesn't rate coir, but also said that every tortoise is different, and Ferrari seems to be quite happy in Coir.
As a result of our Vets feedback, I've been researching UVB bulbs, and I always come back to T5 or T8 fluorescence bulbs.
I would have liked LED UVB bulbs, but they don't provide the intensity of UVB that Ferrari needs (typically only 2.5% UVB). Also, the Zoomed units are like £250 fixed units - screw that.
As a result, I've been looking at T5 bulbs. I've been doing some reading but not really found any useful resources that explain how you might dim a fluorescent T5 bulb. I understand vaguely that you'd connect the bulb to a ballast unit. However, after looking online for dimming ballast unit, I haven't found any units that explicitly support dimming.
The alternative solution I've found is the T5Pro kit, which is appealing because we can daisy chain the lamps. In addition to a T5 UVB bulb, you can link a Jungle Dawn LED light, to aid in plant growth. Ferrari currently has a couple of plants in his table that would benefit from a grow light. This being said, there's no guidance on how/if the T5Pro can be set up to dim.
After all this reading and thinking, I'm curious what other people do in terms of simulating the day/night cycle?
Photos attached for curiosity mainly.
