Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm in the process of building a new cage for my ATB (pics a few posts down) and would like your ideas for lighting. I'm planning on getting a rhp so I dont want lights for heat just for light. Looking for somthing small, not a large dome light sitting on top of the cage. Keep in mind the humidity.

Thanks Jason

One of the easier ways is to use the thin under-cabinet lights sold at Lowes, etc. They come in a variety of sizes, but all are very thin (like a cigar), come in a variety of lengths and are fairly low wattage.

Also, the small fluorescent fixtures are handy for this application.

The small, circular halogen cabinet lights look great in cages but produce quite a bit of heat, even the 20 watt ones. They may not be what you want for that reason, but if you don't care about the extra heat when they are on, then they are a nice way to get lots of light from a very small and compact fixture.

And if you want to go cheap, a standard light socket and a very low wattage bulb is a possibility. I prefer the options above though.

Mark,

I assume when you say micrto halogen your are talking about the puck lights?

I want to use them but have yet to buy a pack. How much heat would you say they put off say in reference to using a standard bulb?

I will be using them for a few cages in the next few months some need heat anyways so its not a big deal but others don't I just want to get an Iidea of what I am up against.

Thanks
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Jeremy

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they work great for adding heat to cages , I had some 4x2x1 cages i heated with the lights alone. for some type of heat output heres what i got with a 12" tall cage

12" cage - under light you will get around a 92-95 degree hotspot the end of the cage with the light will be approx 10-15 hotter then the side without the light. Now with these you can get dimmers for them ( touch dimmers so you get three fast touch settings for the lights HI-Med-Low settings . I have also used them in Chondro cages and they work great for them aswell.

One thing to remember .. donttouch the bulbs with your hand the oil will blow the halogen bulbs . Also they can be finisky due to the heat so you wanna try to stabilize the heat on them with dimmers lots of on/off willweaken the element on the bulb and they can blow easy Also lots of banging on the cages will kill the bulbs when they are on as the elements get very hot on a halogen.

lastly I have never had a snake burn themselves on these lights but they WILL burn your hand if they are on and ya touchem or soon after going off. Snakes are really smart enough to not burn there faces like that
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I'll check these out. I have seen them before but was worried about the heat issue but it may not really be a problem. They would definetly look nice also.

Just to give you an idea, one single hockey puck halogen fixture with no dimmer mounted to the ceiling (wood cover)of a 10 gal tank produced over 95 deg as measured on the floor of the cage within just about 30 seconds. So you see, they are small but really crank out some heat.

The light from halogen bulbs is very pleasing to the eye. Just to reiterate what was mentioned by junglehabitats, you're not supposed to touch the bulbs with oily hands and you can't jostle the bulbs alot when they are heated if you want to get long life from them. If you simply mount them and leave them be, they last a long time. They will heat the surface they are mounted to as well, though not excessivly. Replacement bulbs are available for a cheap price.

A dimmer is necessary, as alot of ON/OFF cycling where the filament cools down (i.e. like with an ON/OFF controller where the OFF time is more than 10 seconds) will result in shorter bulb life. With a dimmer, they last a very long time, very long.

I've mounted them on PVCx, but I put a disk of aluminum flashing between the fixture and the PVC to help sheild the plastic from residual heat. I doubt I needed to do that, and the PVC didn't get too hot, but it was quite warm. When dimmed down a bit it was definitely fine.

D
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__The Revolution has begun ... www.junglehabitatsplastics.com_

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I've used indoor/outdoor rope lighting with good results in my cages. I run it along the ceiling from the back, across the top/front, and to the back again (making a U on the ceiling of the cage). It gets warm but not hot to the touch, and is a nice "indirect" lighting effect, especially if you have a frame or lip around the front of your cage (because then you don't ever really see the rope light, just the light it produces).

It's waterproof and you can use it with a dimmer.
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Lauren Madar
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