Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If using halogen floodlights rather than petstore/reptile made lighting, what wattage should be used? 75, 100, 150 watt? I've tried 250 watt heating bulbs that were way too hot and now I'm trying 100 watt halogens that seem ok but could be hotter. Are there any other good hardware store alternatives to halogen or are they best? Just trying to maintain heat as it starts to get cold.

That depends on the enclosure in part. You may have to just experiment on you own and see what works for you. Those outdoor floods from the hardwarestore are fine. Some of my enclosures require different watt bulbs, but it has to do with the size of enclosure, thickness of the wood, where in the house it is, etc. Theres lots of variables that effect temp. Ya know?
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"My favorite thing about the internet is that you get to go into the private world of real creeps and you dont have to smell them."
Penn Jillette (1955-present), in a compuserve chat

but I would recommend avoiding these, get true floods.

--Robert

I dont follow you. Thats what mine look like, and I got em from Home Depot. Is there a difference between what I said and that, "True" flood? Am I missing something?
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"My favorite thing about the internet is that you get to go into the private world of real creeps and you dont have to smell them."
Penn Jillette (1955-present), in a compuserve chat

LOL. Somehow, I missed the "AVOID" part. So whats the deal though? Whats that light that you show, and could you post a pic of the "true" flood light next? Im curious now since Ive been buying anything that said "outdoor flood light".

Thanks!
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"My favorite thing about the internet is that you get to go into the private world of real creeps and you dont have to smell them."
Penn Jillette (1955-present), in a compuserve chat

minus the clear hexagon. These are at my local home depot, and are labeled outdoor floods, yet the temps look more like a spot/flood hybrid.

It is one of the things that caused me to burn two monitors. There were other factors involved, but IMO these are asking for trouble.

--Robert

if im not mistaken thats exactly the same as the bulbs im using,damn things were hard to find too!Oh well guess ill be off to hunt the "true" floods thanx for that,you may have saved my monitor some skin.
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see yah laterz people
jason

Appreciate the tip! Thats a good thing to know!
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"My favorite thing about the internet is that you get to go into the private world of real creeps and you dont have to smell them."
Penn Jillette (1955-present), in a compuserve chat

lol

I switched to the a while back when they became available at stores around here because those others were the only thing avaiable for a long time. I get these from Walmart, Home Depot used to have them a year or so ago, but they switched to those Westinghouse and phillips with the clear center (they cost less and arent as durable). I went through 8 of those westinghouse and phillips in around a year on 5 cages, Sobeks had the GEs for about 6 or so months with no burn outs. That center is around 20-30 f higher than the surrounding hot spot at some distances. At 12 inches it was about 10f higher on Sobeks basking spot. Through attrition Ive been switching all of mine to GEs, one more cage left, Shadows.

I really never woulda thought to check walmart! I bet there priced well there too.
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"My favorite thing about the internet is that you get to go into the private world of real creeps and you dont have to smell them."
Penn Jillette (1955-present), in a compuserve chat

I bought a bunch of them from Lowes (2 packs cheaper, Westinghouse I believe), I didnt like the clear spot either but never had any burns occurs from them. I tried Phillips from Home Depot with similar results but a bit more durability (all 3 of Shadows are that type yet). I swithched Sobek to GEs (Walmart)because of 2 reasons, they last longer, and the whole surface is that bubbled glass with no clear spot, only after the others burned out though. My Ackie used a 45 watt bulb just like that but for winter I went with a 50 watt that has the daylight color (same cost), as well as the beardie switched the same. Sobek and Shadow both use 45 watt GEs (3 on one and 4 on the other).
I get 165f temps in Sobeks basking spot from over 12 inches with the 45 watt GEs and similar temps with those bulbs in 45 watts in Shadows, but his the outside isnt as hot as the center and his are closer.

I have five that didn't burn that were kept with them for much longer. So only a minority got burned. I presume that someone would care more about the off monitor(s) that got burned than the ones that didn't. As I said, I suggest people avoid those.

--Robert

The GE flood (it has no clear center).
Maybe it has to do with light intensity from the design of the surface from one to another?
Why did the animal spend enough time under that small hot spot to cause the burn?
Are the burns in relation to the clear spot similar sized?
Id think they are having a problem warming up quick enough that they spend too much time and burn themselves in that small spot. But thats only my guess as to ambient temps affecting their ability to warm up properly. My ackie spends alot of time basking but its very warm, he moves out of the very center of the basking spot and shifts around for hours to evenly distribute heat and not burn himself I guess, yet his basking spot is over 180f. Shadow is very dark colored, so he basks for a very short time at even 135-140f.
As I said I dont particularly like those bulbs with the clear spot, but for a year or more that was all that was available, until Walmart started getting GEs (no clear spot)

That does seem like a long time for a monitor to remain in one spot basking. My critters are bonkers though, and rarely stay in ANY viewable spot for very long! They would much rather be wedged in a burrow, or in their wooden hovels. Again though, this is talking about crazy indo/ african monitors, so go figure. Those aussies seem more level headed, generally.
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"My favorite thing about the internet is that you get to go into the private world of real creeps and you dont have to smell them."
Penn Jillette (1955-present), in a compuserve chat

It has to do with how heat is applied. Small concentrated hot spots are asking for trouble, which is exactly what these bulbs do. They are inadequate to use with monitors in a normal fashion. I also am not the only keeper that has had problems with these bulbs.

You must understand, while you can theorize all you want, the fact is the problem has been solved. Changing out the bulbs was the only thing that actually completely eliminated the problem. I had ambients at what I now feel are somewhat unsafe levels, and still had slight burn problems.

But why do your monitors not have the serious burns? Or my other monitors for that matter? Well, I have a feeling I know a couple reasons why and they don't have anything to do with specific temps, they have to do with the monitors themselves. But it is much smarter to nip it in the bud, and not use lights that have been shown to cause problems.

--Robert

The clear spot flood bulb, and one without, here is what I found (no theory involved), the clear spot was the same temp as the surface produced by a flood with an only bubbled surface.
The small hot spot produced is one problem, the ability to heat their entire body to active temps while in a given ambient temp is a big cause of burns, are what affects the outcome from them basking. Ive seen a burn recently in a basement collection on an iguanas leg which merely took raising the light higher to broadcast the heat to a wider area to more evenly heat that cage and reduce the basking temp.

You could use spot lights, as long as they were far away, but then the wattage would need to increase, which on my cages is a problem, especially in summer.

Here is a pic, that shows much better than a heat gun the variation of temps

And another interesting pic, because it is in the exact enclosure, with the same flood mount, just different bulbs, look at the burn scars, they correlate exactly with the hot spot created by those bulbs.

Here are some burns (not done by me) that I believe were caused by cold ambients, but a probably a sufficient hot spot, notice how almost the entire back is burned. What is interesting is the size and species is the same as the ones I burned. hmmmmmm

While I value your opinion, please understand that I have spent months overanalyzing this, doing different tests, but I have an advantage over you as I have the case that failed in front of me. It was not till someone finally told me about problems with the bulbs, did it all start to make sense and everything started to add up. I also found that while no ackies have ever burned, they basked longer under these bulbs.

Being that most grocery stores, drug stores, home improvement stores, etc. have tons of different style floodlights (indoor and out), I see it as a completely unnecessary risk to even consider using these bulbs.

You didn't ask, but I believe some species are more prone to burn than others, ackies have thick skin, cutting one open is hard even with a sharp scalpel, much harder than say jobiensis. I also think young monitors in growth spurts, under one bulb have the most risk, as they bask more to grow, and multiple bulbs hide the inconsistencies of temp.

Thanks,

--Robert

To an ackie or one of my 2 albigs..
The ackie has thick rough skin, some albigs have smooth thick skin, both of my albigs are armored with very thick large scutes on every scale (strange comparison to see the difference), almost like a rough armor suit you can feel the big difference. My timor (now my one friends)has much thinner, smoother skin yet he loves very high basking temps (he doesnt bask very long though). I could imagine his skin would burn easy, where as Sobek can bask under 4x45 watt halogen floods for over an hour (mostly 30 minutes in the morning)from 12 inches away.