Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what do you all think of using only a power sun bulb for my veileds 3ft tall cage?

seems to me it would be a better idea than using a reptisun in conjunction with a seperate bulb for heat, since the animal gets uv benefits any time it is within about 6 ft of the oowersun

is there anything i should know that im missing?

The main concern with the UV incandescents is control of excess heat. If you watch the basking temp carefully you can avoid burns. The only other thing I wonder is how your plants will do. They might get burned if too close to the bulb, but if there is no other source of light in the cage the shaded parts won't fare as well as with the cooler fluorescents.

well i decided to go with the 4ft tall cage instead of 3ft

to give some space so that plants and my cham wont get burned

seeing as i live in vegas, a fairly warm climate, would you think the 100watt is the better choice than the 160?

could you elaborate on 'the shaded parts wont fare as well'?

im not sure i follow what youre saying

much appreciated

OK, what I meant was...

A long fluorescent tube light running the length of the cage may illuminate a larger area of the cage than one incandescent bulb on top. The parts of your plants that don't get fairly bright light will tend to lose their leaves and get spindly. But, you can always put a less expensive "grow light" tube vertically along the dimmer lower part of the cage to help the plants out.

As for bulb size, it is always hard to recommend a bulb by wattage. Your specific cage and room temp will affect what their output actually ends up being. The key will be to measure the actual basking temp any bulb produces right on the basking perch and to do that you may have to experiment. If too hot you can move the bulb higher off the cage top. You could start off with the lower wattage first and add a regular bulb to it if needed in winter for example.

yeh i think i will end up using a floro bulb near the bottom then to help out the plants

thanks for the advice