Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey there,

I'm just curious as to what types/wattages of bulbs fellow enthusiasts use for their monitors. Personally, I use Sylvania brand Halogens, in 50watts for my odatria, and 120 watts for my tree monitors, who are in much larger, vertically oriented enclosures, so I need something more powerful to heat the cage a bit more. I have heard from other keepers that some bulbs, such as the phillips halogens may cause thermal burns, usually on the backs of the monitors. COuld this be attributed to the clear octagonal area in the center of some of these halogens? Could it be magnifying/intensifying the strength/heat that the bulb puts out? I have not had any such problems, however I have seen many pics of burned monitors, many of which are glauerti and pilbarensis. Anyways, what bulbs do you run???

bob

I'll be the first to admit other mistakes were made, but those bulbs with the clear center are just bad news IMO. I used them for many months on ackies without incident, but I just don't feel it's worth the risk.

I use Sylvania as well as other assorted indoor floods, I like the outdoor flood durability, but they just don't seem to last near as long as they should. I don't use bulbs over 75w and this is on a range of cages from a standard trough, cage on top of trough and 6' high larger cages. I seldom use less than two bulbs though.

I would heavily recommend avoiding the hybrid spot/floods, narrow floods and spots. Stick to the standard wide flood. Concentrated heat spots are asking for trouble.

--Robert

I use 50 watt halogens and 80 watt outdoor floods (the thick glass ones).

i normally use the philips halogen lights, all different kinds of wattages. sometimes i use the flood halogen used in a dome light, makes for a much larger basking spot with just one bulb. since some of my cages are outside i have a special bulb i got at Home Depot that on the box says is specially used to heat bathrooms and animal enclosures. in the winter when it gets down below 40F. i turn these on which is at the top on the cooler side of the cage just to heat the whole cage up a little. with these bulbs i had NO problems with the cold. my monitors and tegus had their basking spot fine, but the other ends were getting WAY too cold. so i added this bulb and the cool side went from 40-45 to 65-70F with this. that is what i use and it works great.

Floods that had the octagonal spot looking area for the longest time when that was all that was available around here (until Walmart got GEs and Home Depot and Lowes switched brands) without any problems with Albigs my ackie or even beardies. The center was only a few degrees warmer than the rest of the hot spot, but they just dont work as good and dont last very long, the GEs work for months also cost more and are in single packs.

75 watt flood lamp.
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Greg Holland
G&M HERPS
www.imageevent.com/gmherps
gmherps@sbcglobal.net

I use everything from 40-150 watts to get the right temps throughout my monitor cages.
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1.1.1 Timor Monitors(Varanus Timorensis)
1.1 Tremper Albino Leopard Geckos

45-75 watt outdoor floods. Usually whatevers on sale or the cheapest within that watt range. I also stay away from the ones with the hexagons in the middle.

I get them at lowes; home depot only carriers phillips, which have that octagon/hexagon clear area, that you should stay away from...

take care,

bob

The Odatriad