Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After a discussion about lighting for leos I decided to try an experiment with different types of lights.

I had a blue light I was using as a nightlight for my lady leo and she didnt seem to mind it. I was told that I should get a red light since a blue light was similiar to a black light. I checked into it, and no, a blue light and a black light have nothing in common, black light=bad, blue light=not bad.

So after the discussion I decided to try something. I setup my camcorder to record 4 hour blocks at night after everyone went to sleep, 2 sessions for each lighting option.

Using the blue light Ms. Sketchy came out for a couple minutes about every 30-45 minutes.

Using no light at all (and nightvision on the camcorder), the results were exactly opposite of the blue light. She was outside most of the 4 hours.

Using the red light was almost the same as no light. She was out just for most of the 4 hour block, but retreated for a little while now and then, which could just be because she felt like it.

So, after all this, I have replaced the blue light with the red one, and will be using that for now on. Anyone else using one of those Night Glo, or whichever blue lights, I would recommend the same. Geckos can see the blue light, and therefore wont be as active as they could be.

Hope this helps some people. I'm glad I get bored at night, I've learned something from it.
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Scrufdog

My Leo, Ms. Sketchy

Scruf,
That is really good information. I don't know about any of the science behind it, but facts is facts and for whatever reason, the red light doesn't seem to bother your leos. I will be replacing my blue night-glo with red asa well.
Thanks for making the effort to do this experiment.
Dean

Ill change to a red light too...but right now I use a black light...whats wrong with the black light?

because of the coating on black lights they filter out most visible light and emit heavy amounts of infrared and UV-A light. Infrared light is not a problem for leos, since they cant see it. However UV-A light isnt good for leos, as it can hurt their eyes, almost like a sunburn. The reason a black lights UV-A is harmful is because it is undiluted. A common type of example woulf be using water. Lets pretend boiling water is UV-A, and ice water is the rest of the light spectrum. Mix them both and you have warm water, which wont burn your hands, but 'filter out' the ice water and your hands get burned by the boiling water.
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Scrufdog

0.1.0 Leopard Gecko --- Ms. Sketchy

it is not proven that uva rays cause possible eye damage i've ran flourescent lighting for years and have never ran into problem yet, this is during daytime i would not run anything at all w/ uva at night sense it confuses there photoperiod by recieving spectrum from daytime lighting *sigh* but my uva source is to high for the them to possible benifit from uva/uvb I do run a red light at night b/c i 2 have noticed differences in the black "moonlight" bulb and the red bulb, another thing i've also experimented is w/ small blue led's that emit only small ammounts of lighting in each corner of the tank which was another difference kinda like the sun going down, it's strange but i'm looking more into it but i've experimented w/ all forms of lighting even uv-c on my salt water tanks

NP

You should share your results on the leopard gecko forum at f a u n a c l a s s i f i e d s . c o m
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chickabowwow

i know for a fact that exo-terra brand emits more light than others (both blue and red) and that esu-reptile emits almost no light. Were you using the same brand of lights?
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
0.1 Red blood python (Rhianon)
0.0.1 ball pythons (FELIX!!!!!)
2.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, Bear, and Tony)

"scientia est vox"

both lights were Exo Terra lights

75w Heat Glo for red
75w Night Glo for blue
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Scrufdog

0.1.0 Leopard Gecko --- Ms. Sketchy

ya, i noticed that in the exo-terras above like 60 watts they give off lots of light. You have to admit though, they both give of awesome heat and awesome for viewing. I liked the blue better because it did not distort the colors as much, but a ball python with a red light looks SWEET.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
0.1 Red blood python (Rhianon)
0.0.1 ball pythons (FELIX!!!!!)
2.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, Bear, and Tony)

"scientia est vox"