>>I posted down below about cage setup.
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>>I was wondering if I did my cage 72w x 24d x 24h why I would need rep. 5.0 and 2.0 and why four of them? I was also wondering if I did my cage 48w x 24h x 24d if I need 4 of the same just 36" instead of 48"? Only asking cause I did research on the bulbs and they are almost $80.00 for all four and the rep. 5.0 does the same thing as the 2.0. I don't mind buying these but if they do the same thing why have 2 2.0 and 2 5.0 and not 4 of the same.
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>>Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
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>>Romeo
You don't have to do anything a certain specific way, there is more than one way to do things 
I was just going on how I would set up a large cage like that. One reason I was thinking about 48 inch lights instead of 36, is it is easier (for me at least) to find a large selection of light fixtures in that size. When I look for them I tend to see about 4 different 48 inch fixtures for every 36 inch I see. Also using 48's would give some overlap adding to the brightness. In your original post you had the had 36h not 24h which puts the lights farther away so I was going for a little more light.
As for why 4 fluorescent lights and not 2, The 5.0's don't put out a lot of bright visible light so again I was going for the more light route. You could also go with "full spectrum" fluorescent lights, I pick them up for about 8 bucks for a 48 inch tube and they are nice and bright but put out almost no UV light. I have used them for added light only.
If the cage is going to be only 24h then you will probably have a lot more options for heating and lighting. First of all that would reduce the mass of air you need to heat by 1/3. Also basking platforms or rocks woul only need to be 12 inches off of the ground to get within that magical 12 inch figure for fluorescent lights.
Your best bet if your situation allows is to get the cage built then give yourself several weeks to play with lighting and heating setups with the cage empty and fine tune it.
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Mike Wilson
mwilson@fuu.net
