Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a few questions on these lights. For the people that use them,what wattage do you recomend.i want to start using these lights apposed to store bought reptile lights for the humidity level. how hot do they get? can water have bad effects on them,(i have had red heat bulbs expload due to moisture)what kind of fixture should i use with them? should the lights be in the cage? has anyones monitor been burned by these? I want to use them with my timor and my ackies.
thanks alot.

I have experimented with halogen bulbs-wattages and brands. The ones that I have found to work the best/cause no problems/potential problems, are Sylvania brand halogen bulbs. The Lowes by me carries these, while Home Despot doesn't-they carry phillips brand. The sylvanias that I buy have a uniform "patterned" lens across the entire lens. The Phillips that I've seen, have a clear octagon segment in the center of the bulb. Upon setting both of these up, same wattage, same distance from surface, etc..., the sylvania bulb kept a constant temp, whereas the phillips(with that clear ocatagon in the center) had ranging temps on the basking surface, where depeneding on the height from the platform, ranged from 100 on the outskirts of its radiation, all the way up to 220, where the clear part radiated down... The wood actually started to smell like it was burning... This was at the same distance as the other Sylvania bulb, and the maximum temp was around 150 or so...

I think the Phillips brand halogens are bad, or any of the halogens that have tha clear center, as I believe it "intensifies" the radiation, which can/and probably has caused nasty thermal burns on an animal. I have been using the sylvanias for two years now, without any problems or complications.

Anyone else care to elaborate on their thoughts of these "clear centered" halogen bulbs? I don't trust them one bit...

Hope this gives some insight... as for wattage, I guess this depends on whether you are using it to just heat a basking spot, or do a fair amount of ambient heating as well... For just a basking spot, I'd go with a low wattage, maybe a 50watt, whereas on some of my larger volumed cages, I use 100 and 120 watts, as I need to heat the cages to a warme ambient temp(much warmer than the ambient 70F room temp)...

Cheers,

bob
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TheOdatriad

can you plz explain the acrilic/plexiglass top concerning air ventilation. And if the 100 - 150 watt lights were used to control the all around temp would the basking spot be that much hotter ?thanks very much

well, in the smaller enclosures, say for my Kimberlies, where there isn't all that much vertical height(only 2ft) I use a lower wattage bulb. When I was talking about higher wattages, I was referring to my tree monitor enclosures, as they have more volume to heat. To achieve the basking temp that the monitors prefer/need, just adjust the height of the basking platform/basking site from the bulb... that's what I do..

about the acrylic top thing, while some people mount the bulbs inside the cage, I use a dome lamp mounted on top, where there is a hole cut out, to allow the bulb to suspend down into the enclosure. It seems to work for my animals, well, now I only keep glauerti in that type of enclosure.

Cheers,

bob
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TheOdatriad

The Philips and GE halogen floods both make a two inch super hot spot with gradient as you move outward. So basically, junk. I had to put in a non halogen bulb (and move the basking spot much closer as a result) to get a good basking spot, but hadn't tried the sylvania halogens. I will have to pick up a few to try out for the ackies this weekend.

-Andrew

You are right, the clear center bulbs are very bad, and are a recipe for disaster. I unwittingly used them, and they produced... bad results.

--Robert

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the confirmation.... I have seen a bunch of pics of animals with horrible burns, which I suspected these halogens with the clear spots being the culprit. I am sorry to hear that you had the unfortunate experience with these bulbs.... Were these with your jobiensis? I vaguely remember you mentioning something about the bulbs many months/year ago...

I have seen a bunch of pics of odatria afflicted with these nasty burns, most of which were glauerti and pilbarensis... Has anybody else had bad/harmful experiences with these bulbs??

Thanks again Robert, how are your peachies doing anyways??? You've got some beautiful animals. Cheers mate,

bob
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TheOdatriad

Two peachies were burned. I believe there were other factors that contributed, but I would never use those bulbs again.

I don't keep pils or glaurti, but my ackies didn't burn. I think size, skin toughness, angle, and cold substrate were the differences. But no reptiles of mine will ever be under those lights again. It's simply not worth the risk.

--Robert

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