Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For 2 months I have been using a 75w basking bulb for heat and light. Now, we have a UVB light and a 60w Dayglo for heat. The UVB bulb is sufficient for the light and UVA but doesn't produce much heat. I don't want to do a heater and the basking bulb produced plenty of heat for the water and basking area. Are there any suggestions or do you think using a UVB/UVA combo along w/ a UVA/heat basking light is safe? can there be too mcuh UVA?

Christi

I`ve never heard of too much UVA (and if the only source of UVB is from the light, since it`s only a fraction of what the sun gives out, you don`t have to worry about too much UVB either).

No there can not be too much UVA for your turtle. But Im curious how your heat bulb can heat all the water in your tank. How small is this tank like in gallons of water?
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Well, for the last 1 1/2 mos. or so, I was told that we only needed aobut 4 inches of water in our tank, so that wasn't hard to keep heated at all.

Our Tarzan (who I now think is a female) is about 1 1/2-2" and in a 20 long for now. Since we've raised the basking area, we now have 8 gals of water in it. It's over 1/2 full looking w/ the layer of pebbles, 2 bricks and filter.

One controversial issue that I'm not sure of, is that we have a strip therm on the outside at the opposite side of the basking area. We had a 75w Zoo Med (?) basking light that put off enough heat to keep it around 80-82°F.

I wasn't sure if this was def. too warm for a turt of his size or not, so yesterday we tried a 50w Dayglo. It's not heating enough at all, so I have to change it back for the 75w Zoo Med.

Does it sound like my 75w Basking light is good enough and a good system? Also, my husband said the 75w ZM bulb was more like a heat lamp where as this Dayglo is a regular type bulb.