I am in the process of building a cage. As far as heating goes, should I mount the fixtures inside the enclosure or should I drill holes in the roof portion of the cage large enough to place my dome lights perfectly over. The height will most likely be 2 feet. I curently have 4 bulbs on the fish tank they use now. 1 100w Zoomed Powersun, 1 Standard 75w, A Reptisun 10 Power Compact, and a 18w Reptisun 8 Florecent. I do plan on incorporating all these lights into the new enclosure so I wanted to check to see what you all think.
Thanks!
and the second reason is that I can heat and light them with much less power/bulbs then if the top was open. The white melamine reflects a lot of light so with a nice fluorescent fixture, and incandescent bulb the cages are very bright, and temps are easily obtained without multiple high wattage bulbs. In a fish tank so much heat is lost out the top you have to use so much energy to get the basking temp correct. You say you wanted to incorporate all the lighting you currently use in your new cage. I would be concerned that if you put the lights inside you will not need all those bulbs and that high of wattage bulbs to get the temp, and gradient you need. Also if you just cut the holes perfect to fit your fixtures I think you still will have to adjust bulb wattage as now a lot more of the heat is being trapped then it was before with an open topped aquarium.
