Arcadia Lighting Help

Alright, I have a 4'x23"x25" melamine enclosure I will be moving my dragon into and I wanted to upgrade his lighting. I've heard Arcadia is the best and I want to try it out. I'm just having trouble with reflectors/fixtures/terminology. According to the Arcadia website, a 34" T5 D3+ High Output 12% is right for my tank and you would want 160-200 (measured with Solarmeter 6.2) on the highest point and 70-90 on the lower cool side. I don't have a solar meter and the bulbs and hoods are very pricey to be trying a few out till I get the right one. Since my tank is only 25" tall (basically 2 feet), I don't think I would need an ultra strong reflector, especially considering I want to provide plenty of climbing opportunities so he can self-regulate instead of having everything flat and him always exposed. So, is there anyone with experience with these bulbs who could lend an opinion? I'm not sure if I need a reflector or not and if I do, which one is suitable for the T5 HO but won't blast my dragon? I'm also looking to mount it inside the tank. I know with regular T5's you can get under-the-counter fixtures from Walmart and some command hooks, is there anything similar for a T5 HO setup? I think the closest my dragon will get to the bulb is about 10" away from it, depending on how I decorate.

Edited to say that on LightYourReptiles, he lists that the bulb at 11.8" away without a reflector reads at 61 with a Solarmeter 6.2, which makes it seem I will most definitely need a reflector. But with this reflector: http://www.lightyourreptiles.com/34-t-5-ho-fixture-high-output-with-arcadia-d3-12-ho-bulb/ he recommends minimum of 14"-24" away, and my tank is only 25" tall, so I feel this reflector is too much. So any recommendations of reflectors that aren't as powerful and easy to mount in the tank?

Hi,

I was looking into this myself this weekend. The reflectors are easy to fit, they just pop over your light clips. Although you may have to adjust one or both to fit the holes.

I am getting one for piece of mind. I don't believe any extra UVB would be a bad thing.

Arcadia Website

You can pick them up for less than £10 in the U.K.

For my 24" enclosure I didn't use a reflector. The reflector works by redirecting the unused light, shape and material effect the output but without a meter it will be hard to judge and there isn't much information about different reflectors out there. You may be able to use screen to filter some UV back out to get into same ranges but in a 25" tall enclosure your basking light will probably be setting the distances, to be honest. (If it's mounted inside they take up a fair bit of space).

Sunblaster sells fixtures that ceiling mount very nicely. You'd buy it and the Arcadia bulb separately though.

This might be helpful at illustrating the differences
https://sites.google.com/site/thelizardmadness/lighting-guides