Hi I'm thinking of getting a vivarium An adding the diy parts myself. But I was curious I've seen a lot of people with An without reflectors covering their basking lamps for their bearded dragons. So I was curious to ask are reflectors needed in a vivarium?
Reflectors serve two purposes - they redirect otherwise wasted light to the vivarium where it is useful, and they obstruct view of the lamps (glare) and make it more comfortable to look at the vivarium.
For UV lamps they also increase the effective strength of the lamp.