heating & LED lighting question

[virge]

I am building a viv for my nephew's beardies and I was wondering if this would be O.K. for them as it works for my snakes but they don't need UV so I need any advice that is offered.

A uv strip light 3/4 length of viv with a strip of 5000k LED lights the length of the viv next to the strip light.

For heat a CHE on a day/night thermostatic controller with a LED spot light near-ish the heater ( don't want to melt the LED's ) pointing to the basking spot.

 

[CooperDragon]

The UV Strip light will be important. You'll want to make sure to use one that puts out enough UVB such as an Arcadia or Reptisun 10.0 of appropriate size for your fixture. It should also be mounted on the ceiling if possible, not too far away from the basking spot but not closer than 6-8 inches. I'd be careful with using LED for the basking lamp as they don't give off much heat and give off a slightly different spectrum than a traditional bulb will. LED may be OK for ambient light on the cool side of the tank if needed though. I would use a reptile basking bulb or a flood light in the basking spot to produce a nice white light and plenty of heat. CHE is usually added as a nighttime heat source because it doesn't produce visible light. That would only be needed if the nighttime temperatures go below about 65F/18C. That's just my take though. There are plenty of different good ideas floating around about this in the forums. There is also a good sticky about lighting that is probably worth a read as well. https://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/uvintro/

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

 

[virge]

Thanks for replying so quickly cooperdragon & the link.
I re-read my post after reading your reply and I haven't explained things properly.

the uv light will be top centre of the viv with LED strip light next to it for general lighting.
There is going to be a raised platform/basking area for them ( 6"-8" from uv). The ceramic heater & LED spot light pointing will be pointing at the same spot on the basking area, because I have read on here that they associate light with heat so want to make basking area brighter.
The reason for using a ceramic heater is that with the controller the day/night temps can be guaranteed (nephews dad my brother is acting like a first time mother with them :lol: :lol: )

hope this explains things better Virge

 

[CooperDragon]

Ah that makes sense and sounds fine to me. Just try to dial in the temps the best you can beforehand and you should be in good shape!

 

[virge]

Ah that makes sense and sounds fine to me. Just try to dial in the temps the best you can beforehand and you should be in good shape!

Thanks again for taking the time to answer and I'm glad my design works and satisfies the mother to be ( yes Jason I mean you :lol: )

I will be sorting it all out at mine before he gets it
thanks Virge

 

[jarich]

Just a couple suggestions, if you are open to them. First, try to make sure that the fluorescent lamp is over to one side rather than being in the middle. This will allow the lizard to use the light in a manner similar to the thermoregulation. Like you made mention of before, you want the place where they get the most light and heat (basking area) to be the place with the most UV, and then tapering down on the opposite end to an area with no UV. Although maybe the basking area is right in the middle? In which case that might be a moot point.

With the basking area, I would recommend a halogen light over the ceramic and LEDs. Unless your house gets really cold at night (less than 60 F) there is no need for heating at night. However, the thing you will be missing from that basking set up is UVA. Fluorescents produce very little of it and the LEDs wont produce any either. Using a halogen will increase that, as well as giving you a wider spread of visible light too. LEDs are great for certain situations, but for basking they just dont seem to be there yet. For the extra ambient light they could work well though.

 

[virge]

thanks for the response jarich ,I'll accept any and all help to give the little ones what they need.
I thought the uv lights gave them A+B :shock: ( it will be at one end )

A couple of questions if you don't mind :?
Do you need to use "reptile" halogens or are the household type the same.
Am I right that you need a PID temp controller to dim the halogen

Thanks Virge

 

[jarich]

Hey Virge,

Hmmmm you're either an old school guy or from Europe I'm guessing? You're spot on in saying it's best to have a thermostat on halogens, absolutely. A dimming thermostat will do just fine, but I think most are not actually PID controllers. They use similar principles, but aren't technically the same thing. Either way, you generally want to mount the lights so that you get your set temperature by distance and then have the dimming thermostat for when things might move it a bit outside of normal range (like a hot summer day or if your tank gets direct sunlight, etc)

As for using reptile branded lights, no not at all. They are the same thing as, or often worse than, the 'normal' halogen flood lights you buy in the hardware store. It's misleading advertising really. You'll see reptile brands label them as UVA lights, but your normal halogen flood produces UVA too. Both don't produce much, but they produce about the same. I actually bought three major reptile branded basking lights and four normal halogen floods, and the one that produced the most UVA and lumens was the normal GE PAR 38. It also gave a much wider beam angle and cost about a quarter as much as the reptile brands.

As for the fluorescents, no they produce poor amounts of UVA and their spectrum is fairly spiky. They produce about as much UVA as the halogens actually. Again it depends on brand and model of course, but all I have tested were around that. The MVBs and HID lamps however were all much higher, above 1000 um and some much more. Given that sunlight is so incredibly high in UVA and lumens, it really seems to be lacking in most lighting systems.

 

[virge]

Ha ha :lol: spot on jarich I'm an oldie from Salford, England (what gave me away) .

Thanks for the extra info. you have saved me a few hours of work as the 3D background plan now needs a tweak .

Virge

 

[jarich]

Glad to help mate! It was the PID controller that was the clue. More common back in the day, but now it's usually only seen in real high end stuff, and we Americans are cheap!