light hood

[malcularius]

so got adopted by a special needs beardie. at the moment i'm just using brooder lamp and seperate flourscent fixtures. i want to make an all inclusive hood like the exo terra ones. but first questions.

considering that it will cover the top of the habitat and therefor trapping heat in as well. should i use less wattage on the halogen bulbs? also do i need to have fans installed to keep the balist for the flourscent bulbs from over heating or would it not be an issue? also how hot do t5's get vs the t8 bulbs? i dont remember the t8's getting very hot, but i've never used the t5's. how far away from the halogens do the flourscents need to be minimaly?


thanks in advance

Ashley

 

[Lenewen]

What size is the enclosure you are looking to cover and what material are you looking to make the hood out of? We need an idea of space so we can do the math over here We had to do something similar with a few of our reptile enclosures.

-Cheyenne and Ron

 

[malcularius]

standard 40 gallon breeder

 

[malcularius]

i love posting on phones it prematurely posted, lol.
we were thinking of making the hood out of plywood with a prettier overlay

 

[Lenewen]

Sorry, didnt realize you replied!

Im going to try to explain this the best I can. Basically build a "hood" shape from the wood. You can build the fixtures right into it and it won't melt as long as the metal part that surrounds the light bulb does not touch the wood. You could also line the wood with a thin metal if you are worried, like sheeted steel or aluminum. The basking bulb should be suspended, not touching anything. The UVB does not get hot and the fixture for that can be put anywhere in the hood without risk of melting and its relation to the basking bulb should not matter as long as the basking bulb isnt too close. You should stick with a lower wattage basking bulb if you can as well. 75 watt to 100 watt but no higher. Regulate the basking light with a thermostat so that it turns off if it goes above 120 degrees near the wood. This way, you prevent a fire. We also use timers to turn our lights on and off based on the time of day. We let our UVB stay on longer than the basking bulb to give them a sense of transition from light to dark, like sunrise and sunset.

Hopefully this helped.