Seasonal Lighting

[neacail]

I use a HerpKeeper by Digital Aquatics to control lighting and heating in my beardie's enclosure. In case you're wondering why I use a HerpKeeper, it is because I have had reef aquarium in the past, and I have a lot of confidence in Digital Aquatics products as a result. That I don't use a HerpStat leaves a lot of people scratching their heads.

The HerpKeeper has a "seasonal" lighting function that is set by entering the parallel. But, I presently have the lights set to "manual" (which utilizes my preset times). I live north of the 51st parallel. Our longest day has 16:33 hours of sunlight, and our shortest has 7:53 hours of sunlight. The longest day that I ever see recommended for a beardie is 14 hours.

I would, none-the-less, really like to use the seasonal function of the HerpKeeper.

The 23rd parallel south runs through central Australia. The 23rd parallel south and the 23rd parallel north have virtual identical day lengths. It is hard to find exact numbers for the southern parallel, but in reviewing the day lengths for Alice Springs, Australia (which is very close to the 23rd parallel south), I'm calling it "good enough." It would be 13:33 as the longest "day" and 10:43 for the shortest.

I'm worried that this might affect brumation. Orion started brumating Oct. 2014. He came out of brumation in Jan 2015 (which was early for him). He was awake for three weeks, refused to eat, then went back into brumation for another four months. He brumates like the dead. He is of those beardies that doesn't eat a thing while brumating, and doesn't even really wake up for his weekly baths while brumating. The whole thing was stressful (to say the least), and I lost weeks of sleep over it (even with his vet's assurances that everything was okay).

Can anyone foresee any issues with using the 23rd parallel north (in my time zone) for running a seasonal lighting schedule in my beardie's enclosure?

 

[CooperDragon]

I would imagine that if you are consistent with the lighting, then it would be OK. From what I've seen, they adjust to changes but respond well to routine and schedule. It makes sense to adjust the lighting to be closer to their natural habitat, but it doesn't need to be exact. I follow the seasonal light changes here (I just manually change the timers) in Iowa and it doesn't seem to cause an issue.

 

[WisePrey]

I don't think it's a huge issue at all for them. Somethings aren't that important to replicate for beardies.

 

[neacail]

Thanks for the feedback, folks.

I know it isn't a huge issue, but I'm just a major geek who loves her gadgets.

My reef aquarium was a great outlet for my love of gadgets (lights, heaters, pumps, skimmers, automatic top-up and dosing systems), but I lost everything in it during a prolonged power outage. There aren't too many areas where I can geek out on Orion's enclosure. It is just light and heat.

Interestingly, the HerpKeeper has a storm function. The storm function is great fun with a reef tank, but I sure wouldn't want to do it to a reptile.

 

[Taterbug]

You can absolutely geek out on lighting for these guys.
Something may not be 'important' in a sense, but the more we can offer to their environmental enrichment the better. They clearly respond to the seasons after all.

I have an Ecozone controller and set Pepper's enclosure based on local conditions. My feeling on this is that it seems my reptiles have some clue whats going on outside their cage, possibly from barometric pressure or something independent of temp/light which is controlled. Since we have a fair amount of natural light in the room I match to the sunrise/sunset locally. It seems logical that this might be less... confusing for him.

I also do progressive lighting. The basking lights dim on/off and the UV+Daylight bulbs kick on later. I intend to add a metal halide for nice bright mid-day lighting when I track down the components.

 

[neacail]

You've planted a seed in my head that I'm excited about, Taterbug!

I have a pair of AI Sol Blue lights (http://www.theaquariumsolution.com/ai-sol-blue-led-4070-module). They're discontinued now and they have almost no resale value. I paid almost $1000 for the pair when I bought them new a few years ago. I had no idea what I was going to do with them after disassembling my reef tank.

I'm going to have to play with them. I could design a blue hour to daylight transition with them, but I don't think I could create a blue hour to golden hour to day light transition. The three different colours of lights can be driven at different intensities and at different times.

A new project. This could be fun.

 

[Taterbug]

Those are neat light units! a note on LED, they are nice and bright and the white ones give a good white color for us, but don't give any UVA so they won't look white to a reptiles hat can see UVA as a color. For a dawn simulator probably not so big a deal, but for mid day there are better options. There are some bright (sorry :3) folks on the Reptile Lighting Facebook that may be a good resource for you.

You could use halogen or incandescent basking lamps to warm up the color after the blue but before the UV and/or daylight bulbs kick in. Some setups have more mid day lights (something like a mercury vapor UVB bulb or metal halide to) but of course the cage needs to be large enough to support all that. I'm not sure if you used metal halides for your reef system but the IWASAKI eye bulbs are reported to have excellent light and spectrum for day use.

Anyway, I geek out a bit about lights too, ha. Sounds like an exciting project. :3