Two personal friends of mine who are members here both purchased baby beardies at the same time about a year ago (they went to the breeder together to get them, and also went to two different pet shops to pick out enclosures/equipment for them both). They unfortunately both bought the Zilla Desert 50 T8 UVB tube and Slimline Fixture package deals, and I didn't find out until I went to one of their homes about 4 months after they brought them home. So of course I immediately flipped the damn Slimline fixture over, saw the clear plastic safety cover on the fixture, and asked for a screwdriver to the remove it. Then I immediately left the other friend a voicemail explaining how he needed to remove the cover as soon as he got home from work. One of the dragons seems totally fine so far, but one of them is unfortunately suffering from some tremors and weakness in their back legs. So all 3 of us took a trip to Pittsburgh to a reptile-specialty shop (really huge, wonderful shop) to purchase a lot of new stuff (I bought more than they did, lol), but they both bought 22" Reptisun 10.0 T5HO UVB tubes.
I told them both to hold-off on spending a bunch of money on a Reptisun brand hood fixture ($60) or any of the other expensive hoods they had there, and to order one of the Sunblaster T5-rated Tube Fixtures that I use, so they both did. They both love them, and told me I should put up a post for people who need to find a high-quality and very affordable T5-rated tube fixture with a built-in reflector, so I decided to do so.
I've been using this fixture for about 2 years now, I currently have 2 of them mounted inside large wooden enclosures, one that is 4'x3'x2' and one that is 4'x2'x2', and I absolutely love this Sunblaster fixture. They are meant for growing plants, but they work wonderfully for all T5 fluorescent tube purposes.
The best thing about these fixtures is that they have a built-in reflector that folds in and out, as you can see in the photos I'm going to post below (yes, the reflector goes the entire way behind the UVB tube in addition to being on the 2 sides that fold out). So in the morning I open the reflectors and I close them at night. The other nice thing about these SunBlaster fixtures is that you can simply sit them on top of a mesh tank lid (as one of my friends does), but they also INCLUDE THE MOUNTING HARDWARE FOR BOTH FLAT-SURFACE MOUNTING AND HANGING!!!
As one of my friends pointed out, and I never really took note of, because these SunBlaster fixtures are meant for growing plants indoors, they actually have plug receptacles on each end of the fixture, and they do come with one cord a piece, so that you can connect multiple fixtures together end-to-end and only have to plug in one fixture to the power outlet, regardless of how many fixtures you have connected together. So as my friend decided to start breeding Dragons after 2 years of ownership, he went out to Lowes and bought multiple, huge shelving units that are heavy-duty enough to hold multiple, heavy, Melamine Board custom enclosures (though he's now using them over plastic rearing tubs). So because these SunBlaster tube fixtures also come with the mounting hardware for both flat surfaces as well as for hanging them, he ordered more of these fixtures and set up his shelves with 2 large, plastic rearing tubs per shelf, with 3 shelves per unit, so he has 6 of these fixtures per shelving unit. He has 2 of them hanging over 2 plastic rearing tubs per shelf, with all 6 of them connected together using the plug receptacles on the ends of each fixture, and then has the last fixture on the bottom shelf plugged into the wall power outlet. It's a very cool set-up, and he said they were extremely easy to hang and connect together. I know that I had no issues at all mounting mine to the inside ceilings of my wooden enclosures (I actually cut off the power plug from mine and then did a direct-wire into a junction box on the back of my custom enclosures, so my enclosure have only one plug to plug into the wall for all the lights, the timers, the switches, and ventilation fans). I had no issues at all mounting them or direct-wiring them, and they are also pretty light.
These come in multiple lengths (18", 24", 36", 48" and I believe even longer), as well as coming in a T8 version too. The wattage of each length fixture matches the wattage of the same length Reptisun 10.0 T5HO and the Arcadia 12% T5 UVB tubes, so no problems with compatibility at all. I own 2 of the 24" T5 versions and have not had a single electrical issue and no problems with the tubes not fitting correctly or anything like that. They are also very well-made and high-quality, they are light yet sturdy.
As an added bonus, they are now much cheaper than when I originally bought mine, they now cost only $37.99 with FREE SHIPPING for a 24" fixture on Amazon.com (I paid $48.99 plus shipping for mine
), and then the prices go up as the lengths go up, but in comparison to any of the Reptisun, Arcadia, or other T5-rated hoods/fixtures that also include a Metal Reflector (let alone include a built-in, fold-out reflector, 2 different sets of mounting hardware, and a connector cord for plugging multiple fixtures together end-to-end), these SunBlaster Nano Reflector T5 Tube Fixtures cannot be beat. AMAZON PRODUCT INFORMATION PAGE FOR THE 22" FIXTURE:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AKKUBDQ/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=
AMAZON RETAILERS/PRICES PAGE FOR THE 22" FIXTURE
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00AKKUBDQ/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new
