Habitat - Indoor :: Some lighting questions..

[Spike 7.62]

Greetings all, I've got a 20g tank which came with a 18" bulb that I replaced since it didn't put out UVA or UVB. I installed a "15W Repti-Glo 5.0 UVB" bulb which currently resides in the topper. The box rates the bulb as 30% UVA, and 5% UVB.

So here is my concern...

The bulb is not directly exposed to the inside of the tank, there is a glass barrier. I'm wondering, does this barrier let the UVA/UVB rays to get to the turtles? It's only several inches above the dry-dock and water line, so I don't want it to heat up the water as a result of direct exposure, or fry my turts for that matter!

-spike

[BullDog]

With the glass barrier, virtually no UVB is reaching your turtles. UVBs emit very little heat, so there's no worries of heating up the water with that. However, you do need a heat source to entice your turtles to bask. A regular household bulb will work fine.

[xstefanx]

If there is a barrier between then no uv rays are getting through. If you has a topped on do you have a heat lamp on them as well!

[Spike 7.62]

All right, I had a feeling this was the case. So I'll remove the glass so the bulb is exposed to the inside of the tank, or create something custom made to top the aquarium with.

A clamp-on heat lamp should do the trick to create heat.. the water temp is a steady 83 degrees F, I've read here that the basking temp should be about 10 degrees above that, correct?

-Spike

[xstefanx]

yup 10 degrees above water temp, the water temp might be a bit warm though, I could be wrong on that though, I'm sure someone here will chime in on that.

[Spike 7.62]

Right, elsewhere on the forum I read that the water temp should be closer to 75ish, I'll turn the heater down a little bit after I'm done typing this. Also, I just went outside and bashed out the glass barrier (I cleaned it all up so there is zero glass or glue residue) and now the UVA/UVB bulb is directly exposed to the turtles.

The RES seem to want to bask even though they don't have a heat lamp, but I'll get one anyway, with an air thermometer. They'll hang out on the dry-dock, sometimes piling, and fan out their feet while the light is on. It's probably an instinct to do that, but I'll make it warmer for them anyway.

Thanks for the replies so far!

-Spike

[BullDog]

83 is quite warm for a water temp. By comparison, my basking temp is only about 86. I find in the summer I don't even need my heater, so I take it right out. You can cool the water a bit with a frozen pop bottle.