Habitat - Indoor :: MVB and basking question

Turtle tank setups and other indoor configurations.

Post Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:40 am   MVB and basking question

Hello!

I just set up a new home for my turtle (a 30x12x12 tank) and have a few questions on lighting. I currently have a regular incandescent bulb in a metal flood lamp fixture with a ceramic socket as his basking bulb. I had been using a UVB before this but it burnt out yesterday and didn't want to leave him with nothing. I went to get mercury vapor bulb today but was reading the warnings on the packaging and it looks like it cannot be used in a standard socket. Would it be a bad idea to use this bulb with the socket I have? Also, I saw a long tube light for "Plants and Aquariums" that contained mercury and it got me thinking maybe I should get a hood and use this bulb. Is this long tube lamp a form of mercury vapor bulb? Is it okay to use this as a hood bulb and have no other lamp? Please let me know! I really want to make sure he has a good set up and basking area. Thank you!
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Post Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:15 am   

You have a lot of questions! Why don't you read up on lighting on this link. It will give you a good overview:

http://www.redearslider.com/index_lighting_basking.html

Here's some answers to your specific questions:

1. It you get a mercury vapor bulb be sure the one you get is specifically designed for basking reptiles. Just any bulb from the home improvement store will not do. Don't get one stronger than a 100 watt flood - they are powerful and too much of a good thing is bad. The socket must be ceramic (because the bulb gets so hot) and the lamp should be rated at least for the wattage of the bulb. If you have a 100 watt bulb then the fixture must be rated for a 100 watt bulb or stronger. If your fixture meets those criteria then it's probably ok.

2. The tube bulb you saw would not be useful either for heat or for UVB. The long tube bulbs are fluorescent - which is almost the opposite of a mercury vapor bulb. The fluorescents are cool whereas the MVBs are very hot.

There are tube bulbs made for basking reptiles that are very good for UVB. They are fluorescent and are found in the reptile section of the store. The package must say specifically that the bulb provides UVB and what percentage it provides (like 5.0 or 10.0) or it's not what you need.

If you get a tube bulb for UVB, it won't be hot - it will be cool - so you'll have to have a second bulb to provide the heat your turtle needs over the basking area. The heat bulb can be a regular household incandescent bulb. A lot of people use a 75 watt bulb. Whether it will be feasible to use a hood with a fluorescent tube bulb and also an incandescent heat bulb depends on your aquarium. It's not often done this way.

If you want to use only one bulb, then the only way to do it is with a MVB bulb. Any other configuration is going to require two bulbs - one for heat and one for UVB.
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Post Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:20 am   

Sorry for making a second post - but i just realized that your tank is relatively small (20 gallons). This is ok for a very small turtle but it's generally recommended that one not try to use a MVB with a tank smaller than 50 gallons because it's too hard to control the heat over a small tank.

Your best bet is probably a two bulb configuration. You can find out the specifics in the link above. When you upgrade your tank in the future to a larger size, then you can go with a MVB.
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Post Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:37 am   

thank you so much for your help! im going to get a two bulb set up going on and see how it works. i thought getting the mercury vapor bulb would be easier but i dont want to have problems with the temperatures. anyway, thank you again...you were very helpful!
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