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I have a 250W HQI Metal Halide fixture that I am using for my RES. The fixture also contains 2 24W t5 flourescents. This fixture was obviously intended for use on a reef system initially. Does anyone have some recommendations for good replacement bulbs with a proper light out put. Also, should I remove the glass shield on the fixture?

You are speaking a whole other language, lol. Are you fixtures for your flourescents for the tube style bulb, or the compact?

Either way, for UVB bulbs, reptisun, zoomed, and esu are all decent. Depends on the type of bulb you are going for. The glass will have to be removed for UVB, otherwise it will filter the beneficial rays.

edit: Here's a link to another post that I made. Like I mentioned in that post, some of those brands I know nothing about. I stick more to the ones that I mentioned above, but here's a decent list of the kinds on the market.
http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewt ... ght=#47014

And to also add, for heat, a regular lightbulb will work fine. No need for a fancy job unless you want to.

Cool, thanks for the info. I had a feeling that the glass lens should be removed. The halide bulb that's in there now is a 14,000K bulb, but I think that ESU makes a 250 HQI in a 5500K which will better replicate midday sunlight in the yellow and red spectrum. Should be better for heat too.

Bulbs made for reef tanks do not give turtles the UVA, UVB and heat they need, since they are made to light up the reef tank.

I've gone ahead and removed the lens cover that acts as a UV filter. The fixture itself is fan cooled, but the radiant heat seems pretty significant. The rock that I've placed for his basking area is quite warm to the touch. The fixture is about 15" over the rock and is a 250W bulb. He is eating well and is quite active, I was told by the person I got him from that this is a good indication of proper temp. The air temp in the tank is about 83F when the light is on, is this a proper temp?

The regular lightbulb that I use for heat, to go with my uvb, is only a 60 watt bulb. It's about 15 inches from the basking area.

Have you measured the basking platform temperature with a thermometer? Basking temperature should be about 90 degrees.

I would think that may be to much bulb for heating a basking spot...especially at only 15 inches away. I would deffinetly check the temp of the actual basking place.

What would be the best way to check this temp? Should I get a thermometer strip of some sort and place it directly on the rock, or could I just get a sitting temp with a regular thermometer placed near the rock?

You can get just a plain old themometer and place it on the dock for about 20 minutes. A lot of people suggest placing a rock the size of your turtle on the dock and then placing the themometer on top of that. There are also digital themometers that work really well. When I check my temps I always use two, just as an extra precaution.

This sounds like a good idea. I'll try finding something about the size of the turtle and placing a thermometer on top.