Hi again Matt.
The longest Arcadia T5 desert + tube is 54 watts and it's nearly 4 feet long. Like Gordon I use the long ones. Swells are offering these at £22 just now which is a good price. You do need a ballast as well (and it must be the right one) but the ballast goes on for ever.
This is a really economical way of getting a lot of uva and uvb indoors and 54 watts won;t break the bank on running costs. On top of that I use a 80 watt halogen for heat so in total it's maybe 140 watts but for that you are getting not just a lot of good uvb but a lot of wide spectrum light too.
The T5 desert + tubes are really bright. And to get a gradient you can hang the thing at an angle with one end lower down near your heat source.
With a good T5 tube you can easily get 140 plus NM at one end which I reckon is plenty.
Gordon's right in the other thread, if you replace them every year you can be sure it's doing the job. But if you do have a solarmeter you can keep your tubes a lot longer and lower them a bit when the output starts to drop off. But yes it's a bit of messing about.
Over time it wouldn't cost you any more to use tubes and halogens compared to combi bulbs and frankly it's a lot better for the tortoises as well. But, if your torts are mostly outside then maybe none of this matters a lot.
__________________
Testudo Hermanni Hermanni (Corse) tortoises
|