100w bulb or 160w? Help please?? (Redfoots)

[Reggie Wray]

Hi,

I have just inherited a 3 year old redfoot who is currently living in a tank with a basking bulb and UV strip. I want to get him a larger environment and after much research have been strongly swayed to the tables rather than tank so am getting him a 40"x24"x8" table. I have read mixed reviews on the combined bulbs but i would like to know for that size area and that breed and age would i get a 100w or a 160w???

Any help would be greatly appreaciated

Thank you

[Easter Bunny]

I would get a 160 watt personally xx

[NATURALIS]

Originally Posted by Reggie Wray

Hi,

I have just inherited a 3 year old redfoot who is currently living in a tank with a basking bulb and UV strip. I want to get him a larger environment and after much research have been strongly swayed to the tables rather than tank so am getting him a 40"x24"x8" table. I have read mixed reviews on the combined bulbs but i would like to know for that size area and that breed and age would i get a 100w or a 160w???

Any help would be greatly appreaciated

Thank you

if i was you i'd stick with a viv , reds do well in viv's because it's easier to keep the humidity up , also you would be better using a ceramic lamp because strong lights can damage there eyes

[shaz]

just something i found. thought u might want to consider..............

Housing- Generally a tortoise should be kept in a tortoise table,not a Viv, but many people have greater success using viv's for reds than using tortoise tables, as it is easier to keep the high humidity up

[Alan1]

I think they prefer lower strength light so as said further up, perhaps a ceramic heater and maybe a low watt compact UV bulb or tube.. but see what others who keep them say

[Arcadiajohn]

This is a great question to outline the correct way of choosing the right lamp.

We must ALL forget the % thing and this is right for this species and that is right for that! It is all meaningless!!!!!!!!!!

Firstly research the UV index in the country of origin! Then cross that with likely exposures of that species.

Then look at the species. Does it have a huge shell on it's back to grow and maintain or does it have very thin lizard skin or thick desert lizard skin.

Then you MUST research the limitations of the lamp. All Lamps have a limitation, what is the actual power? The % means nothing! It just is an indication of how much of the total light is UVB, if the total is underpowered so will the UVB in relation. A 10% lamp from one brand could actually be emitting 4% when compared with another!! It is still 10% but 10% of a lower total output.

When you know the limitations of the lamp you can then access the size and decoration of the enclosure. This is the MOST important factor!

UV decreases in potency the further from the lamp the light travels.

So for high vivs a more powerful lamp is required to provide the required exposure at the basking level.

So for most animals even those understory and scrub dwellers they would be perfectly used to obtaining 100uw/cm2+ in the basking zone. let's put this number into perspective an English summer evening after sundown can be providing 30-50uw/cm2. So just by providing a background 100uw/cm2 with the opportunity to photoregulate using shade and hides you still only provide evening dusk readings.

A D3+ high output T5 lamp is the most powerful lamp in the world at present! And this will only provide 100-110uw/cm2 at 40cms from lamp to animal!!

All lamps have limitations.

Personally I don't think there are many enclosures and species where a M.V lamp should be used on it's own, the area of emmision is just too narrow. A good hybrid of linear UVB lamps and M.V does work much better by opening up the photo gradient to a usable area.


I hope this is helpful!


John.

[kreacher]

Although tables are good for many species of tortoise, the redfoots will do perfectly well in a viv...I have one that I rescued that lived in a table and is now much more outgoing and content in a viv...the humidity is the bit he loves and that I very very hard to get right in a table...I have a vast knowledge of reptiles and products to get the humidity right and in my opinion it cannot be achieved properly in a table without spending lots of time and money which seems such a waste when a viv setup will do it for you!...mine loves nothing more than wading about in his bowl and getting soaked in the misters then drying off a bit under the lights...Mediterranean tortoises do not seem to do this so they are obviously well suited to a table
If you think of a tropical garden setup in a zoo or something like that it is always undercover because that hot humid environment cannot be achieved properly with it being open air...exactly the same principle exists for a viv/table setup...to replicate the wilderness of France is easy in a table, the wilds of brazil is not...

[Alan1]

what's the betting the original poster as a new owner is more confused than ever now

Having perhaps already ordered the 40" table the next question would be, is the 160w or 100w bulb (combined or heat only) too hot and too bright for a redfoot tortoise?

Having used a 100w combined in a 36" table at one time I would say that it's not hot enough on it's own in winter to provide the heat required for the whole table. You would get away with it in summer. A 160w is just about hot enough and light enough on it's own for a 36" table in winter but in summer it can become too hot and bulbs have to be raised higher. I am not talking about redfoots here nor UVB, just heat and light only.

I don't keep redfoots so can't say what their requirements are but I have read on this forum in the past that redfoots require or prefer lower light than other species do and that they require less UVB than other species, whether that is true I don't know but NATURALIS (formerly known as Red Foot Marg and keeper of redfoots) mentions above about using a ceramic heater instead of a heat light. What their UVB requirements are I don't know. So after 8 posts in the thread you still don't have a suitable answer to your bulb question really