Lighting and heat help

[skyebee]

I recently bought a hobby 160w all day uva/uvb light, its all well and good, but I cant work out for the life of me what all the directions mean. Maths never was a strongpoint.

Does anyone have one of these for heat and light ? and if they do could you help me out a little here, I need to get it sitting at its correct height to do my loves any good, the table is 2x1.5x1 ish, my measurements are sucky too.

I have to buy a dimmer thermostat for it to as I only have on/off ones from having other lizards etc, so if anyone could recommend a cheapish place to buy one offline that would be great.

[linda]

i do not think that dimmer switches or thermostats can be used on the uv heat combined bulbs

you set the light up

record temps

and then move light higher or lower to get the desired temp you need for your species of tort

[Dazza]

hi,

you can not use dimmers with Mercury Vapour Lamps they either have to be on or off, in fact you can't use thermostats with them full stop, a timer would be fine.

Also make sure that you have the lamp the correct distance from your tortoise, in fact i would go as far as to say keep it 18" away, the hobby lamps are clear face bulbs, they give off a VERY TIGHT beam of HIGH uvb which can be dangerous to your tortoise, i have heard some quite bad reports about these lamps so please excercise caution when setting it up - on the flip side i do know of people who have use them with no ill effects..

Dazza

[scrambled legs]

i read on the link about the uvb testing you gave us darren, that lots of switching of and on will rapidly shorten a mercury bulbs life.

[Dazza]

the tungsten filaments can be a bit iffy - they are best suited to being swithed on in the morning and off at night..

Dazza

[skyebee]

Oh ok cool, umm right, so what kind of light CAN I use a dimmer with, or can it be used with a ceramic heat lamp as I have one of them as well ? I have already bought it online so I cant send it back I dont think, I might as well use it for something.

I have read that dimmers are specifically for use with lamp style heat and light sources, am I just being blonde about this ?

[skyebee]

And now she see's a thing googled saying they cannot be used with dimmers........I could kill that vet !!!

So ummm are you saying I maybe shouldnt have paid out for the mercury bulb ? am I better just with my uv strip and heat lamp ?

I so want to get this right for my little ones, I will take any advice going.

I got the mercury blub advice from the xxxxxxxxxxxxx, I thought they were the way forward as according to them it is..........oh this is confusing !!!

[swad1000]

The combined UV/heat ones are better.

They give far more usable UV over a greater distance, and last longer.

Just adjust the hieght to get the temps correct, the light then comes on in the morning goes off in the evening, and the torts have had the same as a lovely sunny day in the Med.

[skyebee]

So thats what my hobby is right ? combined heat and light..........

I am all confused now, right now its roasting, so I have taken it off and gone back to the old lighting until I can find some way to make a stand high enough to get the basking area at the right temp, then will I leave it on for the 14 hours and off for 10 as I read somewhere or are there other ideas on this ?

My cool areas are ok for them when the hobby is on but the basking is just way too hot, my vet said around 90 is good, you agree with that ?

[Dazza]

I have pm'd you !

Dazza