Setup too hot - lower wattage or dimming thermostat?

[BlueThunder]

Hi,

I’m in the process of creating a viv to house a baby Northern. I’ve two heat bulbs, one 11 inches above the slate floor, the other 8 inches above a hide. Both are 50w bulbs. (See pic)

When I measured using heat guns, the spot on the slate floor below the left bulb was 47c, and the max on top of the hide below the right bulb was 57-60c.

Now, I don’t wish to cook the little guy These temps seem a bit high to me. I’m assuming the max temperature anywhere in the viv should be about 38c. Is the best course simply to get two lower wattage bulbs (40w), or perhaps something like the Evo lite or Evo and run both bulbs off one dimming channel? I can’t really lift the bulbs any higher.

Many thanks!

lamps.jpg

[kayla990]

Heya,

I would be tempted to say two lower wattage bulbs would be the way to go. I'm basing it on the concept that dimmers can reduce bulb life (as I believe I heard that dimmers often force lights to flicker on and off frequently to dim them). However I don't know if this is only true for the cheaper dimmers vs. the Evo system But even then.. it can help towards general energy saving prices by swapping to lower watt bulbs.

So either method you mentioned would work, I would swap to new bulbs personally. Then during winter you could swap one of the lower watt bulbs for the more powerful one again ^__^

Goodluck finding a Northern - have you got one already lined up? They're very difficult to find in UK / Europe!

[BlueThunder]

Hi Kayla,

Yes, already got one lined up and fingers crossed should get it within the next 3 weeks

Thanks for the advice. I'll have to look into the possibility that the EVO would lower bulb life expectancy. I thought it might be the better option as our flat can get very cold in winter and very warm in Summer, but if it is going to dramatically reduce the bulb life then I'll just go lower wattage.

[Suzle87]

Hi, I was just wondering is there somewhere for you Bluey to burrow? I love the slate floor but if it’s all slate I know my BTS would struggle as he loves burrowing/ throwing substrate everywhere.
Just a thought, sorry if you’ve already mentioned this and I missed it.

[BlueThunder]

Hi, I was just wondering is there somewhere for you Bluey to burrow? I love the slate floor but if it’s all slate I know my BTS would struggle as he loves burrowing/ throwing substrate everywhere.
Just a thought, sorry if you’ve already mentioned this and I missed it.

Hi,

Yes there will be. The other half to two thirds of the tank will have a couple of inches of burrowable substrate. The slate is there to hold the heat and to allow easy cleaning. The bit of slate in the picture will have some substrate on the it, but the other side is the main burrowing part.

[Suzle87]

Hi, I was just wondering is there somewhere for you Bluey to burrow? I love the slate floor but if it’s all slate I know my BTS would struggle as he loves burrowing/ throwing substrate everywhere.
Just a thought, sorry if you’ve already mentioned this and I missed it.

Hi,

Yes there will be. The other half to two thirds of the tank will have a couple of inches of burrowable substrate. The slate is there to hold the heat and to allow easy cleaning. The bit of slate in the picture will have some substrate on the it, but the other side is the main burrowing part.

Ah right cool, the slate will be ace for its nails I really like the look of it and with some substrate aswell it’l be spot on.

[lifesagame]

I’ve got a dimmer thermostat in my viv, without it my temps would be hard to control as it does dim and brighten in the day. I’ve not had a problem with the lifespan of bulbs, apart from cheap reptile ones I got that people seemed to have issues with in general. Standard bulbs or pro rep have both lasted years on a dimmer, I guess maybe they’d have gone longer without but it isn’t enough of an issue for me.

If you do go down the dimmer route and don’t get reptile soecific bulbs make sure they are ok with dimmers, a lot now won’t work with dimmers and we accidentally bought some for our lights on a dimmer switch and they flickered and shut off when dim rather than dimming properly.

I think experiment with bulbs before getting the dimmer maybe as the dimmers can be quite expensive. If they don’t work then the dimmer might be the way forward if you’ve got time to try a few ways out. I know I’ve ended up using all the bulb wattages I’ve bought if I ended up with a lower one in the summer to get the temps up in the winter so if you have a few different power ones in the cupboard because you’ve had to experiment you might end up using them anyway.