Light as heat source

[poissonguppy]

Does anyone have any experience with useing light as a heat source for your garters? What type of wattage or brand is the best? Thanks!

[GarterGuy]

As of right now, all I use are lights for heat. I really like using these for garters, since they seem, in nature, to be real baskers and this seems to recreate that pretty well. As far as bulbs, pretty much any will do. I like to get the colour balanced basking bulbs myself, just so they don't "wash" out the garters when they're on. As far as wattage, depends on the temps., the size of the tank and if you're using a thermostat or not (something I highly recomend). Most pet stores carry lots of different bulbs from different manufaturers.
Roy

[Stefan-A]

Yeah, a reading lamp with a 60W bulb.

The brand doesn't matter and the wattage depends on your own needs. I've used everything between 35 and 60 watts and what the wattage determines, is how far away you can mount the lamp and how much the temperature in the terrarium rises.

[Snaky]

Here it's also the only thing I use as heat source. I use 40 and 60 Watts, depending on the temperature I get on the heating spot. Most of the times 40W is enough.

[Stefan-A]

Those of you who live within the EU; Have you heard that they are trying to ban conventional light bulbs because they aren't energy efficient? Try to create a basking spot with an 11W energy saving bulb after that.

[poissonguppy]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to put the light up in a ten gallon tank? Are there clips or anything like that?

[Stefan-A]

It doesn't have to be inside the, it will heat surfaces inside even through glass. What kind of tank is it, an ex-aquarium? What kind of lid do you use?

[poissonguppy]

Yeah, I guess you can say it's an "ex-aquarium." I am just using the commercial mesh lid you buy at pet stores.

[Stefan-A]

I have no idea what the commercial lids look like. We always have to make our own.

But let's see now.. What kind of lamp do you have? I used a hanging lamp (homemade; lightbulb, cord, flower pot) when I still had a glass terrarium with a mesh lid. I had it hanging from a strip of wood resting on the top of the lid, with a loop of wire going through the mesh. It's a bit hard to explain.

In such a small tank, I'd rather have it shine through the glass and not directly from above. Unless the mesh is metal.

[RedSided]

At the moment I use a heat mat inside the viv, but I was looking to get a light , but as my viv has wooden sides and sliding glass doors I wasn't sure how to go about using light as a heat source. Its a 25 gallon tank.

Any suggestions on what bulbs to use how to mount them and how to shield them from the snake to avoid burns.
Could I use a reading light with a certain bulb and shine it through the glass?