So I will preface this by saying I am not an expert in chameleon lighting/UVB, and I know as much as anyone else who's studied Chameleon Academy and/or spoken with Todd at Light Your Reptiles about lighting setups. The evidence I found here is just my own, but I'd encourage anyone else with a similar setup to measure their lights with a 6.5 solarmeter and let me know if you have similar results.
With that out of the way, I recently switched up the lighting on my 2x2x4 enclosure from a 24" quad fixture, with at 12% arcadia bulb raised a few inches off the screen to a 36" Arcadia T5 6% and a Jungle Dawn LED, configured to run diagonally across the screen top on the screen.
There wasn't anything wrong with this fixture per se, minus a fan on top that always had a high pitched noise that just irked me a bit, and the built in timer just ran fast and would need to be re-set every couple of weeks. The biggest reason, however, was that it didn't have individual reflectors for the T5s in it and I felt that on top of the other small issues, I was wasting UVB that could be directed towards the enclosure.
I had thought of getting another quad fixture with individual reflectors, but I just didn't want to take up any more real estate on the top of the screen, so I wound up going with this combo:
Much nicer and quieter! I checked it out with my solarmeter and the numbers were good around the basking area, buuuuut there was a problem I had just created. My juvinile panther has mostly grown out of screen crawling, but I thought he could go for it again, especially if he's shedding and starts zooming around like an itchy maniac. So I tested the levels at the top of the screen and they were WAY too intense, even with a 6%. I was clocking 12+ on the solar meter right at the tippy top, and if I'm going off the info from Chameleon Academy, I shouldn't be going above 7.4.
Knowing Ickis' acrobatic skills, I didn't want him crawling around the top clocking in a UV level that high. See exhibits A & B with the old fixture below:
**Now, I don't know if this is just a thing with these longer 36" fixtures, but I'd love to hear from folks who have the same light combo, but in the 24", lower wattage configuration if they have similar readings with a fresh 6% bulb. **
It occurred to me I should at least prop it up a little bit, so I tried lifting the UV fixture with my hand while my partner read the UV with the solarmeter at the top and I came to the conclusion I should lift it about 2" off the screen. And I could've roamed around the house to find some books or something that I could prop the lights up with, but I wanted to be sure. What I wound up doing was designing a very basic L shape in some online CAD software and having it 3D printed.
I also wanted to make sure if I propped up heat generating lights with a material, it wouldn't melt or catch fire. Standard PLA filament can withstand temps of up to 302F.
For the screen top I went with a wedge that was 2" tall, 1" thick and 5" long from the outer corner, which gave me enough room to place the lights without the risk of them running right up to the edge of the shape. (Blue was the darkest color I had on hand, but I'm either gonna paint these black or grey or eventually reprint them with a more muted filament)
And of course, the best part is the screen top is well under the max of 7.4 AND his basking zone is still clocking around a 3 on the solar meter.
If anyone has a setup similar to mine, with 36" fixtures going diagonally and would like to try these out, here's the link an STL file you can download and print:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AoBXIOpD_8Cz6RHlXp9EVpT6tY9A?e=qjhH2j
Hope this helps some folks out!
With that out of the way, I recently switched up the lighting on my 2x2x4 enclosure from a 24" quad fixture, with at 12% arcadia bulb raised a few inches off the screen to a 36" Arcadia T5 6% and a Jungle Dawn LED, configured to run diagonally across the screen top on the screen.
There wasn't anything wrong with this fixture per se, minus a fan on top that always had a high pitched noise that just irked me a bit, and the built in timer just ran fast and would need to be re-set every couple of weeks. The biggest reason, however, was that it didn't have individual reflectors for the T5s in it and I felt that on top of the other small issues, I was wasting UVB that could be directed towards the enclosure.
I had thought of getting another quad fixture with individual reflectors, but I just didn't want to take up any more real estate on the top of the screen, so I wound up going with this combo:
Much nicer and quieter! I checked it out with my solarmeter and the numbers were good around the basking area, buuuuut there was a problem I had just created. My juvinile panther has mostly grown out of screen crawling, but I thought he could go for it again, especially if he's shedding and starts zooming around like an itchy maniac. So I tested the levels at the top of the screen and they were WAY too intense, even with a 6%. I was clocking 12+ on the solar meter right at the tippy top, and if I'm going off the info from Chameleon Academy, I shouldn't be going above 7.4.
Knowing Ickis' acrobatic skills, I didn't want him crawling around the top clocking in a UV level that high. See exhibits A & B with the old fixture below:
**Now, I don't know if this is just a thing with these longer 36" fixtures, but I'd love to hear from folks who have the same light combo, but in the 24", lower wattage configuration if they have similar readings with a fresh 6% bulb. **
It occurred to me I should at least prop it up a little bit, so I tried lifting the UV fixture with my hand while my partner read the UV with the solarmeter at the top and I came to the conclusion I should lift it about 2" off the screen. And I could've roamed around the house to find some books or something that I could prop the lights up with, but I wanted to be sure. What I wound up doing was designing a very basic L shape in some online CAD software and having it 3D printed.
I also wanted to make sure if I propped up heat generating lights with a material, it wouldn't melt or catch fire. Standard PLA filament can withstand temps of up to 302F.
For the screen top I went with a wedge that was 2" tall, 1" thick and 5" long from the outer corner, which gave me enough room to place the lights without the risk of them running right up to the edge of the shape. (Blue was the darkest color I had on hand, but I'm either gonna paint these black or grey or eventually reprint them with a more muted filament)
And of course, the best part is the screen top is well under the max of 7.4 AND his basking zone is still clocking around a 3 on the solar meter.
If anyone has a setup similar to mine, with 36" fixtures going diagonally and would like to try these out, here's the link an STL file you can download and print:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AoBXIOpD_8Cz6RHlXp9EVpT6tY9A?e=qjhH2j
Hope this helps some folks out!
