I noticed the temps all across the top of the enclosure seem warmer than usual, in the 80s, and he isn’t in his basking spot hardly at all, so I am thinking this large quad fixture may be going back to the store. Is that similar to your issue of getting temps right with the quad? Going to raise it another few inches to see if that helps and also play with IV solar meter to confirm if I need 10.0 over the 5.0. Going to supplement with my old 24” uv fixture for now.
Is my upgraded lighting okay?
- Thread starter Robby
- Start date
Yep they produce a lot of heat. I run 3 T5 fixtures and the jungle dawn LED bar. All of these are on timers so they stagger on and off throughout the day. My top level sits right about 80-82 between. My basking fixture only kicks on for a few hours during the day but it is on a herpstat to control it. So if it reaches 83 it kicks off the basking fixture. I know quite a few people that use quads and do not use a basking fixture at all because they are getting those 80-85 temps at the top which is what we look for with basking temps. If they get too warm they will move down to get away from it.
You are correct on this. You will not have the same reduction in UVI output as those of us that have aluminum window screen on the top panel. But I am really happy you got a solarmeter to check your levels. Let us know if you have any questions about using it.
Uri
Avid Member
I haven’t read everything on this thread but I personally use leap habitats led bar because I use bakers racks but between my t5ho 6500k vivosun fixture and my leap fixture the leap led fixture gets SO much brighter it’s insane I haven’t tried arcadias jungle dawn tho so I’m not sure how the two compare
Is only having the quad bulb sufficient for basking when temps can reach 80-85 at the top of the reachable enclosure? Without the clear cover and the 6500ks and UVB of course
Yes, this is what some other people with quads do. Most of the people that I know that do this are running vivosun quads because they have separate reflectors for each bulb. This makes a huge difference with UVB output. Your distance to basking branch below is going to depend on the UVI output of course. So having the solarmeter to determine what UVI the cham is getting at its back is important. Your looking for a 3 UVI at that point. Most people will put the UVB bulb in the back outside position when all bulbs share one reflector so that the side of the outside reflector is kicking the UVB down. WIth that being said you may find you do not get the output you need with that lower UVB bulb strength. Or even that temps end up being too hot because you have to raise the branch so close to the fixture.
