best light for night viewing BRB in tub?

purplephilia · 05-24-17, 01:47 PM

I searched this forum for posts about lighting but didn't find anything that answers my specific question, which is: what is the best light to use for viewing my baby BRB at night? I impatiently bought a blue LED bulb hoping to use it in my Fluker's dimmer lamp, but whoops apparently LEDs are known for not really being dimmable. So I'm thinking this time I should do some research and ask questions before I make my next choice.

I would only turn the light on when I want to look in on him, it wouldn't be on all night. I have him in an IRIS Weathertight 41 qt tub like the one in this picture.

Azrt · 05-24-17, 01:54 PM

Use a the light from whatever room he's in.

purplephilia · 05-24-17, 01:59 PM

Huh. Well that might work if the room light was a bright daylight type of light (it's not), or maybe if the plastic was perfectly clear.

I can see inside the tub great with the LED I bought, I just don't know if maybe it's too bright for the snake.

Scubadiver59 · 05-24-17, 01:59 PM

You should be in bed, not looking in on your snake all day and night long...you'll only stress it out. What do you expect to see?

if you have to, set up a security camera and watch it from your computer.

dannybgoode · 05-24-17, 02:02 PM

No lights at night in vivs imo. A very dim red bulb if you must that's only on briefly whilst you view but I wouldn't even go that far.

purplephilia · 05-24-17, 02:06 PM

I don't want it inside. On top of (in a big lamp that keeps the bulb at a distance) or above the tub. And I don't want it to be a heating bulb.

purplephilia · 05-24-17, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scubadiver59

You should be in bed, not looking in on your snake all day and night long...you'll only stress it out. What do you expect to see?

I said "when I want to look in on him" not all night long. I specifically said the light wouldn't be on all night. I happen to really enjoy looking in on him quickly, without opening the tub, just to see what he's up to. I don't always sleep through the entire night and if I wake up I just like to peek in on him. Weird, right?????? Being that he's nocturnal, it just so happens that night time is when I get to see him being active.

dannybgoode · 05-24-17, 02:31 PM

You'll be surprised, given the right setup, how visible he'll be in the day. Nocturnal doesn't necessarily mean hidden away and most nocturnal animals are somewhat active during the day (think cats).

Also most snakes (BRB's included) are not truly nocturnal but crespula and putting lights on at night can be very disturbing for the snake.

purplephilia · 05-24-17, 03:21 PM

Thank you for your thoughtful and helpful response dannybgoode!

Cats are actually crepuscular too. I do look in on my BRB once or twice during the day too (I work from home) and never see him out until about 7:30 at night, and whenever I've looked in on him late at night or the middle of the night I always find him out and about. I just really love watching him, it's really cool. I've also only had him for a week so he's still new and exciting and fascinating to me. I know lights are not the best thing so that's why I was thinking there must be a dim light that is acceptable for just looking in on him periodically, but I guess not. Thank you for your help.

akane · 05-25-17, 11:21 AM

Pretty much all my reptiles have an evening light of some kind. Sleep disorder and I really never would see some when if I wanted to collect instead of view I'd just put them in racks. All my geckos right now and several snakes are also in my bedroom. Most of the night/dim lights I don't have timers and I just turn them off when I am unlikely to be entering the room anymore, sometimes rather than waste time in bed not sleeping I clean and work on hobbies for a few hours so I'll end up back in those rooms, or when I'm probably going to sleep for the first time (I sleep in 2-4hr blocks). I do have a cut off where I turn out lights except where I'm using my computer regardless of my own sleep so everything can have enough dark and they have quiet mornings with limited daylight.

If you want led skip the fixture and get a small, low watt rope or just a disc which can even be battery operated if you only want a couple hours in the evening when sunlight is too low. They are low profile and fit flat anywhere with a bit of duct tape or for better looking, less visible but more permanent option some stick on velcro. I also have a few incandescent tinted party bulbs, a tinted red heat lamp, and just a 10w daylight fluorescent in a narrow reflector to aim it mostly at 1/4th of the tank which my desert king seems to actually like coming out in the evening/early night to sit under on purpose. You can get more red tinted fluorescents for plants but they are still going to cover a full spectrum and reptiles can see a wider range of light than us so I worry more about actual watts or lumens I'm using than color but red is considered the least disturbing of night schedules.

I will repeat everything does get full dark by a certain point and my lights all come on late with some rooms getting pretty much no daylight so they don't have a long bright morning anyway. They mostly have what light I give them and some are near 100% artificial. I have doves breeding like that so I think I am doing it successfully. If I had a really bright room starting first thing in the morning I'd probably be more hesitant to light in the evening or into the night at all but quite the opposite so viewing the snakes into the am hours does not seem to bother them. The one who has the most feeding and stress issues is the one with no light and only a che in the room everything enters the least so any problems I think are species/individual issues, not lighting or human schedule.

TRD · 05-25-17, 12:06 PM

If you enjoy watching your snake so much, then why stuff it away in a plastic box instead of a nicely decorated vivarium in the first place.

Scubadiver59 · 05-25-17, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRD

If you enjoy watching your snake so much, then why stuff it away in a plastic box instead of a nicely decorated vivarium in the first place.

This ^^^^^^^^^

purplephilia · 05-25-17, 01:41 PM

You have no clue what his tub looks like. He is not "stuffed", he is a BABY and he has PLENTY of room, 3 hides, a large water tub, 2 places to hang out above the floor, two corners with leaves to feel sheltered, branches for climbing, and leafy vines circling the entire tub. As a matter of fact his tub is so nicely decorated that it's actually nearly impossible to spot him through it all from outside the tub--so I probably don't even need to bother with a light anyway.

All of this while his temperatures remain perfect and his humidity stays steady at 99%. Have you never heard what happens when you ASSume?? Well you guys did that just fine even before you made wrong assumptions.

But thank you very much for taking your time to help me out with a simple question and welcoming a newcomer to this forum. And people wonder why reptile keepers get a bad rap.

purplephilia · 05-25-17, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by akane

If you want led skip the fixture and get a small, low watt rope or just a disc which can even be battery operated if you only want a couple hours in the evening when sunlight is too low.

Thank you SO MUCH for being reasonable and adding to a discussion rather than being unhelpful and rude.

The thing is, I didn't even want to leave the light on continually. I only wanted to have one to turn on when I went to check on my baby--turn on, look in on him, watch him for a couple minutes if he's moving, turn off. It's not like I want a big huge 50,000 watt spotlight on him all night. I actually cover his tub with a towel if I'm in the room at night with the room light on because I know they're not fond of light at night and I've seen him poking his head out of his little burrow only to hide it again when the light came on.

But like I said in my last post, last night I looked in on him and realized a light doesn't even help because I have to peer through a bunch of leaves or around his water tub to try to find him lol. So after all this wonderful helpful discussion, I'm probably not even going to bother with a light and I might just keep my infrared camera nearby and see if I can spot him through the screen on the camera.

I do have a "moonlight" heat bulb for my gargoyle gecko but I don't leave that on continually either, I have it on a thermostat so it only comes on when her enclosure needs some warming up.

**Andy_G** · 05-25-17, 02:03 PM

We have a new member looking for insight from the members on this site. There is more than one way to keep these animals correctly, be it in a large vivarium or a private tub (wich may even be BETTER for a somewhat nervous, high humidity species such as a rainbow boa depending on who you ask). It's ok to be opinionated, but please explain as to how you formed your personal opinion so that it may be learned from and recognize that it's just that, a personal opinion. Hopefully previous comments were just read wrong and no harm was meant, but please be mindful of the situation at hand here, folks. I'm watching.

Back to it, ladies and gentlemen.