Lighting With Little Heat

AnaBat · 12-04-17, 09:47 PM

I recently got an albino nelsons milk snake and since she is still very small I only have in her a 10 gallon. She is more active when I have her light on but her light causes the tank to heat up very fast (I am assuming do to the small size of the tank) I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on a light source that would cause very little heat. I considered UVB but people seem pretty torn when it comes to how harmful excessive UVB can be to a snake. I already have a pretty low wattage bulb in her tank (60w) but I want to make sure she has the light she seems to prefer without dying from the heat.

TRD · 12-06-17, 04:30 PM

Either lower wattage bulb, or a dimmer type thermostat. Anyway, how 'hot' does it get in there? I don't know the dimensions in gallon, but google tells me it's about 13" high. In that case a 25-30W bulb seems more appropriate. 60 is definitely too much to run full power in that space.

PS. snakes don't die from UV otherwise there wouldn't be any in the wild, it's all about proportions and providing space without UV (ie- only half the space is lighted with UV). Also note that milksnakes can see UV light, so "not so bright for you" =/= "not so bright for the snake". But, UV lights (tubes/CFLs) don't give off heat. You get to MV/HID lighting which will give heat+UV, but they get far too hot for such a small place.

In any case, you have an albino snake, so if you ever get the idea to add UV, make sure it's very low powered. Similar to albino humans, they can't stay in sunlight all that long. I provide UV for my snakes, but not to my albino nelson. The eyes are just far too "glassy" with lack of pigment that I have serious doubt it will be of any good, in her case I took a road of better safe than sorry. She already dodges bright light sources.

akane · 12-06-17, 08:37 PM

You are using incandescent? Cause that's not very useful unless you want heat from it and in that case 60w is way too high for a 10g without something to control its' output. 20w is often too hot of the heat producing bulbs for a 10g without a thermostat or reducing it somehow. You need heat without light or at least the darkened reptile bulbs (usually don't go below 40w so thermostat needed) to run them all night and then usually light without heat for the daytime. Unless you want a daytime increase in heat or run your night/dark on a timer that swaps the bulb. Otherwise a fluorescent bulb is most commonly used for light separate from the heat source on snakes. You can screw a compact fluorescent to an incandescent socket. It shouldn't take more than 20w for enough light on a 10g. I'm not sure a screw in base comes with any UV like the tubes can.

The UV halogens will also put out heat like an incandescent but I find more sizes. It's one of my exceptions to separate heat and light sources. I have an 11w UV halogen bulb I use for small tanks or small heat increases like the gecko tanks and I had it on a baby corn snake in a 10g recently but only for daytime. Crested geckos are fine at room temp overnight. One of my adult corn snakes runs 50w CHE (ceramic heat emitter) at night and then a 50w UV daylight bulb with a timer on her 46gallon but her tank is big enough to replicate a cooler night time temp that way. Most of my others that need heat 24/7 have fluorescent tubes for the day and CHE running all the time so I just have to put one fixture on a timer.

If you really have a heat buildup problem already in a small enclosure or one you want brightly lit the led bulbs put out practically no heat and most won't add more than a couple degrees to even small, low ventilation containers.

jjhill001 · 12-08-17, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by akane

You are using incandescent? Cause that's not very useful unless you want heat from it and in that case 60w is way too high for a 10g without something to control its' output. 20w is often too hot of the heat producing bulbs for a 10g without a thermostat or reducing it somehow. You need heat without light or at least the darkened reptile bulbs (usually don't go below 40w so thermostat needed) to run them all night and then usually light without heat for the daytime. Unless you want a daytime increase in heat or run your night/dark on a timer that swaps the bulb. Otherwise a fluorescent bulb is most commonly used for light separate from the heat source on snakes. You can screw a compact fluorescent to an incandescent socket. It shouldn't take more than 20w for enough light on a 10g. I'm not sure a screw in base comes with any UV like the tubes can.

The UV halogens will also put out heat like an incandescent but I find more sizes. It's one of my exceptions to separate heat and light sources. I have an 11w UV halogen bulb I use for small tanks or small heat increases like the gecko tanks and I had it on a baby corn snake in a 10g recently but only for daytime. Crested geckos are fine at room temp overnight. One of my adult corn snakes runs 50w CHE (ceramic heat emitter) at night and then a 50w UV daylight bulb with a timer on her 46gallon but her tank is big enough to replicate a cooler night time temp that way. Most of my others that need heat 24/7 have fluorescent tubes for the day and CHE running all the time so I just have to put one fixture on a timer.

If you really have a heat buildup problem already in a small enclosure or one you want brightly lit the led bulbs put out practically no heat and most won't add more than a couple degrees to even small, low ventilation containers.

Yeah, a 40w lamp on a ten gallon will create mid 80's ambients and 95+ degree hotspots pretty easily. Also dries out the water bowl like crazy.

jjhill001 · 12-08-17, 11:26 PM

Honestly, just use a heatpad and get one of the small exo terra hoods and put some of the 5.0 bulbs from either zoomed or exoterras in there. Those bulbs produce a smidge of heat and the heat pad will produce the bulk of it.

akane · 12-09-17, 03:54 AM

With a 25w che in a 5" hood on the very edge of a 10gallon I have to fill the water bowl and dampen that half of the coco fiber mix pretty much daily. The center of the tank sits about 82F. Blocking any of the center ventilation trying to add a daylight lamp without a thermostat can make half a 10g away from that bulb and reflector size read 89F. I didn't run the temp gun directly under the lamp to see exactly how hot it was while finishing adjusting the heat because somewhere above "too hot" was obvious.

DJC Reptiles · 12-09-17, 06:07 AM

Just use a temperature controller on a larger wattage of heat pad.