View Cart

Real shop - Darlington > Lights

Lights

Massive choice of UVB, full spectrum, tubes, bulbs, compacts, Metal Halide, Halogen and Mercury Vapour.

Another critical area of reptile keeping - and sadly another misunderstood area. Too many people use a spot bulb and think thats it! Thats what we did 30 years plus ago! It might be cheap, but its not ideal - and when combining this with no UVB either, deadly.

Spot bulbs are not our first choice for lighting - and definately not for heating. They can work well for large collections where the keeper just switches off the ligths at night and the ambient air temperature stays high due to the high day time temperature. They can also work well in larger vivaria with various basking areas. We stock many brands of bulbs for this reason, from standard incandescent to halogen. None of these give off UVB, and few imitatate the colours of the sun (full spectrum) - and none give off a high lux rating when compared to the sun. We stock a variety of ranges from Exo-terra, Eurorep, Lucky Reptiles and Exo-terra to name a few.

 

 

 

Fluorescent tubes have been the stalwart of reptile UVB requirements for several years. But also slightly misunderstood. 5% and 10% tubes are for UVB requirements - 2% are not UVB tubes but are to be used in conjunction with a 5% or 10% UVB tube to rpovide full spectrum lighting. Its also worth mentioning that the % rating for all the tubes is very nonsensical and misleading too! We stock Exo-terra Reptiglo, Zoo-med Reptisun and Arcadia tubes. Also more recently Compact versions have been brought to the market from the same manufacturers - and also Lucky Reptile (who dont use the confusing % system!).

Metal Halide is the latest buzz word from those in the know. These bulbs have been around a while and have proven to give excellent results. They provide UVB, full spectrum and the highest lux value of any other form of reptile lighting. Plus they run relatively cool so dont affect a ceramic heater connected to a thermostat. Excellent! Only one reptile manufacturer provides us with metal halide - Lucky Reptile.

Mercury Vapour bulbs are currently in vogue, especially with tortoise keepers. Used correctly they offer a good source of UVB, but we feel they have their limitations - and are sorely misunderstood. We feel they are best used in larger vivaria, perhaps room sized to give the reader a better idea. We stock the ranges from both Zoo-med and T-rex.