Placing collectively the right lighting array on your reptile or amphibian’s enclosure is crucial for sustaining the situations they should thrive. For basking reptiles, there are various heating decisions to select from together with Halogen Warmth Lamps and Self-Ballasted Mercury Vapor Bulbs. However which bulb is true on your reptile’s basking spot? Let’s examine and distinction these Halogen and Mercury Vapor Bulbs to find out which is the suitable mild on your pet!
It’s also possible to watch our video on the subject right here!
To begin, let’s describe the bulbs themselves!
Halogens Bulbs
Halogens bulbs are a sort of incandescent bulb that use a tungsten filament surrounded by inert fuel and a small quantity of halogen fuel.
A response loop, referred to as a halogen cycle, permits for longer life, brighter mild emission, and extra environment friendly warmth distribution than typical incandescent bulbs.
Mercury Vapor Bulbs
Self-ballasted mercury vapor bulbs within the reptile passion are like linear fluorescent tubes in that they move {an electrical} present by means of a small quantity of vaporized mercury to emit mild, warmth and UVB.
Each Halogen and Mercury Vapor Bulbs emit warmth, seen mild, and UV-A light-weight, making each nice choices for offering warmth and lightweight on your reptile.
Halogens even have the advantages of being sturdy, comparatively cheap, and dimmable. Dimmability is a very robust function, as this enables them for use with dimming thermostats to dial in actual temperatures. The downsides of utilizing Halogen lamps is that the seen mild emitted may be very heat coloured, and they don’t emit UV-B, so a separate UV-B bulb must be supplied alongside it.
Alternatively, Mercury Vapor Bulbs do present UV-B making them all-in-one basking spots for reptiles that love the solar! These bulbs should not dimmable, nonetheless, so care should be taken to make use of an applicable wattage, and place it to create a basking spot with applicable ranges of warmth and UV-B. They have a tendency to hold a premium price ticket, and are considerably extra fragile, so they need to be dealt with with care.
So, which warmth lamp is best for you?
We advocate Halogen warmth lamps for keepers that have already got a UV-B fixture, or are protecting a reptile with low UV-B necessities. They’re additionally nice for keepers in search of further customizability, and keepers on a price range.
We advocate Mercury Vapor Bulbs for keepers in search of an all-in-one answer to supply warmth and UV-B mild to a solar loving reptile.
You probably have any questions on whether or not halogen or mercury vapor bulbs are best for you and your reptile, be happy to contact us! We might be pleased that can assist you discover the warmth lamp that is good on your enclosure.
