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#1750162
DarkClown
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Lighting for a skink 
What is a good lighting solution for a skink in a 10 gallon tank. Being temperate I don’t know that I need any more than a standard reptile florescent bulb with UVA/UVB. Right now I am using a grow light from an old tabletop greenhouse which I never used. It has two 15w bulbs that seem to put the tank to about 85 degrees constant. There is no real ability to have a cool side and warm side though as the florescent goes all the way across. I was looking at the Zilla combo with the circular florescent and halogen in the middle as a better solution. At night I of course turn the light off and the tank cools to about 68-70 but that is how it is now in the summer time. In the winter it may be a bit cooler at night. That’s what made me think of this combo light which can have a night time halogen bulb in the middle. I have areas (cave, cut log) for the skink to hide in, but wanted to get some advise. There seems to be so little guidance out there specific to lighting other than to say you must have a UVA/UVB source.
Thanks!!
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05/29/08 03:27pm
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#1750729
JackAsp
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Message To: DarkClown In reference to Message Id: 1750162
Lighting for a skink
Grow lights don’t have the right UV spectrum. They probably put out enough UVA, but that’s it. Go with a strip light that’s made for reptiles and has a suggested range long enough that it will reach the bottom of the tank (some are only good for like 6 inches, which is pretty much useless in something a foot tall if the animal is usually at ground level) and then use a small heat mat with dimmer switch to provide a gentle warm end. Skinks like to dig; they’ll quickly figure out where the warm spots, cool spots, and in-between spots are. Just make sure the heat source is small and mild. You might not even be able to put the whole thing under the tank, because heat creep will still spread to other parts of the tank. Some people get better results by putting it against an end of the tank rather than underneath it.
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05/30/08 01:32am
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#1750734
JackAsp
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Message To: JackAsp In reference to Message Id: 1750729
Lighting for a skink
Actually, I should probably ask what kind of skink. If it’s a climbing species, the "digging for heat" setup isn’t ideal.
You might try those coil-type reptile lights. They don’t crank out as much heat as the real sunlamps, but they’re warmer than the strip lights, and they do radiate an appropriate spectrum.
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05/30/08 01:39am
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#1750828
DarkClown
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Message To: JackAsp In reference to Message Id: 1750734
Lighting for a skink
Its a blue tail. I did get a strip light, a with the 7% UVB but I saw somewhere that you need to remove the cover off of it because UVB doesn’t go through plastic? Not sure that is right, just reading stuff on the web which you know how that goes. The grow light fixture takes the same size fluorescent bulb so I am tempted to just go buy 2 bulbs and put them in that fixture. I guess one of my other concerns (for later) was the winter and getting some sort of night bulb for evening warmth. That’s why I had asked about that light Zilla puts out which would work for a 10 gallon. Reptile Supply
I guess I really need to move up to a 20 gallon.
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05/30/08 08:40am
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#1750921
DarkClown
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Message To: DarkClown In reference to Message Id: 1750828
Lighting for a skink
Ok, so now I think I have a good set up, at least for now. I picked up a 18" 15 watt Reptisun bulb. I was going to put two in but I saw in another thread that the 10.0s can actually possibly hurt Skinks/reptiles? Maybe I should have gotten a 5.0? Anyway, right now I have one 10.0 and the other is the normal aquarium type fluorescent bulb. The skink seems happy. There is a cave in there and one of those cut logs so she can get out of the light if she wants. So far everything seems good. I noted that the general rule of thumb was that skinks eat about 4-5 small crickets every other day. I have not seen that so far, instead my skink seems to eat about 5-6 a day clearly looking for more. Hungry little bugger! :)
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05/30/08 11:25am
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#1750929
JackAsp
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Message To: DarkClown In reference to Message Id: 1750921
Lighting for a skink
If appetite is good temps are probably good.
Yeah, with anything that needs UVB that fishtank-cover that comes with strip lights just gets tossed in the closet and the light goes directly onto a fitted screen top. Someday you might have something humidity-sensitive that doesn’t need UVB, like a snake or frog, so that cover (still on top of a screen) might come in handy, but for right now it would just be an obstruction.
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05/30/08 11:33am
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