Alternative to incandescent Red IR bulbs.

[whispersinmyhead]

I am looking for an alternative to red incandescent build for night viewing and don't wan the bulb to impact temps too much. I am wondering if red LED or compact fluorescent bulbs would do the trick?

Thanks
Jim

[rebelrachel13]

I think they make black and blue lights that supposedly put off the same amount of heat as red ones.

[kitedemon]

Look at deep blue LEDs they are cheap and easily available if you look in aquarium supplies. Reptiles see deep into the ir spectrum so red is well in the visual light they also see deeper into the ultraviolet than we do but at least dark blue is a more natural light colour at night. Led lights of this type are often externally ballested and produce low amounts of heat the ballest produces more but it is away from the cage.

[whispersinmyhead]

So aquarium places will have the LEDS? I want to use a CHE instead of a Red heat bulb. I have the T-stat rigged up and working great but it jumps down to 0% every few minutes and gets a little annoying. I want to use a CHE for the heat as my temps are great so I just want minimal impact. I just don't want to use another heat bulb if I don't have to. I could use a very low wattage reptile bue/red bulb but I was thinking there has to be alternatives such as LED. I will look into them.

Kitedemon have you used LEDs before? They don't disturb their night time activity?

[kitedemon]

No I have not noticed any change in activity and yes I have a number of blue led strings.

Something like this...
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Fish-Aquarium...ht_4734wt_1032

There is lots of them on ebay this is just the first one I came to. I dim them some by wrapping white cloth or translucent tape over them.

[Slim]

Something like this would work:

http://www.buylighting.com/LED-C7-Li...7-red-120v.htm

[whispersinmyhead]

Can I use any Blue LEDs? I can probably get a strip from the hardware store. Would that be ok? There isn't any really special wavelength I need to worry about with these as it is just some dim/dark blue lighting. I just don't want to disturb her so it is good to know it is being done.

I picked up the 100Watt CHE (hopefully it is close to the 100 Watt Red Heat bulb I am using now for it's heat output).

[whispersinmyhead]

I found this CFL that come in Black, Blue, Red, or Greeen here is the link.

Will that work ok? I am just on the hunt for ideas that are available at local stores first before ordering online.

[kitedemon]

Yes any blue. CFLs would likely be fine but I would be concerned they are too bright. They also would be hard to mask off as it seems to lower the life of the bulb. They produce higher heat than LEDs as well I have CFLs that are over 100º on the surface and a few really bright ones that are over 180ºF they may effect the temps more than you might expect.

[whispersinmyhead]

I could do with a slight increase in temps if the fixture was in the middle of the cage but just not a huge spike. The brightness is a concern they are probably quite bright.

Do the Blue Moon Glo bulbs (Dark Blue) from exo-terra create a lot of heat? They come in 25Watts and 15 watts but may not be very bright at all.