Animal Plastics lighting

[anthroterra]

I know a lot of us are either using or thinking of buying cages from Animal Plastics, so I figured I'd share picks of fluorescent vs LED lighting so that people can see the difference in hue. I know there are pics of both around, but not side by side. Top two are fluorescent, bottom two are LED. They seem to be about equal in intensity, but the LED really brings out the color in the decorations and snakes in my opinion. I also like that they don't shine in your eyes.


The LEDs are in a small channel in the back and are flush mounted, while the fluorescent lights are a few inches in diameter. My banana ball likes to wedge herself behind them all the time.


And, just for fun, I recommend the T10 over the T8 for housing curious toddlers lol

[ckuhn003]

Those are some good looking cages. I might be in the market for one sooner then later. I rushed into buying a 20L pvc enclosure for my new BP which seems to be the recommended size for a young snake but the depth is only 10 inches deep which makes it hard to move around.

As for the lights, it came w/ an LED installed which really illuminates the enclosure but I'm hesitant to use them because I didn't want to stress the snake out. I did notice that using them bumped my ambients up from the mids 70s to 80. Any suggestions on when to use these lights and if I should to bump that ambient up? Since it's a pvc enclosure, I don't have the option for a ceramic light.

Thanks for sharing.

[artgecko]

I have the recessed LED lighting from AP in one cage and in my other two, we installed under-the-cabinet LED fixtures. When we installed our fixtures in the 2 cages, we placed them at the front of the cage (right in front of and over the door) so that the light went under the basking ledges as well. I like this, as it gives you a better view of what the inside of the cage looks like. They are also much brighter than the LED strip from AP. I really liked not having to install our own lighting on the last cage though, so all of my future ones will have the lighting pre-installed by AP.

Nice looking cages btw!

[anthroterra]

I do think the ambient needs bumped up a bit. I only use the cage lights when I want to see my snakes all at once (rarely) or clean them, since they have plenty of light coming in from the windows. What are you currently using to heat the cage? I have radiant heat panels in 2 and flexwatt in the other 2.

[ckuhn003]

I do think the ambient needs bumped up a bit. I only use the cage lights when I want to see my snakes all at once (rarely) or clean them, since they have plenty of light coming in from the windows. What are you currently using to heat the cage? I have radiant heat panels in 2 and flexwatt in the other 2.

I have a UTH on both sides controlled by a HerpStat2. The warm side stays around 90-91ish and the cool side is around 81ish (surface temps). I chose to put the UTH on the cool side because my surface temps were in the low 70s.

[BR8080]

Could you post a picture of the LED light control box and/or remote? Thanks.