Hi everyone,
I'm a new forum member and ball python owner. As stated above my question is about the lighting for my ball python. My set up at the moment is a 20 gallon fish tank vivarium. My grandad gave it to me so it wasn't what i originally wanted (did want wooden tank with sliding glass) but thought i would give it a go. When i got the tank it had a phillips 40watt blue bulb in it, the bulb was giving me almost ideal temperature and 70 to 80% humidity was maintained. The problem was that the bulb must remain on 24/7 to maintain the right temps and i was worried that this would be a problem being on 24/7 effecting the snakes light cycle althoug some say red/blue/green is ok as 24/7 lighting..
I have done a lot of research on ball pythons and read many care sheets plus articles and even got advice from three differen't pet/ reptile shops on lighting. I keep going round in circles on what advice to follow and what not. One place told me the bp needs uv light throughout the day and a heat mat at night but i know from what i've read snakes don't need uv lighting but just a light cycle, so i'm assuming this is wrong advice.
After doing some more research and not really getting anywhere i bought a red bulb 60watt which is plugged into a dimmer thermostat. Now i am happy to run a red bulb 24/7 but i wondered what peoples advice would be on this? Again i have read that its fine to run a red bulb 24/7 and others say its notAlso what seems strange is the 60watt red bulb doesn't put out as much heat as the 40watt blue?
I'm looking to have one bulb i can run 24/7 to keep the temps right. I have thought about a ceramic heater but then i would need an additional light because i would like to see into the tank. Also i don't really want a heat matt and again some people are against heat mats (due to burns etc) and some are all for themI know this sort of topic has been covered numerous times but, i can't seem to find the correct answer if there is one. Hope you can help and looking forward to some advice thanks for reading.
Thanks
Oli