My set-up, so far

[Mike Cavanaugh]

I can see where your going with the CHEs. In my town, most of the lamps that pet stores carry (around $29) are not rated for use with CHEs and say right on the packaging not to use them. I think the major difference is the ceramic vs. porcelain base. The ones carried by pet stores here that usable with a CHE are the cage lamps and they cost about $35.

Those are crazy prices! I have 5 tank setups... all with CHE bulbs.. all running off of standard, 10 dollar each tank lamps. They have been set up for over a year now with 0 issues. (and all the origional CHE bulbs too!