Lighting question

[Matt2190]

I am looking into setting up a new terrarium, and ditching overhead heat lamps. I do, however, still want a display type of light on top. I will be getting plexi glass cut to cover the top of the screen, and want to have a section cut out where I can place a hood with some sort of light source. I will have it set with a timer, to turn off at night. I am not really interested in a uvb lamp, beacause I would be paying extra for the uvb. Anyone know what my options would be with a light source that puts out little or no heat? Is just a low watt bulb what I need? Thanks, Matthew

[AkHerps]

Well, bright lights can stress Ball Python's out, so your best bet would be a red bulb, they create a pretty good glow, or maybe a blue bulb.

[Matt2190]

Well in my current set up has a 75 watt red bulb, set to a dimmer on low. Still does a good job a sucking up hummidity. I have things figured out with using the red bulb, with heat pads. I just have been looking for a "display" type of lamp. Something that does not put out heat.

[BigByrd47119]

If you want something that's totally for aesthetics I would suggest a simple LED light rope. I have one with each of my snakes. They provide some light but not an overabundance. You could get them in white (which is what I have) or get them in another color like red, or get both! If you would like I can post some pics of my setup some time tomorrow...

These can be bought in a number of lengths from your local hardware store. Here is the exact ones I bought. Notice the picture on the website isn't accurate by a long shot, they just have some stock photo put in there to represent all of their light ropes .

[Matt2190]

^Very good idea! If you dont mind, yes, I would love to see some pictures.

[BigByrd47119]

^Very good idea! If you dont mind, yes, I would love to see some pictures.

Here we are. Picture one is just the rope itself. Picture two is of the entire tank. Some extra lighting is provided from the flash on my phone but the room is completely dark aside from the rope and dinky camera phone flash.

Its attached to the screen using zip ties. I have a tub which is set up the exact same way however I had to drill two sets of holes to run zip ties through to hold it in place. Surface temp of these lights is 98 degrees, which is body temp for humans and thus of little concern to me. It makes no difference what so ever when it comes to ambient tank temps.

These ropes use almost no electricity!





(Hopefully this worked!)

And it didn't, of course, so now let me research what the heck I'm doing

[BigByrd47119]

OK we can do this the long way.

Img 1: http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...ght_rope_2.jpg

Img 2: http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...ght_rope_1.jpg

I must be slow or something

[ocean girl]

how do you keep your temps up with no heat lamp?

[Matt2190]

Using under the tank heaters.

[BigByrd47119]

how do you keep your temps up with no heat lamp?

This madam would be a set up for a Pueblan Milk Snake (Marley), and the tub setup I mentioned is for my newly acquired 5/yo normal corn (Salem).

As I said these light ropes are perfectly useless if you want them to provide any heat for the tank. However if you had a massive amount (like the 10+ foot rolls) I could see it providing some heat along with a ton of light, which may not be what your going for.

The OP asked for a lighting method that didn't provide heat and here was the solution that I found a while back in that regard. If the OP is keeping BP's (which I would assume is so) then I figure he must have the ambient thing figured out. Why else ask for a lighting method that gives off little/no heat?

The two snakes I do have get by fine with an ambient room temp of 70-75, and 73 is just fine with me!