Dang man. Yeah the 10" wide shelf does block a lot of the light. It works for me though as i still can see in there fine.
Try and get the water resistant ones. They are beefier. After having 4 sets of lights burn out on me in one way or another, Ali had the guys in the back put together their experimental water resistant ones to send me as like i told Ali, i think the humidity/condensation is getting up above the LEDs as the recess for them is the highest point in the cage. Then it is turning to liquid drops and dripping on the LED strip and somehow shorting them out after a few months since i keep my boas and retic at around 70-80% humidity.
And you know, now that I look at it, I kind of wish I went with the T65 for Caesar. When he is all stretched out, he is longer than the cage lol. I might be ordering a T65 next summer and using the T25 for Gina when she gets bigger.....