So I recently put my leo in a 29 gallon and I am just disappointed with it. A 29 gallon is 18" tall and with the ecoearth, the hides, and the fake plants, there's about 17" of wasted space (I'm exaggerating to paint the picture). So on Google SketchUp I've designed some stackable enclosures that are 30x18x12 WxLxH so she'll have a lot more ground space to play around in.
My questions: I current have a 350ma moonlight LED driver purchased from RapidLED which puts out enough juice to power 3-4 LEDs. These LEDs are gorgeous and I absolutely love the effect they put out. I have 3 cool white LEDs, but I'm only using 1 because all 3 is about as bright as the Sun and it's a little ridiculous. The more I google, the more confused I get. One thing I read says "leos don't need light, they're nocturnal, but they do need night/day cycle" another thing says "lights too bright and your gecko will never come out" and some that just plain say "leos don't need light don't waste your time"
Now I understand they need day/night cycle, and I feel my cool white LEDs are probably too bright because she NEVER comes out when it's on so my question is, what if I switched to what they call "photo red" LED? It's a deep red somewhere around 670nm on the light wavelength so it's just barely visible to the human eye. Another thing I've read conflicting stories on is leos can and cannot see red light. Would this photo red LED that's barely visible to the human eye be just as bright as the cool white LED? Obviously whichever path I take, they will be on a 14/10 and 12/12 timer, with NO lights at all during night time. The lights are simply so I can see her and to give her that day/night cycle.
tl;dr - Can I use 670nm photo red LEDs as a daylight for my leo? Is cool white LEDs too bright?
My questions: I current have a 350ma moonlight LED driver purchased from RapidLED which puts out enough juice to power 3-4 LEDs. These LEDs are gorgeous and I absolutely love the effect they put out. I have 3 cool white LEDs, but I'm only using 1 because all 3 is about as bright as the Sun and it's a little ridiculous. The more I google, the more confused I get. One thing I read says "leos don't need light, they're nocturnal, but they do need night/day cycle" another thing says "lights too bright and your gecko will never come out" and some that just plain say "leos don't need light don't waste your time"
Now I understand they need day/night cycle, and I feel my cool white LEDs are probably too bright because she NEVER comes out when it's on so my question is, what if I switched to what they call "photo red" LED? It's a deep red somewhere around 670nm on the light wavelength so it's just barely visible to the human eye. Another thing I've read conflicting stories on is leos can and cannot see red light. Would this photo red LED that's barely visible to the human eye be just as bright as the cool white LED? Obviously whichever path I take, they will be on a 14/10 and 12/12 timer, with NO lights at all during night time. The lights are simply so I can see her and to give her that day/night cycle.
tl;dr - Can I use 670nm photo red LEDs as a daylight for my leo? Is cool white LEDs too bright?
