Lighting\heating for Giant Day Geckos

[Hugo.S]

Okay, so I'm currently updating my daughter's day gecko into a new cage, its currently in a 10gallon tank that was provided for a temporary housing. I was giving the bare essentials for it, but not sure if the current heating and UVB bulbs will be adequate enough for its new housing. It's a Zilla 18x18x25 terrarium, I'm also doing a bioactive terrarium for it. Glad to say that im almost done with it but waiting on a few pieces to arrive.

So, as of right now i have a Zoo Med UVB/Heat Tropical Lighting Kit with the mini combo deep dome fixture. 5.0 Reptisun UVB bulb and 60w bluelight bulb. Will this light kit be enough for the new enclosure?

I've read the lighting charts from Zoo Med but being new to this i wasnt sure and got to be a bit confusing for me.

Any help will be greatly appreciated! thanks.

 

[acpart]

I'm not up on the latest in day gecko lighting. I think a 10.0 may be best, though. I use halogen puck lights as a basking light for my gold dust day gecko. I don't know how that translates into what you're planning.

Aliza

 

[Striker00]

Your 60w bulb should be sufficient for heat if the room is about 74 with the light being about 5 inches from the basking spot. Best way to check is to use a digital infrared thermometer to measure the surface area of the intended basking spot. The air temperature for basking is kinda irrelevant because the point in basking is to have a warm spot for the lizard to sit and soak up heat which is not achieved by heating surrounding air.

As for UVB... I personally think CFLs kinda suck. They put out very limited UVB. I will say that they are useful when used right. I would recommend stepping up to a 13w 10.0 as the 13w 5.0 does not put out much UVB according to the chameleon academy. Additionally the mini dome is quite narrow, so it kinda puts UVB out in more of a beam rather than dispersing it. Note that the UVI requirements of a veiled chameleon and a day gecko are not exactly the same, however the same principles are applied when guessing what light you need. The absolute best UVB type for UVB output would be a t5HO fixture, but I don't know if that is necessary for a day gecko since crested gecko diets and day gecko diets are fortified with D3. That type of UVB is more necessary for chameleons.

I'd try to aim for a basking spot about 5 inches from the heat source light and uvb about the same, but keep both directly under each respective light. So put a log, mag ledge or something that runs horizontally under each light. You could also get a 6" or 8" dome light for about $6 from Menards or Lowes if you wanted more lights or to give you an arrangement that the Zoomed dome won't allow.