New snake / heat / lighting

[GarterGuy17]

So this Saturday i'm going to pick up my baby red sided from Rhea very happy about that but a bit concerned about , my tank. So its pretty warm in my house the thermometer for my tank says 79F without a lamp so I guess a lamp really isn't needed , but don't I need a cool and warm side ? if the whole tank is 79F then how would this work. Also don't they need lighting as well not a lot of natural sunlight comes into my room so i'm worried about one side being to hot. What should I do ?

[guidofatherof5]

Garter snakes are not as light dependent as many reptiles. Normal room lighting in most situations will be fine.
You will have to see how the room temp. works for your snake. Talk with Rhea about what she has been doing for the snake.
I'm glad you got a hold of Rhea. She's a good person.
Looking forward to seeing your T.s.parietalis (Red Sided Garter Snake)

[infernalis]

For those conditions, just use one of these..

[thamneil]

The fluorescent strip lights are my favourite in this type of situation. They produce minimal heat and take up very little vertical room above the cage.

-Neil

[Stefan-A]

This is my solution:

Stacked

Anyway, this is the lighting solution I'm implementing:





LEDs. Two 25 cm strips is plenty for enclosures this size. You could even cut it down to one per enclosure, if you want to leave some parts of the enclosures a bit darker. They produce no UV and virtually no heat. And at 0.96W per strip, they should be very energy efficient.

It's a pity they aren't IP67 rated, but I think it would be pretty easy to, for example, embed them in clear resin.

They also sell these in IKEA under a different name.

[infernalis]

I find the light from LED pleasing. A little hunting on ebay they can be found quite cheap too.

[chris-uk]

I have a couple of different types of LED lighting over different vivs. Some from Ikea similar to the kitchen Stefan posted, and some that is 25 LEDs in a flexible, waterproof rubber strip that I originally got for my aquarium. One great thing with LED strips is that they are so easy to mount, I have them mounted with bluetac at the moment but I should really do a permanent job with hit glue. Other advantages are power efficiency and lack of heat. I have mine plugged in to timers to give a consistent amount of light without me having to worry about turning lights on.

As far as hot and cold sides are concerned, if you start getting into cooling as well as heating a viv it starts getting really complicated. I don't think 79F is terribly high, and they can use cool water to help thermoregulate. Does the temperature in your room drop at night, or is it a constant 79F? It's not ideal to keep the temp at a constant high without a cool side, but garters are a resilient bunch with a diverse range of natural environments.

[GarterGuy17]

I'm going to have to go with the bulb just because the plug for the strips is a European one which means I would have to by the adapter to be able to plug. it in

[EasternGirl]

I would just get a flourescent light bulb for your lamp...get a bulb like Wayne (Infernalis) suggested...it will last a long time and save energy/money. That way the snake can feel like it is basking but it won't get a bunch of extra heat. Make sure you have a nice hide and a good water dish that the snake can soak in on the cool side of the tank so the snake can cool off. Just make sure the snake can easily climb out of the water dish. Also...I would recommend using bedding that the snake can burrow in...to allow the snake to go under the bedding to get cool too. Aspen would be better than reptibark for burrowing.

Just fyi...if you did want to get a flourescent strip light...you can get a strip lamp hood and bulbs...this is for 18 inch bulbs that I use for my snakes...in any hardware stores. They aren't very expensive. It's for mounting under a cabinet...but I just lay it on top of the tank.

001.JPG

[chris-uk]

I'm going to have to go with the bulb just because the plug for the strips is a European one which means I would have to by the adapter to be able to plug. it in

I'm sure LED lighting comes with US electrics.
Stefan's photo is European because he bought it in Finland. I have the same light in the UK with UK plug.