Hello. I Am buying a new house and dedicating a 13' x 6' room for my iguana. Currently his habitat is a walk-in closet with lighting fixed overhead.
In this new house, it seems I would be able to easily have access to electricity from the outlets as well as from a ceiling fan (which will be removed). Does anyone have suggestions as to how to set up the lighting? I have the heat, gradient, humidity, and ventilation planned, but not yet the lighting.
Three possibilities I've come up with are 1) hanging overhead light fixtures, 2) fixtures screwed into the walls above basking shelves, or 3) a lamp with multiple, adjustable light sockets. Any help from experienced iggy owners will be greatly appreciated!!
I planned on using the tube UVB lights, such as the ZooMed ReptiSun 10. The enclosure will be 3 sides of the room wall, and I am building the 4th side of the wall using a set of sliding glass doors as the entrance/view. (essentially I'm dividing a large room in half)
OK. I wasnt sure if you were trying to convert an entire room. So if hes spending most of his day in the enclosure , then the basking bulbs need to be roughly 12 inches or less from his back. Mercury Vapor Bulbs produce a great deal of heat and stronger UVB so they need to be a bit further away.
If your using the tube lights for UVB , then I would use a ceramic heat emmiter for heat, they cost a bit but last for ages and ages, where regular bulbs burn out usually by a year and tube UVb has to be replaced every 8 months or so because the stop putting out UVB even tho they work as light. MVB produce good UVB for over a year, sometimes 18 months.
IF hes going to free roam alot in the room i would set up a basking spot near a window since they love looking outdoors. You can hang a UVB and heat there. Just a side note- A 100 watt regular household lightbulb works just as well for heat and light as the fancy bulbs they sell with reptile pics on them for a fraction of the cost.
The ambient room temp can be kept at 79 to 85, we use a space heater in our ig room when needed but I keep my house at 80 most days anyway.
I guess what I would do is wait to screw anything into the walls until you can have everything up and running for 24 hours and see what needs to be adjusted.Make a portion of the enclosre with a wire top, you can just rest the lights on it. If hes going to be able to climb on top of the enclosure some of the time, then you have to use a crate or some type of small cage to prevent him from sitting on the lights.We use a plastic milk crate type thing for that and one over the humidifier- found in the school supply ailse at walmart for $3.00.
As long as you know the basics UVB, Basking temp at about 95, cooler temps in the low 80s and good humidity you'll get it worked out just right. :)
Thanks for the advice! One of the main things I'm wrestling with is tube UVB vs. MVBs. I don't have a problem with heat - I have a radiator-style space heater and a small baseboard heater if necessary, so I'm not sure if the MVBs would be overkill. ((I have a thermostat system which can be set to regulate heat. My concern with MVBs is, what if the room becomes hot enough and the MVBs kick off, causing the UVB to go away with it.))
That's why I had planned to just hang UVB tube light fixtures from the ceiling - one above each of the two basking areas, and one about their food area as a little extra help. The room is 13' x 6', and I'm afraid that with 2 UVBs above the basking spots, located on the "warm" side of the gradient, the entire rest of the room would receive basically no UVB at all.
I'd go with the Mercury Vapor type bulbs if I were working with such a large area. The tube type UVB lights are going to HAVE to be so close to the lizard to work that mounting them may be somewhat of a challenge. The MV bulbs will give you better UVB and somewhat easier mounting options.
First thing I would do is start off my repainting the entire room. I'd use a quality primer like Kilz which helps against mold & mildew then use a good paint made specifically for high humidity areas such as bathrooms. I'd do the entire room, even a closet & the ceiling as (hopefully) the humidity in that room will be much higher than normal. You DON'T want to end up fighting mold or mildew, so plan ahead. Paint well before the moving in date, if you are going to, so the room can air out.
What part of the country are you in? Meaning how cold does it get there? Have you set up an iguana enclosure before? Basically asking if you already know the proper fixtures to use and how to set up humidifiers etc...
Make the floor something easy to clean, NOT carpet!
As Susan said, try to make the basking areas in front of windows. Iguanas off in their own room tend to get less attention, so at least window views will help keep them entertained.
Are you going to use store bought shelving units or make your own shelves & ramps? Keep in mind having to clean this stuff, so don't use things which will soak up liquids.
To answer your question, the temperature in the room will never be high enough to kick off the MV lights. If it's ever that hot, the fire department will either be there or on the way!
I currently have a habitat in a decent sized walk-in closet, with shelving and equipment all set up, that looks great and I'm really happy with. So I'd like to say I'm pretty confident about all the requirements of properly maintaining and caring for an iguana, but the new room is going to be 10 times the size of the closet. I live in Ohio in the USA, so very hot summers and very cold winters, which is why I plan on using a timer and thermostat system. I have Melissa Kaplan's book Iguanas for Dummies and have religiously read info on her site and this one.
I plan on using mold inhibiting paint all around, ceiling included. I have a small Exo Terra fogger, but will use a full humidifier in the new room. As mentioned, I have a few ways to heat, cool, and ventilate. Also worth mentioning, the new Iggy room will face the living room where we spend the majority of our time. The room is 13ft in length, so I am building a "wall" out of two sets of 6' sliding glass doors, meaning there will be 12' of viewing area between the living room and the Iggy room.
I was very interested in MVBs, but it seems that the majority of what I hear is that they are not recommended for a large space, and I assumed that 13' x 6' would be too big for even 2 MVBs. Although if you still suggest MVBs, how many would it take to adequately cover a room that size.
The great thing is that I have about 1 to 2 months to get everything ready before moving in, so I have time to figure out what works. I just am not sure what to do with the lighting part. The heating, humidity, and ventilation should be ok.
A UVB light doesn't cover a room, it works in a very limited (read: small) area.
The light in the upper right in this picture is a 100 watt UVB Mega-ray bulb
it "covers" the shelf below it (that the tip of the tail is on) and really only the end of the shelf closest to the bulb
So, what you are looking for is lights to provide UVB to a very small basking area. Like one shelf area. You can't possibly provide UBV over an entire room, short of removing the roof and letting Mother Nature do it for you!
Granted, a fluorescent UVB tube light may cover a larger area as the bulb is so long, what I was trying to stress before is that the fluorescent bulbs need to be only inches (probably like 6 to 8 inches) above the iguana. The problem there is a mounting method that your iguana won't just climb on top of.
You say your ig is currently in a closet with fixed overhead lighting. You mean fixed as in mounted on the ceiling? If a fluorescent tube UVB light is more than a foot away (actually less than that) from the back of your iguana, the iguana gets ZERO UVB from that light.
I'd love to set up a whole room like you are planning. It would be a lot of fun, but done properly it's probably gonna be rather expensive. Heck, I'd put in a heated floor, but I tend to over build things!
I see, I thought that the heat emitted from a MVB would be too much. I notice it emits light - I think I've been confusing mercury vapor bulbs with ceramic heat emitters. Unfortunately the UVB that I have now is a coiled tube UVB, which I've heard is not particularly the best. I've been wanting to get the longer tube fluorescent UVB, but I thought since I will be moving in less than 2 months, it would be better to concentrate on the new room. As of now, the coiled UVB I have is in a dome fixture above and centered directly on the basking area and just measured again - its exactly 12" away. I knew it was ideal, but I didn't think that it wouldn't be delivery g any UVB at all...
