I was given a 36x18x18 enclosure. It's one of those Zilla or ZooMed ones with the front opening doors and the wire mesh top that has black plastic supports running front to back and left to right so the top wire mesh is divided into four quadrants.
I want the BD to get the light/heat it needs, but the tank is in my living room so I have some aesthetic constraints to work with as well. For this reason I want to "hide" the light inside the lid directly under the left to right support and then place the halogen fixture on one of the quadrants....no way to hide that thing.
I have a 36" T5 HO SunBlaster fixture, but because the power cord is on one end it doesn't fit unless it's at an angle....no good. Is the 24" fixture (22" bulb) sufficient? I've read that I should have 2/3 coverage....is that just based on length? If so the 22" bulb should work. I was imagining using the Reptisun 10 bulbs, but could use the Arcadia 12% if that would help make up for my just meeting minimum coverage requirements.
Another option would be to use an 18" T5 fixture biased to one side and use one of the UV/heat combo bulbs to supplement. Technically I could do the same thing with the 24" fixture. Somehow it feels cleaner to me to have a dedicated bulb for UV and another for heat, but I'm a bit OCD like that.
Thoughts?
I want the BD to get the light/heat it needs, but the tank is in my living room so I have some aesthetic constraints to work with as well. For this reason I want to "hide" the light inside the lid directly under the left to right support and then place the halogen fixture on one of the quadrants....no way to hide that thing.
I have a 36" T5 HO SunBlaster fixture, but because the power cord is on one end it doesn't fit unless it's at an angle....no good. Is the 24" fixture (22" bulb) sufficient? I've read that I should have 2/3 coverage....is that just based on length? If so the 22" bulb should work. I was imagining using the Reptisun 10 bulbs, but could use the Arcadia 12% if that would help make up for my just meeting minimum coverage requirements.
Another option would be to use an 18" T5 fixture biased to one side and use one of the UV/heat combo bulbs to supplement. Technically I could do the same thing with the 24" fixture. Somehow it feels cleaner to me to have a dedicated bulb for UV and another for heat, but I'm a bit OCD like that.
Thoughts?