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Terrarium Lighting?

L

LaxGekko25

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I have yet another question about my crested gecko: What are good lights for a naturalistic terrarium? I've got an Exo Terra Sun Glo and a Exo Terra Repti Glo 2.0 over my tank. In the tank itself are Weeping Fig (Ficus benjemina), Sasnveria (Sasnveria spp), Golden/Devil's Ivy (pothos spp) and a Dracaena that is for aqurium use. I keep them in a mixture of calcium sand, repti bark, coco soft, and eco earth. I water them and mist the tank, but all of them except the sasnveria are dying! Can someone tell me what is wrong? REPTILES USA had an article about lighting terrariums and it mentioned something about the specifics of the lights you use. The lights are mounted on the top of the tank, which is 24 inches high. So I was wondering if anyone could give me the CRI of the lights I use and if these are ok for using.
Thanks,
Brian
 
with lighting it's about the specific light spectrom your generally something the the 4,000K to 10,000K spectrom is all you really need. the sun glo and repti glo probably aren't in the right spectrum and UVB is useless for cresties so you might as well replace it. also another thing that might be affecting them is your substrate mix specifically the calcium sand you mixed it could be making your soil have a vary high PH which probably isn't helping your plant. what type of the bulbs are thay specifically, ie florescent, spiral florescent or incandescent? or just tell me what fixture you have and i can look it up.
 
I know that the UVB is practically useless because they are nocturnal, and I have a compact flourescent Repti Glo and an incandescent Sun Glo. Both are made by Exo Terra. My fixture is also by Exo Terra. The CRI and spectrum ratings would really help. I don't use a large amount of calcium san, just about an eighth of a cup for the whole 18x18 base. This is mixed into the others in a layer that is about four inches thick.
 
then it probably not the sand though it could still be a factor, with my substrate mixes i tend to use just plane play sand just because it's quite a bit cheaper. the reptiglow might be doing something for the plants but thut the incadecent probably isn't switch it out for a regular 26 watt CF, you can find them cheap at wallmart or target usally the boxes say daylight on them and usally have a K rating some where on them, it usally around 5,500K to 6,500K. (these are the bulbs your looking for btw) i've grown plenty of plants both underwater and above with these.

on the Ficus benjemina thay some times don't take transplantation well. hell i wasn't successful with them till i transplanted the into a cacko safe substrate in a ceramic pot and left it out side during the summer before planting them in a terrarium
 
Sounds to me like your substrate mix doesn't have much in it for the plants. You might try adding some root tab ferts underneath the plants, pushing them well down deep to reduce the risk of your Cresties digging them up. Jobe's plant sticks (from Home Depot) are pretty good and cheap, and you can break them into little pieces.

And I agree with Ozy that you need a full spectrum flourescent bulb up there for the plants. As long as you're feeding your Crestie the Repashy CGD (which has the correct amount of D3), you can nix the UV and incandescent bulbs, both really aren't useful with your setup.
 
Oh yeah, that was the other thing I meant to mention. You might consider swapping out your substrate to mostly sifted organic potting soil. This would be much better for the plants and also less impaction risk for the gecko should s/he accidentally ingest some. Right now there's a good chance your substrate is really acidic, and some plants can't handle that.
 
mm really i don't think it would be that acidic to be honest depending on what "coco soft" is. i know eco earth is basically inter as it a popular staring media in hydroponics and there really isn't anything that acidic in there. if anything the calcium sand would make it quite a bit more base in my opinion. also my substrate mix is probably more acidic than his because of my vary liberal use of milled peat moss and roach frass yet i still have fantastic success with quite a few plants.
 
I know it could mean that you have to have a little bit deeper substrate, but you could always try cutting down the pot the plant came in and planting the pot itself into the substrate and keep the plants root ball intact. I have had luck doing that... but like i said, you maky have to go with a little deeper substrate to do that. Just a thought
 
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