Terratlantis Dual Light Terrarium Lighting System - 60CM

Terratlantis Dual Light Terrarium Lighting System is a two-part lighting fitting for Terratlantis terrariums, combining a 35 W halogen basking lamp with a fitting for a T8 tube, in five lengths selected above.

Key Features

• Five lengths: 60, 68, 88, 118 and 132 cm: Matched to the Terratlantis terrarium range - see Good To Know about the 68 cm, which is the odd one out.
• 35 W halogen lamp included: This is the basking element. A halogen lamp puts out a tight, hot, bright beam, which is what a basking reptile climbs towards.
• Halogen is a heat source as much as a light: Most of the energy a halogen lamp uses comes out as heat rather than light. On a desk lamp that is waste - over a basking spot it is the whole point, and it is why this fitting exists.
• T8 tube fitting, for tubes from 15 W to 36 W: The second half of the system. The tube is what spreads light along the length of the enclosure, where the halogen makes one hot spot.
• T8 tubes are not included: Terratlantis states this, and it is the thing people are caught out by. Choose the tube deliberately - see below.

The T8 Tube Is The Decision, Not An Afterthought

• A T8 fitting takes any T8 tube, and they are not interchangeable in what they do. A plain white tube lights the enclosure. A UVB tube lights it and supplies UVB. They look much the same on a shelf.
• If your species needs UVB, the tube is where it comes from on this system - the halogen does not supply it. Buy the tube for the species, not for the brightness.
• UVB output from a tube falls away long before the tube stops lighting up. Manufacturers give a replacement interval, usually somewhere between six and twelve months, and that interval is about the UVB rather than the light. Replace on the date, not when it fails.
• Tell us the species and the enclosure height and we will work out which tube and what mounting distance.

Halogen Gets Hot, So Two Things Are Not Optional

• Distance and a guard. A 35 W halogen lamp will burn an animal that can touch it, and reptiles will sit against a heat source until they are damaged because they feel the warmth, not the burn. Mount it where the animal cannot reach the glass of the lamp.
• A thermostat. Measure the temperature at the basking surface, not at the lamp, and control the lamp from a dimming thermostat. A pulse-type thermostat is made for ceramic heaters and will shorten the life of a halogen lamp, or flicker it.
• In a room without air conditioning in a UAE summer, a basking lamp can push a glass enclosure past what the species can tolerate. The thermostat is what stops that, and a thermometer at the cool end is how you check there is somewhere to escape to.

Mains Equipment Over An Animal's Enclosure

• Use a socket protected by an RCD, keep the transformer and the plug above and away from any water, and leave a drip loop in the cable so water running down a lead cannot reach the plug.
• Mount it so the animal cannot reach the fitting or the cable. Reptiles climb onto anything warm and chew anything new.
• Switch off at the wall before you put your hands in the enclosure.

Good To Know

• About that 68 cm option: no Terratlantis glass terrarium in this shop is 68 cm long. The 60 cm and 88 cm lengths are the ones that match our enclosures. If you have a 68 cm terrarium from elsewhere, it may well be the right fitting - tell us what you have and we will check before you order.
• On running cost: a halogen lamp uses most of its electricity making heat. If the bill is your main concern, an LED for light plus a separate basking lamp works out cheaper to run - but you still have to buy the basking lamp, so ask us before you assume LED alone is the answer.
• Spare halogen lamps are worth having. They fail without warning, usually on the day a shop is shut.