Mercury Vapour Lamps

[beardochris]

Hi All,
Im building a viv stack tomorrow with 3 4x2x2ft vivs in for my beardies. Ive been looking at the lighting situation, and i was going to go for the normal heat lamp and uv tube, but then started thinking about the mercury vapour lamps. The questions i have are;
Can the lamps be run from a dimmer stat, or will their ballasts die?
Would i need extra heating with say a 160w mercury lamp?
and, what would i do at night as regards to heat?
I hope someone can answer these for me. regards, chris

[fantapants]

do you understand the implications of MVB lamps and the possible side effects if they are not used right?? i use them for most of my reps and they are GREAT, but you do need to look into them well before making any commitment. also, the face of the lamp must be 12 inches away from the animals highest point (head) or you risk lots of nasty illness.

i wouldnt suggest using a stat with any mvb as it will shorten its life dramatically. my beardy viv is 4 ft by 2x2 and made of glass. i only use a powersun 160w for heat, nothing else in the daytime. it keeps my temps perfect, but as glass looses heat alot quicker than wood, you may have to find that you need to increase ventilation in order to get the temps spot on.

if you fit a big household sliding vent at the top near the light and another at the bottom near the cool end you will create a natural gradient and be able to control your temps much better. wilkinsons do them for about £3 each and they are roughly 6x8 inches square. they can be fully opened or closed but keep the criks in!

i have a single ceramic heater set to come on at 14c overnight, but if you are looking for a solution to heat all of the vivs of one stat you may want to consider renacor heating cable. it can be run into all of the vivs and tacked to the back of the viv in a zig zag pattern and is cheap to run too. then just attach it to a stat to come on at a certain temp. as long as your probe is near the lamp then it wont come on in the day time, just when it cools at night.

hope that gets you started, but if you need any more help or advice feel free to pm me. and a good site for learning about uv lamps is UV Guide UK - Ultraviolet Light for Reptiles - UVB reptile lighting on test