you could opt for an infared bulb and keep it on 24/7, or have a heatmat stuck to the side. your best bet is using a ceramic on a stat, and then have a uvb bulb aswell, and then turn off the uvb at night and keep the ceramic on 24/7? thats all i know of!: victory:

 

Ahh yer i didnt think of those ceramics, i could still connect it to the same stat as the bulb as well and the put the them both on a timer switch :2thumb:

have you got those pics of your vivs??

 

I'm no expert as only just researching this stuff now to start setting up my own viv, but don't you need a daytime source of basking heat that emits light too.

I've read that most diurnal species can seek out light for basking and can differentiate, and that the ceramic heaters are not good for basking daytime heat sources.

I'm thinking the ideal setup is just use ceramic at night time only on pulse stat, then turn it off in day. Then in the day have the UVB strip and a halogen basking lamp (with UVA output too for 'psychological benefit' too lizard) on a dimmer stat. Only prob with this is that is req two thermostats and that is pricey! I don't know how else to do it though.

An alternative to the daytime part of the setup could be use a MV UVB bulb as the basking light and chuck out the UVB strip light, and just have a seconday non-UVB bulb to give the lizard an alternative non-UVB basking place so it can photoregulate and not get stressed by only being able to bask im UVB.

I'm slightly confused at what to do now though, after reading many conflicting things

 

Depending on what reptiles you are keeping, they may not need heating at night anyway. Most desert reps are quite used to a sharp fall in temperatures at night.

 

I'm getting some diurnal reptiles and i'm using a white heat lamp bulb during the daytime, but when i turn this off at night how do I keep the vivarium warm without the use of a heatmat as I would need to buy another stat and I dont think the heat would penetrate through my substrate.


Basicly how would I heat the vivarium without light in at and a heat mat?????​

i have my daytime basking bulb on a habistat dimmer stat on a timer 12 hours on an 12 off set at the daytime temp
i also have a habistst pulse stat with a ceramic bulb on set at about 75 deg on all the time so if the temp ever drops below that it boots it
: victory:

 

the other option is to use the ceramic for your heat, and on a timer have a ebergy saving bulb next to it come on to produce the light for the basking spot. still only needs one stat, but work effectively