Personally, I would still use a supplemental form of heating if all you are going to use is a halogen lamp as the form of heating. These are tropical snakes and will tend to appreciate a warm air environment in the 27-33c range. Given that the average room temperature in the average house will drop to 17-19c at night, having no heat in the enclosure at night is not the best husbandry practice IMO.

I like the fact you are experimenting with halogen lamps, but in reality, with Royals being nocturnal, a bright light that produces the heat is not something that they will use. They will typically spend the day in the warm hide, and then venture out once the light levels drop. The times that they remain at the hot end will be for 24 hours after a feed, sometimes when shedding, and often when producing follicles, so removing the heat source at night isn't IMO good practice.

I would suggest sticking to tried and tested ceramics or the new heat projectors on dimmer stats, and keep the hot spot around 32-34c 24/7

 

Yeah I thought that might be the case. Was worth trying as I have the halogen bulbs here all ready for the corn snake vivariums so thought I might as well experiment a bit. It dropped to 21c so I'll stick with the ceramics.

Just installed some LEDs and the ceramics. Will monitor and adjust the temps over the next 24 hours and then the snakes can move in. Yay!

 

The LEDS aren’t a good idea. Record them on a super slo mo camera and you can see them strobing, drives some snakes insane 😉

I’ve tried dropping temps at night (5C) and not seen any change in behaviour.

 

I'd echo Malc here. The mini halogens are great for things like Corn snakes but not quite suitable on their own for tropical species. Personally I use a combination of mini halogens and mini ceramics for my tropical snakes, the 20 or 35w ceramics (on a stat) are perfect for creating gentle ambient temperature and the halogens can then create the daytime temperature highs.

Royals certainly will bask by day if you give them the opportunity (although they often do it from concealment) so the halogens are not entirely useless for them, they just need to be supplemented at night. The Deep Heat Projectors would be better than just ceramics if you are picking just one heat source though, as the type of heat they emit (near infra-red) is more directional and more beneficial to the snake.

I do think people obsess a bit too much over night temperatures for Royals though; yes in some areas such as along coastal regions temperatures are quite stable at 28c to 34c (and it can be really uncomfortable at night, believe me!), but you have to remember Royal pythons inhabit a huge belt of land (literally half a continent) and quite a wide range of habitats - they are very adaptable snakes to the point they are virtually invasive in some areas and recolonise land very quickly, and some areas they inhabit experience night drops down to 12c at parts of the year. So they can certainly survive lower temperatures than we give them if they need to, at least for a month or two.

But in general, I'd suggest not less than 25c at night for them.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I had no idea deep heat projectors were a thing! Off to investigate further!

Thanks.

 

So now I have a dilemma. The cages I ordered for the bulbs aren't big enough for the ceramics. I'd need the longer cages but they would take up so much room and I can't lay the viv out the way I wanted if I use them.

I could order the slim ceramics, the white python ones or ideally a cheaper version and hopefully these will fit fine in the guards I have or, I could get the of DHP bulbs which are quite pricey but similar cost to the slim ceramics. However, I already have the stats here and I have pulse stats. Are pulse stats ok with DHP bulbs? Also are the DHP bulbs small like the halogen or are they big like the ceramics, in which case I'll have the same cage problems! Argh!!!!

 

I'm no expert but I've gained a lot of experience from this forum, & other feeds, & would not recommend Halogens for heat on any tropical reptile that needs closer temperature control! or LED's for lighting (stobe effects).
I would use, as you have ceramics, but I'd upgrade to a larger wattage & use a pulse or dimming thermostat system to give a constant high end/low end temperature.
The difference needed for an "evening" difference is, IMHO negligible if the constants are achieved for the High/ low ends.

 

So how do people light up their vivariums these days if using non light emitting heat sources?

I used leds on all my vivs in the past (for about 5 years) and can't say I noticed any negative effect on any of the snakes.

 

I see where your coming from & I use to use the red heater lamps (which i thought where great for both heat & visual), however, research has shown that the light was visible to the snake 24 7 so if,(as expected), the temp dropped at night the light was more prominent & disrupted the day/night cycle!, I have heard that blue led's are the light source to go for for a constant light but hey that could change tomorrow?.

 

I use a mix of LED (non dimiming) strip lights, LED and Flourecent slimline under cabinet strip lights - can't say I've noticed any adverse behaviour as I've changed from one sort to another over the years.

 

As a follow on from this thread! I have noticed a distinct lack of strike feeding from my snakes not, not eating! having moved from the "red/heat" lights to ceramic?
Only my sunglow Boa & Mexican Black still strike (on & off), my Royal Python & Hognose just sit & wait for it to be placed!(they never use to). could this be down to the supposed lack of movement from the lack of light & if so does this mean I need to include a set feeding time on them? ta!

 

Well at the moment the royals are in the vivs with the halogens as I'm waiting for the smaller ceramic bulbs to arrive. I've bumped up my living room heating in the evening so the ambient temps now only drop 5c when the halogens go off. So far the snakes seem fine but I'll be happier with things once the ceramics are installed which should be tomorrow if the post is on time!

Day time hot spot and ambient temps are still great.

As for the LEDs, they're in there now so they can stay. They're white ones.

I'll post up somempics once the ceramics are installed but wow, the snakes look awesome on the orchid bark substrate.

I had some video recommend to me today on YouTube. One was a British guy who breeds royals and it was his "tub size" video. Did you know my 285g royals should still be in 9l tubs till they are at least 500g ?... But let's not get onto that old subject :lol2:

 

I'll post up somempics once the ceramics are installed but wow, the snakes look awesome on the orchid bark substrate.

I had some video recommend to me today on YouTube. One was a British guy who breeds royals and it was his "tub size" video. Did you know my 285g royals should still be in 9l tubs till they are at least 500g ?... But let's not get onto that old subject :lol2:

I've not watched Rich's video yet, so can't comment on that...

On the subject of ceramics, please ensure that they are guarded. They get very hot, even when controlled by a thermostat.

 

The small size ceramics arrived and are doing a great job. They are the same size as the halogens so they fit in the bulb guard great.

I got a new digital day/night stat for each viv and have set them to still allow a small drop of a few degrees at night. Might as well seeing as the function is there.

The stat also controls a light source so got the leds set to go off as the temp drops. Perfect.

Will add some photos when I'm next on the laptop.

 

The small ceramics.

A pic of my super pastave YB male before I swapped the bulb to ceramic.

I'll add better pics of all the snakes to my ongoing thread.