Heat lamp wattage

Right now I am using a heating mat in my 10 gallon setup. My current temp is approx. 20c. With the heating mat I don't believe it's increasing the temp at all, just the glass at the side of the tank.

My 2 scorpions (hottentotta) are always in the open day/night against the heating mat, prob 75% of the time. So I am assuming I need a heat lamp instead to raise the temp for them, at least in the day.

Any recommendation for the wattage I would need? I don't want to spend money on something to low wattage or over wattage and have to spend more money. Rather do it right the first time.

Should I get the red bulb or does it matter?

I only plan on having the light on during the day, to simulate daytime temps and cooler temps at night.

Thanks

So after some research/reading, sounds like I will be getting a 50watt red bulb.

Your ambient background temperature will have an effect on the temperature in your enclosure....Glass is not a good insulator so if you have a low ambient temp outside the enclosure you'll need more watts to heat the inside up.
I use small 25 watt halogens with inbuilt ballast and they work great for me. They are the small spotlights you usually see in bathrooms, entrances or inbuilt in wardrobes or other bits of furniture..You just connect your mains wires to the contacts and you can then hang them anywhere.
I usually find them in the discount boxes at the local DIY store...Much cheaper than red heat lamps brought from pet stores. I also use heat mats but it's a waste of time using anything under 20 watts unless you already have a high ambient temperature..The small 4 - 10 watt heat mats are generally useless for our purposes.
I only use the halogens for my heat loving species although they also help to raise the ambient temperature throughout my scorp room.

I also think red lights used during daytime look a bit cheesy and destroy any cosy visuals you might have gotten from your well thought out authentic habitat design .. but maybe that's just me

Exocet77 wrote:

Any recommendation for the wattage I would need? I don't want to spend money on something to low wattage or over wattage and have to spend more money. Rather do it right the first time.

A 50W infra-red bulb should be sufficient to heat a 10 gallon tank. A lamp fixture with a built-in dimmer will give you more flexibility with lamp placement and temperature control. I like the Flukers clamp lamps. I use either 50W or 75W IR bulbs and buy extras when they're on sale.

If you have the DIY skills, you can give the halogen lamps a try as Den suggested. I've seen some gorgeous enclosures that utilize halogen lamps for lighting and heating.

            Courtesy of hauser

Den, are you able to do a bit of a how to on setting up halogen spotlights? I'd really like to use them over some of my desert species enclosures.

I'm not one for DIY, even the easiest tasks usually don't go has smoothly as it should for me  

My current heating mat is only one of the minis. I agree, basically useless. At least the scorps have something to curl up against to keep warm for now. 

I will head to home depot this weekend and see what they have for halogen fixtures. One problem I have is I have nothing overhead to hang the fixture on. I need to set the light fixture directly on the metal lid. Do any of them come hardwired? I like the idea of having a dimmer control for a thermostat. Using a halogen bulb, I assume is safe for the scorpions?

I agree, using a IR light during the day is going to look cheesy. I was just going to do it that way to simulate day/night temperatures.

Callum, that's a sweet looking setup you have. Very impressive.  

Exocet77 wrote:

Callum, that's a sweet looking setup you have. Very impressive.  

I wish that was my setup. It's a member called hauser's setup.

Been searching homedepot.ca and can't really find anything decent under $50. Most of them are them big outdoor security lights. Not sure how one of them things would look :-/


Maybe something like this w/o the base? Can I just wire it up with a dimmer?

Here's one, not sure how it would look though (disasembled) of course.

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/halogen-track-head/937180

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/1-light-brushed-nickel-track-light/971728

Might have trouble keeping it from falling over from the weight of the cord coming out. As well has it looking decent.

Are the halogen lights bad for the scorpions? uv wise and that.

Callum B wrote:

Den, are you able to do a bit of a how to on setting up halogen spotlights? I'd really like to use them over some of my desert species enclosures.

Sure although it's nothing special or hard to do...Very simple really.
You basically find 2 types of halogen bulb and they are those that run directly from your mains (210 - 240 volt) and those that need to connect through a transformer (12 volt).
The picture above shows 12 volt halogens as you can see the transformers. The advantage with these types of halogens is that you can find low wattage bulbs and if you use a load of them in parralel as is done above, you don't have to worry about it getting to hot. I'm imagining those bulbs above are maybe 6 or 8 watters.
I use the 210-240 volt bulbs as i only use a few, at 25 watts...these have to be further away from the substrate than what we see in the above picture because they also give more heat.
Advantages with the 210-240 volt halogens is that you can connect them directly to the mains without having transformers wired all over the place and even a small wattage bulb will give of plenty of heat meaning you can lift it higher and spread the heat out over 2 or more encloures.
Advantages with the lower wattage bulbs is that you can use a lot of them together in parralel without worrying to much about cooking your scorps...These can also be mounted inside the enclosures (as seen above) and allow for uniformal setups.

I already run a high ambient temperature in my scorp room so i don't need to heat every enclosure i have..Some of you guys out there maybe don't have your own heated scorp room and have to make do with your bedroom or whereever....Your average ambient background temperature in your scorp "room" will dictate the watt size of bulbs you want. Some of you will probably be able to do the same as me as just use a few lights positioned high over the enclosures, others might need lower watt bulbs positioned in the enclosures with a sea of variations in between..It's a trial and error thing which is why going for the 210-230 volt halogens that connect directly to the mains can be a better idea. The bulb will give of plenty of heat so you just adjust the distance it is from the enclosure to find your optimal temps..Lower wattage bulbs don't give of so much heat so you need to fix them in the enclosures to get anything out of them and fixing them in the enclosures is what can give headaches...especially if your enclosures are not all standard sized as we see above......yeh, it's a personal call and one each keeper has to decide for themselves based on their needs and their background temps

Once you've decided what types of halogens you want to use your next problem is fixing them in place...I use wire cloth hangers and duk tape to make hangers for my lights. It doesn't look very elegant and if i had people visiting my scorp room all the time then maybe i'd tart them up a bit.....but i don't so i don't bother. My system works for me and thats all thats important.
I simply hang my lights over top of an enclosure and to one side (so as to create a gradient) on the home made hangers at a distance of about 5 inches over top the enclosure. I'll also push 2 enclosures together and hang a light in the middle of them so as to heat both enclosures up with just one bulb.
How you fix your bulbs depends on your needs, access to materials and creativity. There's as many ways of doing it as there are people on the planet so i'll leave that to you's to work out how.

I've just had a quick look on ebay and found the halogen types i use ..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PACKS-OF-EVEREADY-20w-35w-50w-GU10-38-deg-Flood-Halogen-spot-lights-lamps-MR16-/400647341981?pt=UK_Light_Bulbs&var=&hash=item5d4871479d

I simply connect electrical wire directly onto the contacts at the bottom of the bulb and seal with electrical tape. You can buy connectors for these bulbs and some kits even come with them in but i'm just as happy wiring them up directly. A mains plug fits on the other end of the electrical wire and you're good to go. If you wanted to use thermostats and dimmers make sure you get the thermostats and dimmers for your bulbs, i.e mains voltage or 12 volts although i don't bother with that nonsense...Distance of bulb from enclosure is my thermostat and if i dimmed them they wouldn't give of as much heat so i'd have to move them closer which in turn would decrease the size of the hot spot which would mean i'd have to increase the wattage ad infinitum.

Ok...no pictures because as i mentioned my own setup isn't that elegant to look at but ... unless your'e a child i can't imagine anyone not being able to work out how to do this kinda thing..

Ok I have decided I think on a few halogen puck lights. There cheap ($20) for a 3 pack. And come already wired for an outlet.

There rated for up to 20 watts. Would this be enough to heat up a 10 gallon enclosure? The light would probably be approx. 20 inches from the substrate. If you think it might actually be to hot that close to the substrate I could always add a dimmer switch.

Again....the ambient temperature of the room you keep your scorps in dictates how much extra warmth your enclosure needs....Asking " is x amount of watts good for this amount of heat at this distance" can't be answered without knowing your mean day/night background temps. It's like me asking you "does this tie match this shirt" without you knowing what colour the shirt is!

However, to avoid back and forth posts trying to home in on your particular environmental factors i'll simply say that if your background temp is less than 20-22c then you'll need to be a lot closer than 20 inches or up the wattage, alternatively if it's warmer maybe getting up to 24-25c then 20 inches might be alright although 20 inches is quite a distance....If i was you though i'd find a way of getting it closer than 20 inches...

Still...a 20 watt halogen will easily produce enough warmth for even the most heat craving scorpion...It's just a case of distance and ambient background.

Get the lights and then experiment with them...use a thermometer to measure hot spot temp and gradient temps at various distances in the room you keep your scorps....you're 36 years old, i'm sure you'll work out a way of hanging them in place at the right distance..