Ok I know the bulbs I want to use I think. But I have no clue on what fixtures to get. The more I look the more confused I get. I read somewhere the fixture should support twice the wattage of the bulb, but is that for any type of lighting or certain ones? One of my bigget issues is that room gets so hot in the summer that i need to try to limit heat caused by lighting inside Bobby's enclosure. I really don't want to cook him. If needed I'll be adding heat sources in the winter. As it is I'll be putting in some ventilation fans for summer.
I'm looking at three types of lighting to be set up on timers.
Metal halide UVB external balast from reptileuv for my main basking area. My second choice is the 60Watt MVB EB for the UVB. My problem, I have never used external ballast and don't know what fixture to get for the lights. how to connect fixture to ballast and all that. The Metal Halide I'm looking at is the 70 watt par38 comes with the bulb and ballast but no fixture? I know I'll need something with a ceramic base but beyond that I'm clueless on wattage wiring and all that.
I'm gonna want 2 4' full spectrum lights for the main lighting. I don't need uvb on these as that is taken care of with the metal halide or MVB in the main basking area. This is more to brighten up the the enclosure. I'll be mounting them on the inside top of the enclosure so can't have the vents on the top of them. This linear type lighting confuses me again because of wattage and bulb sizes, does it matter if they're covered or not. I've seen plant light fixtures that look like they would work but again I feel lost on this. I've been seeing T12 bulbs T8, T5. If i'm understanding correct the T12 is an older style? Sounds like they are bigger bulbs as well.
I'll want a non uvb basking area and a uvb basking area. Looking at compact flourescent type lighting for both and possibly heat projectors for them as well.
It would be much easier if you could get the bulbs you want to come with fixtures. Maybe I'm missing something though and making this a lot harder than it should be.
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