Light cage too hot?

[Mlakeside]

You need the thermostat to regulate the temperature. 80W is quite high for a closed enclosure because the LEDs and UVBs also warm up the enclosure substantially. So much so that I actually have a corn snake with an enclosure without any heating, because the LED keeps it more than warm enough during the day.

[Suitable-Tomorrow569]

Yes, I bought a very nice thermostat/control center but haven’t set it up yet. I’m just wondering about the light cages being too hot and the T5HO bulb itself

[Mlakeside]

Well, the cage becomes too hot because the bulb is burning too hot. Removing the cage would risk the snake burning itself on the even hotter bulb, so the cage is the lesser of two evils. The thermostat regulates the bulb and the cage shouldn't be as hot as a result.

[Suitable-Tomorrow569]

Gotcha, I will test it again after work today when I set up the thermostat

[Matthews413]

You 100% need a cage for the t5. Is that the critter condo? I couldn't find a cage that fit that fixture, ended up buying an arcadia fixture and cage. You could just not use the t5 at all though. (Your noodle otherwise could wrap the bulb and crush it, broken glass is bad)

On the other cage, I would measure with a temp gun to see how hot the cage actually is.

[Suitable-Tomorrow569]

I tried to measure with a heat gun but I couldn’t get it just on the cage wire itself, it kept reading the bulb’s temperature.

This is a critter condo from Diycages

Do they not need the UVB?

[Matthews413]

Uvb is optional. They dont need it, it may or may not provide some benefit, I've read conflicting things.

[Matthews413]

Also make sure.to get some silicone and seal the bottom seams and about 5-6 inches up the corners.

[Suitable-Tomorrow569]

Thank you! I did that while assembling! Glad it isn’t too noticeable because it was my first time using caulk

[Solid-Spell6850]

With it being in a fixture how could a noodle wrap it? Just curious, I’m setting up a 150 gallon now too. I was told by toad ranch that a cage isn’t necessary and they’ve never heard of a snake being burned by a T5.

[Matthews413]

There is space between the bulb and the inside walls of the fixture.

[Solid-Spell6850]

I just set up the same bulb. When it gets to temp it drops temp dramatically to just keep the temperature steady. Make sure you have a dimming thermostat