As part of my efforts to create a natural environment these are my thoughts on lighting, please feel free to comment on them and talk about how you do things for your anoles. The green anoles primary range is located in the southeastern United States. It is from this very basic information that I decided to create a day and night schedule for my own collection of green anoles. This information is on a week by week basis so as to make it a manageable schedule, daily changes are not needed to get the same effect. The first week corresponds to the first week in January. Set the lights to go on at your local sunrise, and off according to the following schedule of daylight hours. Week Daylight 1) 10:34:00 2) 10:39:00 3) 10:44:00 4) 10:50:00 5) 10:58:00 6) 11:07:00 7) 11:15:00 8) 11:26:00 9) 11:36:00 10) 11:47:00 11) 11:57:00 12) 12:07:00 13) 12:18:00 14) 12:29:00 15) 12:39:00 16) 12:49:00 17) 12:59:00 18) 13:08:00 19) 13:16:00 20) 13:30:00 22) 13:36:00 23) 13:40:00 24) 13:44:00 25) 13:45:00 26) 13:44:00 27) 13:43:00 28) 13:39:00 29) 13:33:00 30) 13:28:00 31) 13:21:00 32) 13:12:00 33) 13:04:00 34) 12:55:00 35) 12:45:00 36) 12:35:00 37) 12:24:00 38) 12:14:00 39) 12:04:00 40) 11:53:00 41) 11:43:00 42) 11:32:00 43) 11:23:00 44) 11:12:00 45) 11:04:00 46) 10:55:00 47) 10:48:00 48) 10:42:00 49) 10:37:00 50) 10:34:00 51) 10:32:00 52) 10:33:00 I’ve taken the liberty to figure the total hours of lights being on, 4,427 hours 2 minutes. A 12 hour regular schedule works out to an even 4,380 hours, that’s 47 hours and 2 minutes less light received than any wild anole receives. An 11 hour regular schedule shows even less time at 4,015 hours, and that’s 412 hours and 2 minutes less time under the lights. Do you really want to go that route? Timers, electronic or the old dial type will save you from having to turn on and of the lights every day. Pick one day of the week to change the settings, mark your calendar and switch the settings on that day. With the light schedule down to the minute, lets move on to general placement of the lights and what qualities they should have. Placement: To the anole, bright light equates to warmth, conversely dim or dark areas should be colder. You want to mimic this very simple logic in the environment you have created, bright lights in the warmest area dim lighting in the cooler areas. As is very logical, lights are often used as the primary source of heat that anoles require. At times you will see this wattage or another quoted as being the right ones to use, such advice is hard on anoles. You need to use the lowest wattage bulbs that will raise only the illuminated areas temperature to that which is required. All the bulbs should be the same wattage and controlled by dimmers as the minimum standard. Doing so you automatically create the bright to dim range that corresponds with changes of temperature. The best option for properly dimming the lights would be to use the expensive dimming thermostats, not only do they dim the lights they accurately regulate temperature. Depending on your enclosure size and orientation, you should create a light gradient that matches the temperature gradient. Small 10gal tanks are suited to a side to side gradient, while tall 20gal tanks are better when a vertical gradient is created. Custom enclosures that are much larger often allow for more complicated and possibly very attractive lighting gradients. Quality: There must be a source of unfiltered UVB light in the basking area. 18 inches away is the maximum distance from basking area to UVB bulb that you’ll want. Glass and clear plastic filter UVB as will very fine wire mesh screen, so no glass or plastic between the bulb and basking area. Keep screen no finer than the standard window type and your anole will get all he or she needs. UVB lights are bright, so very bright that they often over illuminate the entire enclosure. Keep this in mind when placing them so as not to confuse the anoles understanding of bright light equals warmth. The UVB producing bulbs do not provide heat, so place them where they brighten basking areas. Unless you have the ability to measure the UVB output of your lights, it is wise to change them in week 15 of each year. UVB output decreases over time, changing them in week 15 will provide the most UVB during the summer months and diminish in a somewhat natural way over fall and winter. Type: There are many types of lights on the market today, they produce light in different ways, some also produce heat while others produce almost none. Some of the lights produce very high levels of UV radiation that are unhealthy to humans and are so bright that they may damage the anoles eyes, resulting in blindness. Standard lights, the old fashion filament type works well to produce both heat and light, but they do not produce the required UVB. The truly effective UVB producing lights are florescent, and are not very effective at producing heat. Timing for all lights remains the same. Equipment: Safety is an issue that must never be avoided when dealing with electrical equipment. Use high quality fixtures, ceramic lamps will tolerate the heat better than low quality plastic fixtures and are less prone to failure. When changing bulbs; switch off the power to that lamp, unplug the lamp, and allow the bulb to cool, then change the bulb. You can now plug the lamp back in and turn it on. Fire Hazard: The resulting mess of wires and outlet multipliers I see stuffed behind many reptile enclosures is dangerous. If you are qualified, add dedicated outlets for each device, and possibly an entire dedicated circuit for each enclosure you own. Your home is very likely your greatest investment, an electrical fire can destroy everything possibly killing any occupants that become trapped inside. If you are not qualified, get this done by someone who is. Final Notes: I make no effort to advise what bulb is best, such advice would not be very long lived. As the market changes so do opinions on what UVB bulb is the best, and often their need is even questioned. Please search, and determine what product is best at the moment. Products come and go, and so does the quality of any one product.
That was an excellent guide. Really honestly. Personally I'd say.... STICKYYYYY. Just one thing is that my dial socket switcher thingy isn't as accurate as your guide requires unfortunatly
pauliox1, It's not exactly ready to become a sticky just yetl, I am going to add more information and clean it up so it looks a bit better. your dial socket switcher thingy is just fine to get a similar effect, I'll create a dial type timer oriented list of times if that would help, I will be happy to PM or email that list to anyone interested. The dial type timing can work just as well but due to the fixed timing increments I'll have to figure out which dates match, I believe I can have that for you in a day or so. I'll be adding twilight information and moon rise and set times as well for anyone interested in going all out with night time lighting. I'd like to add more about equipment, timers, fixtures, bulb types. Look for another "My thoughts on (Green Anoles)" post in the next week or so, maybe 'heating' or 'humidity' I'm working on them now.
Your adding more?! Great It should be stickied in the future though. I'd be really interested in that list mauricepudlo. If you could give it a try that would be great.
Are your switches 15, 30, or 60 minutes each? I'll work a list for all times, though I think the 60 minute each switch timers are not really up to the task at this level of care. 30-minute timers are out there, as are 15-minute ones and they would be better in my opinion. What do you think about adding some sort of code like a simple (15),(30),(60) followed by the on time after the regular data? It would look something like this: Week Daylight 1) (E) 10:34, (15) 10:30, (30) 10:30, (60) 11:00 2) (E) 10:39, (15) 10:30, (30) 10:30, (60) 11:00 3) (E) 10:44, (15) 10:45, (30) 10:30, (60) 11:00 4) (E) 10:50, (15) 10:45, (30) 10:30, (60) 11:00 5) (E) 10:58, (15) 11:00, (30) 11:00, (60) 11:00 6) (E) 11:07, (15) 11:00, (30) 11:00, (60) 11:00 7) (E) 11:15, (15) 11:15, (30) 11:00, (60) 11:00 8) (E) 11:26, (15) 11:30, (30) 11:30, (60) 11:00 9) (E) 11:36, (15) 11:30, (30) 11:30, (60) 11:00 I'll take away the seconds from the original data as it is not used or needed and add (E) for electronic timers. Electronic timers are not as expensive as they once were, they are very well suited for this kind of work. You can spend a ton of money on light control, the deciding factor is mostly what you plan to spend and how much effort you are willing to put into the terrariums environment control system. I am myself very interested in converting over to a fully computer controlled lighting system. My first effort is going to be with the anoles in my collection. I have a rather huge collection of data intended for this effort. I would like to share it with other anole keepers, how that data is used is going to be up to each and every person. Another problem I thought of today is that people everywhere are not going to be able to match local sunrise with this table, Alaskan and Russian anole owners would have little use for that bit of instruction. I need to rewrite it.
This is coming along GREAT! Once finished i'd definately like it to be entered into our knowledgebase, or a sticky. Thanks for caring so much for your anoles, and taking the time to do this! Luke
this is an awesome post! I love the amount of work you have clearly put into it... look forward to more in the future
