Light Bulb Question

Hey new owner here, I currently have my baby leo in a 10 gal with a hide and a water dish that it cant drown in, as for substrate i have one of those reptimats, I'm using a 25 watt clear bulb i got from walmart to cycle day and night its a dark room so i need some sort of light, I am just wondering if its okay to use the clear bulb because i couldnt find an answer elsewhere

Yes, it's just like if you simply turned on the light in the room. The bulb won't hurt it.

I recommend getting rid of the repticarpet and switching to some sort of tile, whether it's ceramic or vinyl. What are you using for a heat source as well?

Yeah, I read that on a couple care sheets that the tile is better, where do you recommend getting it and what kind like the kind of linoleum thin stuff? Home Depot? as for heat the guys at the reptile shop said i shouldnt really put a heating pad in there especially with the carpet and its so tiny right now, i just checked the temps and its about 73 under the light and its gonna get hotter here with the summer on the way, thanks for the response and good advice much appreciated

Yes, home depot will be fine. You can get ceramic tile, which if you ask a representative they'll lead you too it.

As for the heating pad, the guys at te shop flat out lied to you. Regardless of age, need approximately 92 plus or minus 3 degrees. Your gecko is about 19 degrees too cold, and it's color and eating habits will get better with the increased heat. I recommend a heat pad with a thermostat, or a rheostat or a light dimmer.

Alright so for tonight, I set up a heat lamp and blocked off half the top screen, that boosted it to 79 degrees, i'm gonna put on my heater to boost it up a little more, tomorrow i'm going to go to home depot and look at tile, whats best thinner stuff because the heat will soak through better, and then i'm going to get a heating pad for the cage, any heating pads you recommend or is the zoomed zilla ones fine?

Welcome to the forum. You should check out the link in Kodie's signature area titled "proper housing for leopard geckos"... you have a lot going on that is going to negatively impact your leo's well being. Everything you need to know about making your lil leo a perfect set up can be found in that thread from what tiles to use, how each differerent type of tiles affect heat transfer, how to heat, etc. A soft white light is better than a clear bulb esp. if your leo is an albino, the bright light off a clear bulb could hurt his eyes. You absolutely need to get your temps up to a minimum of 92*F for a juvie, maybe even higher. My boy likes his tank at about 96*F and he is an adult male. Juvies should be kept at warmer temps. Your leo won't be able to properly digest his food or regulate his core temperature with any temps under 88*F. You might also want to check out the show off your set up thread for lots of pictures of other member's vivs to give you some ideas of how to set up your viv for yourleo. Lots of great ideas in there. http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t244-show-off-your-set-ups

Hopefully this helps get you off to a better start and if you have any questions most of the important answers can be found in each subforums stickies or feel free to ask

Hey just wanted to give an update, I went to the store today and purchased a uth and vinyl tile for the substrate, and a 40w soft white bulb, just finished setting everything up and im monitoring the temps, the temp just hit 98.8 degrees after about a little more than a half hour so im not sure if its gonna get any higher, that isn't too much for such a little gecko? thats the only thing im worried about, i want to invest in a thermostat but don't have too much money right now. Here's a picture showing the changes i made
Before:

After:

If someone could just reassure me I'm not gonna cook my leo, I'll sleep a lot easier
Thanks - Port

Looks GREAT!

I have about 8 of the same thermometer's too.

As for temps getting to high, its good that you want to invest in a thermostat but we all understand budgets! If you want, to bring it down a little, you can put paper towels down between the tile and the glass. You'll want to start with about two layers worth and place everything back in and see where it levels off to in the mean time. Nothing like adding more substrate to make the uth work harder.

That should bring your temps down! Great job!

Thats the same as your body temp so I think youre fine. Youre not going to fry your leo. You can pick up a light dimmer for under 10$ and use that to regulate temps until you can get a thermostat.

I just added an extra layer of tile under there to see if it brings it down a little bit it got up to about 99, thanks so much for the advice guys, i really appreciate it

So it seems a 40 watt soft white is producing too much heat with the heating pad, are there any other bulbs someone could suggest? I'm having a hard time finding any lower watt soft whites. I'm thinking maybe a small florescent strip since it wont produce much heat

Flourescent would be too bright. At walmart you can find 15 and 25 watt soft white bulbs. I use a 15 watt on mine sometimes but not often. It only adds about 2-3 degrees to the overall temps of the viv. Your light should be on the same side as your hot side so that you can provide the proper temperature gradient and you need to add 2 more hides, one on the cool side so that your leo can thermoregulate to a cooler place and feel secure doing it, and a moist hide to aide in shedding and humidity levels in your viv. Leos really don't need a lot of open floor space, esp. as babies. It scares them and makes them feel exposed. They are prey creatures (things that larger animals like to eat) so they like to have lots of hiding places to feel secure. Love the tiles btw, they look great.