Lighting -- heated or not

I know Karl uses a non-heated lamp during the day to simulate natural light. (Karl -- which one do you use?) I have one pad at 85* and the other at 75*. But the viv is in a corner without much daylight. Given that the viv is 36 x 18 x 18, and the mats only heat the bottom substrate, sould I offer a low-wattage basking lamp near one of the high climbing bramches, or just go with a nice n-heated light?

You don't need a bulb for heat.

Your lighting doesn't need to be really bright, but if you want extra light a 40 watt equivalent LED daylight color bulb on a timer will do it. As far as a lamp goes, you can use a standard reptile fixture that sits on the screen lid or even a regular little wall mounted lamp and shade above your enclosure.

The forum deleted a long post I wrote, grrrr. Here's the short version:

--Conflicting information about whether corners like, dislike, need, or don't need artificial daylight lighting in a dark room.

--Even more conflicting information about whether UV light is good, neutral, or harmful, especially to an albino or amel.

--Ruby's room is in perpetual semi darkness. Should I add a 13 W light above her bed of during the daytime, mounted with the light about 15 inches above the screen? Should this light have or not have UV? (Someone gave me a Zoo Med Mini Tropical UV lamp but the bulb need to be replaced.)

*about whether corns (not corners)

**above her viv (not bed)

Also forgot to mention that my concern is that her circadian rhythm will not be correct without artificial daylight.

Does your room have windows or not? If your room has windows and you do not have room darkening shades your snake will probably be fine without extra lighting. You do not need UV for corn snakes. There is some evidence that artificial UV can be detrimental, especially to amels (includes ROs and EROs) and other snakes with red eyes.

My snakes are in my north facing bedroom. I have one main window, though it is an old fashioned window so is fairly large. I have another small window that does let in some light but very little. I do have translucent blinds so even before I wake up, my room and snakes get light.

If you do get a light on a timer, you can reset the timer once a month to come on and off with sunrise and sunset. That and not having the the room lights on in the middle of the night will be fine for your snakes.

The one sacrifice i make is I don't read in bed with the room lights on. I do read books on my iPad. I just make sure it isn't shining towards the snakes and the backlight is turned down low. I also minimize turning on the lights after dark in the evening, and if I do I keep them dim and keep it brief.

I do have blackout curtains but have started opening them during the day since I set up Ruby's tank, but she's still in a dim corner. I will take and post photos later. I can't believe how the yes/no UV debate rages online! I guess nobody really knows. I am almost certain I'm going to get a light and put it on a timer -- I just have to figure out / decide if it should be a UV (probably not) or LED vs fluorescent (not sure what the difference between them is yet).

I just use a 60 watt regular room light bulb. But it's on a timer so it comes on and off on 12 hour intervals. And it's well away from the cage so it doesn't add any additional heat to the cage.