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Red vs blue nighttime lighting

J

jonnywill

New member
Hi guys,

First of all apologies if this has already been asked, I did a quick scout around and couldn't really find anything.

My question really is for night time viewing/lighting which colour of bulb provides the most benefits. The bulb isn't required to provide heat as I have under viv heat matts which keep the surface temperature at acceptable levels.

I have heard blue bulbs provide something closer to natural moonlight, but lots of people seem convinced that snakes are unable (or particularly bad at) seeing light from the red end of the spectrum, so red bulbs are preferable for night time lighting.

I'm sure there are arguments for both, but it would be good to here from someone who has tried and tested both and has experience of each option.

Many thanks in advance :)
 
What you NEED is night vision goggles lol. Are you planning on running the light throughout the night or just turning it on when you want to look in the tank at night time? Personally I think a dull red glow would look nice and red wont dilate your pupils if its dark in the room. I don't know if its the same for snakes... Just my opinion..
 
From the research I did when I first started owning snakes. Now mind you, this was a while ago so new research probably has been changed now. But the inferred that is put off by the red bulbs can be harmful to corns, kind of like the UVB bulb and more so to the lighter snakes like snows, so the blue light is better only because it does not put off as much inferred.

Like I said that info might have been changed. I use LED lights because they put off little to no heat and here is AZ it is almost more important to keep your snake cool than warm. :rofl: I have uth for warmth. I find it is a little easier to control the temp.
 
cmalchow said:
...the inferred that is put off by the red bulbs can be harmful to corns ... I use LED lights because they put off little to no heat...
Click to expand...

Why did i not mention LEDs .. Silly me, I use them for everything from replacement bulbs in my truck/house all the way down to the snake cage.. They are diffinatly they way to go, there cheap last long and like said before no heat..
 
for now I am using CFL red bulbs, very little heat and not really too bright, I leave them on all the time.
I will be changing over to LED's when I get around to doing it.

good or bad, this is what I am using..I have 3 vivs lined up in a row, using 2 lamps to spread the light between them.
 
OK this thread really has me intrigued. A quick Google search didn't, um, shed any light on it. Surely a normal red bulb would only generate red visible light and not alot of infrared light. While an infrared would generate mostly infrared light (higher than 780 nanometers). I am really curious how much, if any, infrared a red LED would generate. Do they publish infrared levels for lights?

Is infrared really harmful to snakes? If so, then why? I understand how ultraviolet light can be harmful but I thought infrared was helpful as it can penetrate tissue for deep tissue heating. So many questions. Sounds like a project.
 
Thanks guys for all the responses.

My thoughts were that a bulb that is low wattage/led would be the best as it would give out not much/no heat (as that's not really the effect I'm aiming for). But really my interest was in which end of the spectrum (if any) get the best responses in a natural nighttime behaviour sort of way.

I have heard that blue light is most similar to moon light, which would suggest that blue light doesn't disturb corns all that much (just on a viewing or part of night-time basis), where as many people claim that corns (and/or the majority of reptiles) cannot see light from the red end of the spectrum. I'm just curious as i'm keen on either getting one 15watt bulbs (red or blue) for each side of the vivarium.

I think infra-red would be miniml with either as the wattage is so low, but I'm not 100% on that either. Hope this helps ;)
 
I know when I was out in the field, I preferred using blue light, because it is a softer light and doesn't set off photocells as readily as a red light does.....Oh we are talking snakes... not bombs...lol
 
I have no idea about infrared, and its effects on corn snakes but......

"sunlight provides an irradiance of just over 1 kilowatt per square meter at sea level. Of this energy, 527 watts is infrared radiation, 445 watts is visible light, and 32 watts is ultraviolet radiation." - Wikipedia

With those numbers in mind, how powerful would a light bulb have to be to cause problems? The human body gives off infrared (AKA Heat)...
 
Ok now you guys have me wondering. I am going to have to try and find that article. I never put any thought into it when I read it since I do, do the led's. I know that there was a bunch of numbers but I didn't get that into it.
 
w00dg0blin said:
OK this thread really has me intrigued. A quick Google search didn't, um, shed any light on it. Surely a normal red bulb would only generate red visible light and not alot of infrared light. While an infrared would generate mostly infrared light (higher than 780 nanometers). I am really curious how much, if any, infrared a red LED would generate. Do they publish infrared levels for lights?

Is infrared really harmful to snakes? If so, then why? I understand how ultraviolet light can be harmful but I thought infrared was helpful as it can penetrate tissue for deep tissue heating. So many questions. Sounds like a project.
Click to expand...

I do know that they levels are posted on the side of the boxes of the lights. I don't know if they would be online. Maybe on the company that produces the lights website. :shrugs:
 
cmalchow said:
I do know that they levels are posted on the side of the boxes of the lights. I don't know if they would be online. Maybe on the company that produces the lights website. :shrugs:
Click to expand...

I just checked the light bulbs I have lying around and all they list is lumens and wattage not the actual frequency of the light it produces.

Surely there is a science behind it. I can't see them just trying out different elements until they find a light that is visually appealing without knowing exactly what frequency light is being produced. They'd have to use something like a spectrometer. How else would they be able to produce specialty lighting for UVB bulbs for reptiles and dedicated infrared lighting for night vision purposes.
 
I had to ask my husband because I couldn't remember for the life of me. He was saying that it was a book that we got when we ordered exo-terra lights. I guess it showed all different reptiles and for the corn snakes it said that the peak of the infrared waves was what was harmful and not really harmful as much as an irretant. Not just infrared period. So understanding what he said that it is fine as long as you are not using to high of a watt for the size of your tank is fine, and that it is better to go with the lower watt if you are using it as a light source and not a heating source. I tried to go in exo-terra's website to find the diagram for the infrared heat waves and the same info that was in the book but I can't find it. I might have to order more lights from reptilesupply to get another book. lol But I guess that is where they say the blue lights are better cause they have an extremly low infrared output.
 
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