what kind of lighting do i use?!

[yekram10]

Hi i just set up my vivarium and i turned the lights on... after a half an hour i smelled something.......... the plastic bar under the light melting!!! these where reptile lights but im now guessing there for reptiles instead of amphibs, although it said daylight on it!.... what bulbs can i get instead that are easy to find..... any at the hardware store??

[ViperJr]

"Reptile lights" and "amphibian lights" really doesn't say anything at all about the lamp. What probably happen is that the lamps are not Compact florescent light bulbs, but ordinary incandescent bulbs, which create a lot of heat. You probably don't need more than 50W to be able to melt some plastic that's directly under it. I don't know what animals and setup you have, but a general advice would be to try CFLs instead. Beware, this will decrease the ambient temperature in the terrarium.

[DonLisk]

The lighting requirements would depend on what you need to accomplish with them.

If you need to increase temperature or just add lighting for the vivarium's plants.
Your frogs need no special lighting so if you need to add to the tanks temperature then incandescent bulbs are usually needed and the amount to need to raise the temp would determine what wattage bulb is needed.

If you need to just add lighting for the plants and viewing, you can usually use 6500K color temp compact florescent bulbs which I purchase at Walmart. I buy the 26 watt version and I believe they are listed as daylight bulb but have the 6500K in large print on the front of the package.
They work great with plants and only slightly raise temps by a few degrees.

For night viewing, I use a basic 15 watt red incandescent which also adds a little heat which my WTFs like to sit under at night.