# Natural desert vivarium: Lighting



## jakemyster44 (Jul 18, 2009)

Hello,
I recently made a 50g breeder vivarium for a pair of leopard geckos. I have a few plants in there (Echeveria elegans, and Haworthia attenuata v zebrina) and am wondering what the best type of lighting would be. 

Here are some pictures of the tank and plants:

























Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!


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## nathan (Jul 24, 2009)

Great looking tank!

One thing to note about desert plants is they need a lot of bright light to thrive. Normal florecent bulbs sold for fishtanks or at the hardware store usually arent anywhere neer enough light for them. They may do ok for a short period but you will notice long term they decline and eventually die.

I would suggest trying pc's or high output t-5s

But considering the geckos dont need the bright lights at all and ou only have a few plants you might want to consider trying a twin tube fixure for regular florecents and put some full spectrum bulbs in there . . .or the normal t-5's 

They may do ok or you might just have to replace them every once in a while


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## inflight (Jun 12, 2007)

I would think that T5's should work fine because I can keep both of those plants alive in my apartment with seriously very little bright light. I tend to kill them from over watering though, ha.
Very nice tank, it looks great!

ThomO


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

Great looking tank!! One of the best leo tanks I've seen!


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