Infrared heat lamp

Carmen, my understanding is that the main purpose of the infrared lights are to provide heat (and not essential UVA rays) at night without disturbing the reptiles and are generally used for more terrestrial creatures (lizards, snakes, etc.) that may be nocturnal, do not have heated water, or just need to have their the air temperature at a constant level. The terrapins sleep underwater and don’t need to bask at night when they should be following a natural day/night cycle like they would in nature. Your heated water of 75-80 degrees (i keep mine at 78) should be enough to keep the turtles warm at night. I have never heard that these shouldn’t be used but it would be an unnecessary use of power and other lighting types are needed anyways, so I wouldn’t recommend it. The important thing to note and something I didn’t when I had turtles growing up is that they must have both UVA and UVB rays to maintain a healthy shell, appetite, and growth. Proper lighting is one of the key factors that ensures their survival in captivity when natural sunlight is not available. From everything I’ve read, the best way to do things is to get a full spectrum sunshine or specific reptile (Reptisun type 5.0 or 10.0) florescent fixture to provide the UVB rays. For heat and the UVA rays I’ve used the ZooMed ones (60w to 100w depending on the size of your turtles & setup) that you can get at any pet store but they usually don’t last more then 6 months. Make sure you keep it at a safe distance from your basking area so they don’t burn themselves. A lot of people have given positive feedback about the mercury vapor bulbs that provide both UVB and UVA, and actually supply the UVB rays with more intensity then the florescent bulbs. They tend be more expensive (around $50.00) but are supposed to last a lot longer. The two main ones on the market seem to be T-Rex & Powersun 100w bulbs for these. I haven’t switched over to using one yet but plan to in the near future. I would assume that throwing these bulbs away when they can longer be used should be treated the same way as compact florescent bulbs. If possible make sure you dispose of them at somewhere like Ikea that takes CFLs and such bulbs back for proper disposal, this will help both us and the environment.Hope this helped.-Scottkactusgurl