Plants and Plant Lighting

Choosing Your Plants

Providing species-appropriate plants is an essential part of the process. If a plant from a tropical environment is placed in an arid environment, it likely would die pretty quickly. There are a few key things you should consider when purchasing plants for your reptile’s enclosure:

• What type of environment is the plant from, and does it match the environment of your reptile’s species?

• How tall does the plant get, and will it fit in your enclosure?

• How much water does the plant need, and is the plant’s root system particularly sensitive to root rot? If root rot is a concern, do you have a drainage layer to alleviate this?

• Is the plant fragile and will it be damaged by your reptile treading or slithering over it?

• Is the plant toxic to your reptile if it were to be ingested?

• Could the plant harm your reptile if they were to fall on it?

Let’s pick out some plants for two very popular reptile species from different environments, so you can get an idea of how to select your plants!

Plant Lighting

Just like your vivarium’s reptile inhabitant, the plants you select for your bioactive enclosure have their own light requirements. Plants can generally be summarized into three categories; low light, partial shade, and full sun. It is important to cater the plants you purchase to the amount and type of light you are able to provide. Note: Some animals, particularly albino individuals, have especially sensitive eyes. Make sure your animal is still comfortable with the amount of light you provide the plants.

Typically when setting up a bioactive enclosure for your reptile, you have two lights already - heat and UVB. Recommended examples for heat and UVB lights are PAR38 Halogen bulbs for heat, and strip-style T5 or T8 UVB bulbs for UVB production. See our lighting guide for more info!

There are three types of light in nature that we as reptile keepers need to be aware of, and should reproduce. They are:

1. Infrared in the form of heat

2. Visible light

3. Ultraviolet (we focus on UVB, but there are also UVA and UVC.)

Having a PAR38 Halogen bulb and a UVB bulb covers all three to an extent - the halogen bulb primarily produces infrared (heat) and produces some visible light, and the UVB produces ultraviolet light. Plants, however, need more specialized visible light spectrums available to them. Plants operate best when given full-spectrum light, which is easily replicated by LED Plant Grow lights. Some LED bulbs are stronger and produce more light than others, and the length/size of the bulb is important to spec to your vivarium. There are numerous options for plant LED light fixtures available, and we encourage you to research and determine which light strength you need for the plants that you have.

In the end, you should have three separate lights in your bioactive enclosure. The PAR38 Halogen for heat and some visible light, the full-spectrum LED plant grow light, and the strip-style T5 or T8 UVB light. We emphasize the importance of strip-style UVB for numerous reasons, one being that coil UVB bulbs produce very concentrated amounts of UVB which can singe your plants.