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Anyone with a tall vivarium (I define that as anything 36" or higher) knows that getting enough light down to the bottom involves some issues.  A powerful light(s) is needed, which of course is going to produce a lot of heat.  So now we've got to deal with fans and that also can create unwanted noise. Fans also have a limited lifespan. I've been using this heatsink with a built in fan that is generally very quiet to cool down 10, 20, 30 and 50 watt large diode LED chips.  It generally works quite well, but there's no guarantee that...

This is a one of a kind custom built light that is actually a hood because it was designed to fit over the top of an entire viv, covering the mistking nozzles and tubing.  It should sit right on top of the glass. A client ordered this for a very large custom built viv, but strangely decided within a couple of weeks that the twin 20w spotlights were not powerful enough over the top of a 36" tall tank.  Since I run many setups here that are almost identical, I know for a fact that this is plenty of light...

Here's some things to think about when choosing a light size for your vivarium. In general you want to use/cover as much of the top of the tank as you can with the light panel so that the light is spread out over a wider area.   Because the various niches in the glass box hobbies all have different approaches to vents and misters, front or top opening, glass tops or screen tops, a lot of variables are in play. So what you need to imagine is the maximum usable space you have available to sit the light on the top...

One of the main goals of this lighting project for me was designing lights that do not detract from the overall presentation of the display, especially if its something big that you'd like to be proud of in your living room.  The light unit should be hardly visible if at all possible and not sending extraneous light all over the room.  For most people that's meant building a custom lid to sit on top of the viv to hide the lighting (which creates even more issues, like heat build up and a need for fans), not to mention the expense....

I'm starting to roll out light panels that combine current UVB light technology with LEDs, since a lot of animals in the "glass box" hobbies need UV for the health of the animals.  LEDs that emit a usable amount of UVB are still a ways off, but I am working with a Chinese manufacturer to try to get a viable product to market.  UVB emitting LEDs exist now but they are prohibitively expensive and just do not emit enough UVB for the needs of our hobby.So currently there are two options for usable UVB light, T5 or T8 florescent tubes,...