New gecko owner question

[2muchsnow]

Okay, my 10 year old son has saved and purchased his (and our) first crested gecko. He's 2 years old. No tail. I have a couple of questions. He came with a nice Exo Terra 12x12x18 enclosure with the top lamp. We've been keeping the humidity levels above 50% and misting it up to 80-90% 2x a day. Seems to be doing great.

Is there a specific light color temp you need to have for them? It had a regular 13w, 3100k CFL.
I purchased a daytime heat incandescent lamp 50w (exo terra brand) but it seemed to make the humidity levels drop dramatically more quickly than with the CFL and I worried it was getting too hot? We also picked up the night time viewing 50w blue lamp (exo terra) so they could watch his night time activity once in a while. That doesn't bother them?

Can you get away with a regular CFL? hate to spend $20 on a repti-glo if they don't need a UVB specific bulb. Would prefer to use a CFL over a incandescant.

We keep our house around 68, and he lives in the warmest room.
Any thoughts as to the morph he is? Harley? overall a muted tan when not fired up.

 

[acpart]

Congratulations on your new gecko. I have a lot of geckos but only one crestie. First of all, since the crested gecko is nocturnal, it really doesn't need lighting besides the ambient light in the room. I do have lights in my crestie's cage because the enclosure is planted and the lights are for the plants. At the moment I have one of those Exo-terra hoods with a compact florescent reptile light and a dome light with a compact florescent gro-light from the hydroponics store. The geckos are in my living room and dining room so if I'm in there I turn on the room light and they cope well.

Aliza

 

[Caleb C]

Any light will work fine as they're nocturnal. The hotter the light, the faster the humidity will evaporate. A cfl is sufficient for growing live plants if you want, if not, any other light will work fine. Imo, ambient room light is sufficient for night time. They can still see the blue lights, it's just not as strong.

 

[Amanda1]

As Aliza and Caleb mentioned, they really don't need a light. I use regular CFLs, but that's more for the plants growing in the terrariums than the geckos. If you use lights, make sure they don't put out a lot of heat. Temperatures above 80oF can cause illness and death in cresties. I'm not sure what colors they see, but most lights that I've seen sold for nocturnal viewing are red, and that color doesn't seem to bother them.

I'm not great with morphs, but I'd say he's some kind of harley. Congrats on the new addition!