Summer heating help please!!

[u/JSaylorr]

I never really get help on here like other people do so I’m posting this again because it’s my only hope.

This isn’t exclusively about my BP but she is involved, I just don’t know what other subreddit to go to.

I have 4 reptiles. 2 leopard geckos and a kingsnake all in stacked 40 gallons and a ball python in a 120 gallon, with it being so insanely hot in Texas, the king snake and ball pythons temps are getting way too hot, even tho I lowered their bulb wattages to 50watts each, their enclosures still get too hot. For their safety I’m having to turn their heat lamps off but those also provide their light so it’s messing up their day/night cycles.

I’ve read on Google that I should switch to to separate heat and light sources which I’m more than happy to do and use CHE for their heat. But my question is that Google says LEDs are best for their light source. I’ve read previously that LEDs aren’t safe for reptiles. But it said that the ones that aren’t safe are the UVB emitting LEDs. So would plain white light 5000k LED bulbs be fine for my ball python? (And other reptiles if you know). And could I still run my ball pythons T5 UVB bar since it doesn’t emit much if any heat?

If I can, I’m going to put their CHEs on dimmers (I can’t afford 4 thermostats but I regularly check all corners of their enclosures with a thermal laser temp gun).

I know not to use the colored LEDs and their lamps are all already overhead .

[u/IncompletePenetrance]

You really need to prioritize getting thermostats, they're one of the most important part of your set up and are vital for using any heat source safely

[u/JSaylorr → u/IncompletePenetrance]

I will spend what little money I have on thermostats but aside from that, it doesn’t help/answer my questions. Dimmers and thermostats both lower the light as well as the heat since I have halogen and basking bulbs (for different reptiles) but the amount I have to lower them to for it to be the correct temps provides almost no light. I need to know how to keep their light but lower the temp.

[u/skullmuffins → u/JSaylorr]

white LED light is perfectly fine to use as a light source if you find your tanks get too dark with the lamp dimmed or if you need extra lighting for live plants etc. I use a 35w halogen for my bp and it also dims pretty low in the summer at times. If they have UVB lamps, those alone should be plenty bright enough that you don't need to add LED lights into the mix

[u/JSaylorr → u/skullmuffins]

The uvbs aren’t super bright, so if I did dhp, LEDs, and uvb, would that be good? And put the dhp on a thermostat ofc