General Lighting Info

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ajkry2

Gray-bearded Member
[THANKS FOR UNLOCKING THIS THREAD :D ]

Bearded Dragons need both heat and UVB rays. The heat helps them digest thier food, and the UVB helps them metabolize the useful nutrients in the feeders.

HEAT
Adequate heat can be given from an expensive reptile name brand heat lamp OR a simple halogen flood light, the type you might use in your back yard will do the trick, and is much cheaper than the reptile type basking lights you'd get at your local petstore. Really, any bright white light will do -- so long as you can achieve the desired temps. Some people have better luck with spots, or small household floods or regular bulbs, rather than halogens. Just depends on the viv/personal preference.

The method used to measure the temps is key to good digestion. If the temps are off, your beardie won't be able to digest the food properly, so having an accurate thermometer is very important. Stick on thermometers (dial and strip) are known to be up to 20*F off. So a good type of thermometer is a digital thermometer with probe (Accurite is a popular and trusted brand). It can be found at Walmart or Lowes for not much more than $10 or $12 (I think Lowes is cheaper ;)). It can also be found online, so if this is where you'd like to buy it, just google accurite digital thermometer. Another great way to measure temps is with a infrared temperature gun. They're superaccurate, give quick readings, but they're kind of expensive (IMHO). You should point the gun directly at the surface of the spot you would like to measure the temperature at a distance of 2 inches away from the area being measured.

When the Beardie is young, add about 5 degrees (all temperatures are in degrees F)to the ranges of acceptable temperatures below.

Basking -- 100-105
Cool Side -- 80-85
Night -- above 65

Adjust the height of the heat lamp or basking area to achieve Basking and Cool Side temps.
The night temps should definitely drop though, so that your little one can have time to cool down during sleepy time. (Size of Tank vs. Wattage of Heat Lamp)

As for the Night temps, a no-light emitting heat source called a Ceramic Heat Emitter (question about ceramic heaters) is ideal for keeping temperatures above 65. If any light is emitted, it could interrupt the beardies sleepy time (Red Light yes or no?) therefore a nighttime heat lamp should not emit any light, whether it be blue, black, infrared or bright white. CHE's are ideal for night warming of the vivarium and can be found at your local pet shop or online at http://www.petmountain.com. Another source of light-less heat is a megaray heat projector. Its newer technology so lower wattage produces higher heat. General info and purchase info can be found at this site.

Some thing to keep in mind is that beardies cannot sense heat from below, so heat rocks and heat pads are not recommended. I say this because there have been cases of the heat rock or heat pad burning the belly of the dragon due to their lack of thermal senses on their underside.

UVB
A very common reptile UVB bulb around is the ReptiGLO 10.0 (ReptiGlo 10.0?) tube fluorescent. It is NO good from my experience. My pooper always hid from it, didn't look at it, wasn't very active, and didn't eat as much as she does with my ReptiSUN 10.0 (Arcadia 12% outside of the US). When using Reptisun 10.0, make sure to use the calcium supplements with D3. It's recommended to change out tube UVB sources every 6 months to get optimal usage. Make sure you're beardie can get 6-8 inches away from the bulb for best UVB absorbtion.

It's hard to find here in Saint Louis, Missouri but here is a good site to get it from (good price too). And here is a popular site to get the Arcadia 12% from, and I've also heard of an Ebay shop you can get it from as well. :) I found an online shop that ships to Canada for those living in the cold north www.bigalsonline.com is a little pricy, but no price is to large for our poopers health via UV lighting :mrgreen:

Another trick to proper UVB lighting is to stay away from the coil/compact type bulb as they have been known to cause health issues (Compact lamps unsafe? UVGuideUK brief update). A very good website is http://www.uvguide.co.uk/ it has all the lighting tests and reports. I found a very interesting thread discussing the problems that happen with too much UVB, different light sources, how and why UVB is good and different brands of UV lighiting and the pros and cons of each here: Lighting: photo-kerato-conjunctivitis (UVB sickness).

If you're using a UVB/heat type arrangement (2 seperate bulbs), the light should be close to each other so the pooper can have both heat AND uv benefits while basking like so:

______________tube
0 basking bulb

MVB
Mercury Vapor Bulbs are an amazing type of lighting too (for tanks 40 gallon and larger). They supply heat and UVB at the same time. The Powersun 100 W bulb is known to cause eye issues in beardies, so stay away from that (PowerSun Mercury Vapor Bulb Research Help). The T-Rex and Megaray (link to website to purchase Megaray) are popular and safe brands to use instead. General consensus is that the Megaray is the superior bulb. If money is tight, but you need to replace your MVB, Exo Terra Solar Glo is a safe alternative, although its not as efficient as Megaray or T-Rex. When using MVB bulbs, make sure to use the calcium supplements without D3. It's recommended to change out MVB bulbs every 12 months to get optimal usage. Make sure you're beardie can get no closer than 12 inches away from the 100W-125W or no closer than 18 inches away from the 160W MVB for best absorbtion.

MVB's have a "burn in" period, so the temps may rise in the first few days, so watch them closely and adjust your bulb height or basking spot height as needed to achieve the proper temps. Usually the temperatures will level out after about the fourth day :).

You can find MVB type bulbs at http://www.petmountain.com :)

Have you ever had lighting issues? is a thread I started to show experiences with bad light, and good :) Check it out, or look around on the boards for health issues that were cured/helped with a simple change of light or temp.

Additions? Comments?
:blob5: They're all welcome! :blob5:
 

smurfthebeardie

Juvie Member
Based on all the posts about UVB and such, I think this thread should be stickied. That way we can tell everyone new to read it instead of typing it over and over.
 

ajkry2

Gray-bearded Member
Original Poster
smurfthebeardie":6412d said:
Based on all the posts about UVB and such, I think this thread should be stickied. That way we can tell everyone new to read it instead of typing it over and over.
What is a "stickied" thread?
 

ajkry2

Gray-bearded Member
Original Poster
I forgot to mention about the Arcadia 12 *EDIT for a good UVB source *END EDIT...
Don't have a good link for it, as I live in the US, but thought I'd mention it :D
 

smurfthebeardie

Juvie Member
ajkry2":7f6cb said:
smurfthebeardie":7f6cb said:
Based on all the posts about UVB and such, I think this thread should be stickied. That way we can tell everyone new to read it instead of typing it over and over.
What is a "stickied" thread?
It stays at the top. I guess it's unique lingo to an old forum I used to be involved with.
 

britanny

Member
Are there any Repti Sun's that aren't the long bulbs because when I went to the store the girl told me to buy the hood for the light which I did but I can only put smaller bulbs in there, not long ones.
 

ajkry2

Gray-bearded Member
Original Poster
the coil/compact type uvb bulbs have been known to cause health issues for BD's. general concensus is to stay away from any type of coil/compact uvb source.
 

FaaFaa

Sub-Adult Member
T-Rex Active Heat MVB is also a great bulb. UVA/B and heat all in one. It's the only thing I use. Just my .02 :p

Jen
 

ajkry2

Gray-bearded Member
Original Poster
FaaFaa":e2fa2 said:
T-Rex Active Heat MVB is also a great bulb. UVA/B and heat all in one. It's the only thing I use. Just my .02 :p

Jen
I can't believe I forgot about MVB's! edit done :)
 

Martyn21

Juvie Member
I was thinking about use this bulb when I need to change them.is it that good because the price really isn't lol but if it's that good and etc etc the it's worth the money do you know how long they last?? :)
 

ajkry2

Gray-bearded Member
Original Poster
Martyn21":2bd66 said:
I was thinking about use this bulb when I need to change them.is it that good because the price really isn't lol but if it's that good and etc etc the it's worth the money do you know how long they last?? :)
I think they're more expensive upfront, but last for a year as opposed to a reptisun (or arcadia) that last for 6 months.

hopefully someone with some MVB experience will chime in
 

Martyn21

Juvie Member
Cool I'll save some money then lol that's half my wages gorn on the light lol :-( I think I will save over time :) it will take about 6 months to save lol so it works out ok. Now I have seen pic on net off the bulb can I get it IN a 75W because Iv only seen it in a150-100 :D
 
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