Good Setup? Advice?

Hey y'all, so I've been researching about bearded dragons for quite a while, and I'm wondering if this setup is okay. I'm still a noob, so I'm a bit nervous about getting into this reptile-hobby. The enclosure looks pretty boring right now, so I might add a few branches or something later.


So I'll tell ya'll in detail about this setup.
The tank is 50 gallons with non-adhesive shelf-liner as the substrate. The heat lamp is a bright white 70 watt flood light that heats up the basking spot in between 100-110° F, and the UVB light is the reptisun 10.0 T5 output fluorescent tube. Both lights are 10 inches away from the basking spot, which is made up of bricks. The lights are also under the screen because I don't want the screen to interfere with the lighting. I use two AcuRite thermometers, one in the hot and cold areas, to measure temperature. (It takes 40 min for accurate readings, which is why both readings are the same in the pictures). I live in a hot area so my house mainly is 70-80° F, which helps the cool side not get too cold. I have a shoebox and blanket for a hide, with two bowls next to it for the salads and water. I also have a 10 gallon tank underneath the table as a feeding cage for roaches.

My schedule states that the lights turn on at 9:00 AM and turn off at 8:00 PM, which ensures 12 hours of light. I'll also give baths and clean the cage weekly.

Is this setup decent enough for a bearded dragon? Is there anything vital that I need to add or remove? I will add more stuff to make it less plain. Any other advice? :study:

That all seems just about right. Good lighting at proper distance, good temperatures. I'd probably have the lights come on slightly earlier and provide more around 14hrs of daylight but that depends on your schedule. They often like to have some time to warm up in the morning before meal time (they can be grumpy in the mornings but it depends on the dragon).

You may want to add some more shade areas and things to climb on like branches but the basics are there. The hide will be fine for a shade area to start with and you can just tweak things as you go along. You'll see reaction from the dragon and can adjust things according to their preferences. It's kind of an ever evolving thing. You have the basics right though.

Thank you so much for your response! I'll definitely take your advice in consideration.