Need advice on heat lamps

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mama2bearded

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Hello everyone! I am new to the Beardie community. I will posting on the introduction board after this. So I...I mean my boys (lol) just got 2 beardies from Petco about a week ago now. There are no breeders close to me and my local Petco had the best looking beardies. Anyway. We currently have them in 2 separate 30 gallon aquariums. TO keep stress and overload down they only have a branch for basking, a stone hide house and a food dish that we keep their greens in. My concern is over their temperature. They both currently have a 100w bulbs for basking. One is a Zoomed Powersun UV Mercury Vapor and the other has an ExoTerra Intense Basking. The first couple days of having them their temps (checked with an infrared thermometer) only stayed in the high 80-low 90's. From what I read babies need to stay around 95-105 in the basking area. So I ran out and got 2 Zoomed 150w ReptiBasking bulbs and put those in. The temps jumped to 120-130! I did figure out I was using the temp gauge wrong :banghead: so thought maybe the temps were ok previously and switched back to the originals. But there basking area temps still never read above mid 90's or so. I am not sure what to do at this point. I don't want to melt the poor little guys but of course want to keep proper temps. Any advice you can give is greatly appreciated!
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
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Getting the temps just right can take some doing at first. The good news is that once you have it dialed in, it doesn't take much maintenance. One of the basking bulbs you have (PowerSun) produces heat and UVB while the other is just a heat lamp I believe. You'll want to ensure both of them are getting enough UVB. UVB output depends on the distance from the lamp. In the case of the 100w PowerSun, they should sit about 8-12'' above the basking area to provide adequate UVB. The downside of using a mercury vapor bulb is that you can't control UVB exposure and heat independently.

Do your tanks have solid tops or can you mount lights overhead? If you can mount them overhead you might want to try sitting the basking lights on adjustable stands so you can raise/lower them to change the temps easily. If you have a fixed top you may need to go with a dimmer. I like using halogen flood lights for basking because they produce a nice wide beam (PAR38) and they are easily dimmable as needed.

For UVB I suggest using a T5 fixture with a tube style lamp. That way you can set that at an appropriate height and then focus on the heat separately. I would get one of these for each tank https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-26053-Reptisun-Terrarium/dp/B00AQU8F2O It comes with a 5.0 bulb which should sit about 6-8'' above the basking area. You can upgrade the bulb to a 10.0 which will provide proper UVB at around 12''.
 

mama2bearded

New member
Original Poster
Thanks for the reply! Both tanks have a separate UVB bulb to ensure they are getting enough. The one tank without the mercury bulb has the light you linked to. The other tank has a double dome setup with a uvb bulb and the mercury bulb. In both cases the lights sit directly on top of the tanks wire lid so they are within 8in of the top of their basking branch. I figured that should allow them to get closer if needed but also move lower if they got too warm. I hope I am explaining that right so it makes sense. I will get some pics this evening and post them so it makes a bit more sense.
 
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