Godzilla's First New (And Last) Vivarium

So, after finding a great deal today, I decided to jump right from Godzilla's original 10 gallon tank to his 40 gallon end tank. I purchased a All Things Living Bearded Dragon Starter tank/kit and have spent the last few hours sprucing it up, adding a few things, cleansing, etc. Here's what it looks like so far.



The list of changes/additions I've made:
- The external lights are just simple 26 watt sunlight lamps
- The big rocks are leftover sandstone from lining our pool (cleansed first in a solution of 1 ounce simple green to 1 gallon of water)
- The wooden structure was originally the structure up which one of my mother's climbing plants grew until it was too small to support it (cleansed in the above solution)
- The smaller grey rocks (you can only see one) are from a bundle I purchased at Petsmart when I bought Godzilla)

So, my main concern is, despite being lit steadily for the past 4 hours, the thermometer is reading only 90 degrees. I accidentally cut off the dome lights on the lid, but the thermo is centered directly below the kit's basking lamp, with the UVB lamp immediately to its left. I know that analog thermos aren't super accurate. I was wondering if anyone else had experience with the All Things Living Bearded Dragon Starter Kit and specifically any input about the enclosed lighting?

Godzilla in his spacious new mansion!


So I managed to get the temp to just over a hundred on the right aide and about 85 on the left using bulbs as follows going left to right:

- 100w uvb
- 100w white basking
- 100w red standard bulb (the basking to the left and the window to the right male the glow less red)

Everything in the tank was washed and I made sure that all stacked/balanced objects are secure and can easily bare his weight.

He's just been basking there for about six hours and hasn't eaten today. But I think that's okay. He spent last night on the bathroom sink in his old tank and then had to stay there for all morning in insufficient heat and weird light because I wanted to get his new tank as close to perfect as I could first before moving him in.

So I figure he's just enjoying the heat, more uvb then he's experienced before and looking down in kind of shocked confusion at a giant strange world.. He was just starting to learn he had to actually catch crickets in his other tank. This one is way bigger with a ton more hiding spots. I'll probably have to go back to trying to actively corals and herd refrigerated crickets to him one at a time again for awhile.

See how tiny he is? I bought him on March 22nd!

I'm glad you decided to switch to the larger enclosure. That will make him happier and you'll be able to create a proper temperature gradient much more easily. I like the stack of stones you put together as a basking area. You may want to switch that to one side so you can create a basking side and a cool side and really get a proper gradient nailed down. I highly recommend you pick up either a couple of digital thermometers with probes so you can get accurate readings in the basking area and on the cool side, or pick up a temp gun like this: http://www.amazon.com/Nubee-Temperature-Non-contact-Infrared-Thermometer/dp/B00CVHIJDK

Once you have a gradient set up with about 100-105 or so on the basking area and a 75-80 cool side it should be easy for him to move about and get what he needs at a given time. I would stop using the red light as that may cause things to look distorted to him. A bright white basking light to try and imitate the sun as closely as possible while producing proper temps is what you're looking for. Using an adjustable lamp stand to adjust the height of the bulb may help dial in the temperatures.

The other big thing to set properly is UVB. I like to use a tube style UVB light because it casts a nice wide beam over the basking area which is easy to bask under. It's important to set the UVB light at a specific height over the basking area to produce optimal levels of UVB in the basking area. Different lights have different optimal heights. A T8 tube in a fixture w/reflector will have an optimal output at around 6-8'' above the basking area. It should be mounted inside the tank so the mesh top doesn't intercept the UVB. A T8 tube w/reflector has an optimal output at around 12-14'' above the basking area and is powerful enough to shine through a mesh top without an issue. The coil bulb you have now is likely similar in output to the T8 so I'd set it about 8'' above the basking area for best results.