Cool side not getting hot enought/hot not getting hot? HELP

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Hello! My bearded dragon Mushu is 5 months and he is in a 50-gallon tank currently. I have a 150w ZooMed basking bulb and only directly underneath his light, it gets to about 100-105. Whenever I use a temp gun on his log which is in the corner of his hot side it reads 85??? Is my temp gun off? The log is his favorite spot and I am worried it's not hot enough for him to digest everything. In addition, his cool side only gets to 73. Is there any more heat sources I can add to fix these temperatures. I am worried about his health!! Some one please help!
 
Hi,
You could get a heat mat by ZooMed, probably the small or medium size. Your beardie would love a heat mat underneath his terrarium.

BeardieLover1011
 

CooperDragon

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That gradient actually sounds pretty good. It's similar to what I have in my tank. You want to provide options and let them choose what they need at a given time. They tend to move around over the course of the day. If your basking area is 100-105 and you have areas around that in the 90s and a cool side in the low-mid 70s I'd say that's just about right and you're providing healthy options. You want to do the same with UVB. Have the most intense UVB be over the hot part of the basking area with a gradient down to little/no UVB on the other side (shade).
 

Beardeddtagonlover

Hatchling Member
Just need to invest a lot of time playing with the temps and trust me you need to have a lot of patience i have a 36x18x18 and i only run a 100 watt powersun i have the light fixture on a lamp stand about 3 inches above the screen my basking temps are greatvthe cool side runs between 82 to 86 my dragon never complains at night tge temps in my room are between 76 to 78 right now.[ximg]97755 3860897594[/ximg]i bought a melamine enclosure and in playing around with temps the basking is too hot i might have to put the light outside lot of testing out but once you get it youll know for the future my best advice depends how warm your room is a 100 watt mvb might be sufficient justxraisecthe basking spot or run 100 in summer 160bin winter need to test it out
 

Beardeddtagonlover

Hatchling Member
I would get another infra red thermometer i cant see how you running 160 watt bulb and the cold side is 73 unless yiur room is like 55 degrees i have 2 infrared there within 2 to 4 degrees off i mainly use just 1 i also have 2 snakes and i check with a probe thermometer as well.
 

Beardeddtagonlover

Hatchling Member
hey i found out that infra red guns are not really accurate to check basking temps use a probe thermometer infra red is good for checking ambient temps but not for hot spots i use a probe to check the warm hide on both of my snakes the probe is saying 105 for my dragon while the infra red only says 97.0 but infra red are awesome to check ambient temp.
 

MushuDaBeardie

Member
Original Poster
I currently have his tank in the basement which can get pretty cold. Are there an hotter bulbs i can put on the other side of tank or??
 

Beardeddtagonlover

Hatchling Member
this is a pic on my enclosure right now is in the 2nd room the temps right now are between 75 to 78 during the day and 73 to 76f at night.
97755-4703527633.jpg
Mushu well is a task ahead of you but it can be done as long as you have the temps on the basking area in check for the other side of the tank i recommend a heat emitter to warm up the other side of the tank but it does not have to be that warm 78 to 80 degrees so if yours is staying at 73 raise it 5 to 7 degrees more but i would not recommend running a CHE without a good thermostat proportional thermostats are the best you can get cheap ones but myself i use Vivarium electronics there not cheap but there worth the prize also herp stats make them my local pet shop uses them and they seem to run fine if you basement gets that cold you should be running heat emitters on the tank when they lights go out anyways the enclosure should not fall below 75 degrees at night.or you can try running a oil based heater near the enclosure maybe ill warm it up a bit,in my experience keeping good temps inside the enclosure has a lot to do with room temperature.
 
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