75 gallon setup

[VenusAndSaturn]

Eventually i plan to get two more 75 gallons, so one for my juvenile bearded dragon and then another for my adult male and then once my tegu has her adult enclosure my adult female beardie will be moved into that one.
However since the 75 gallons are quite tall and im going to be mounting the 46" t5 10.0's on top of the screen im not sure whether i should have 8 inches of safe soil underneath the tile and possibly a small digging area or just having tile on the glass and a tall basking spot.
I've used the soil before for my tegu and she hasnt had any problems with it since its safe however i dont want there to be a problem if i did make a small digging area in the middle of the back side for my beardies.
I'm also unsure whether i should just use a 150 bulb for them or get a MVB as well so they have more uvb in case.

The 75 gallons are 48 inches long, 18 wide and 20 inches tall.

 

[Bear333]

Eventually i plan to get two more 75 gallons, so one for my juvenile bearded dragon and then another for my adult male and then once my tegu has her adult enclosure my adult female beardie will be moved into that one.
However since the 75 gallons are quite tall and im going to be mounting the 46" t5 10.0's on top of the screen im not sure whether i should have 8 inches of safe soil underneath the tile and possibly a small digging area or just having tile on the glass and a tall basking spot.
I've used the soil before for my tegu and she hasnt had any problems with it since its safe however i dont want there to be a problem if i did make a small digging area in the middle of the back side for my beardies.
I'm also unsure whether i should just use a 150 bulb for them or get a MVB as well so they have more uvb in case.

The 75 gallons are 48 inches long, 18 wide and 20 inches tall.

Hi there,

there's really no problem with having a tall tank as long as they have plenty of floor space to move as well as access to plenty of heat and light 20" is not actually that tall to begin with, so as long as they all have access to their lighting I'm sure there shouldn't be a problem. It's completely up to you whether to get a MVB or not. They can be helpful if the UVB doesn't cover a lot of the tank (which in this case yours does!), or if you don't think they're getting enough UVB. I don't think it's necessary in this situation as long as you have multiple spots for them to access their uvb. Beardie's do love to dig, so supplying them with a digging spot would probably keep them occupied and happy :wink: Just if you have jumpy, fast feeders that you release in the tank like crickets or locusts, you wouldn't want them to land on their digging area and have one of your animals scoop up a bug as well as a mouthful of dirt, so that's something to think about! Good luck

 

[VenusAndSaturn]

Im mostly worried that they wouldn't get enough uvb with it at that height, but i'll probably add some dirt in and then tile and make a few basking areas so they can choose to go higher or lower. I do feed crickets but normally i dont let the crickets roam and instead hand feed but i may buy some slabs that fit into the dig spot so if i let crickets roam in the larger tank they wont get any dirt in their system when they try to catch it.

 

[CooperDragon]

The T5 with reflector has an optimal output at around 12-14'' or so. If the basking site is further than that, you may want to use an Arcadia 14% bulb which has stronger output (I haven't measured it myself yet). You still want to provide areas with little to no UVB in case they prefer that at any given time.

 

[VenusAndSaturn]

Ah okay, so definitely going with the dirt so the tile is closer to the top so they can get closer to the uvb. Speaking of measuring the output do you know any good somewhat cheap uvb meters. I'd like to get one myself so i can see how much uvb they have left and stuff so i know exactly when to replace them or if i have to change anything. So far i haven't found anything below 200 which is a bit pricey right now since i have to save up for the 75 gallons and tile.

 

[CooperDragon]

The Solarmeters are the only ones that are worth a darn. I use a 6.5 which measures UV Index.