Air temp vs basking spot temp?

[goalie75]

The air temp in his tank gets to like 90-95 during the day (on an average day) and like 85 at night. Its gotten up to 110 when its really hot out. I'm using a 150 watt ceramic heater that runs 24/7 and I use a florescent UVB bulb to provide day lighting, and he's in a 55 gallon tank.

I was thinking about buying another clamp light for when it doesn't get hot enough, but I've heard that the air temp is usually less than the actual tamp of the basking spot. Do you guys think I'm good, or should I get a second clamp light?

 

[diamc]

How old is your beardie? I'm asking because babies like it hotter than adults. It sounds like you're using stick-on thermometers, is that correct? If the air temp has gotten up to 110, then the actual basking temp is TOO hot and that's not good because that can cause over heating and rapid dehydration. So, it's crucial that you find out what the actual SURFACE temp is of the basking and cool sides.

I have one 55 gallon, the basking area is about 15" from the bulb and I get a basking temp of about 102 to 103 with a 75 watt household bulb. The ceramic heat emitters throw out more heat than a bulb so I can't imagine what your actual basking temp must be!

We also don't recommend using a CHE in place of a basking bulb because white bulbs increase their activity level and also helps to minimize the glare of the fluorescent UVB lights. What brand of UVB are you using and what is the distance of that particular bulb to your beardie?

 

[goalie75]

I'm using a Zilla Desert T8 bulb, my beardie is only a few months old, his main basking spot is about 13-14" from both the UVB and the CHE, and I am using a stick on thermometer. Idk if it makes a difference, but his basking spot is drift wood, so they might not reach the same temps as tile or something like that would..?

And the 110 air temp probably won't happen again. We just had a ridiculously hot spring day and we didn't turn the AC on.

What do you recommend I do with the lighting? If I were to just run a basking light on him, what would I do at night? He's in my bedroom, btw, so I don't want to run a red light during the night.

 

[diamc]

Unfortunately, the Zilla bulbs bulbs don't produce enough UV rays to be beneficial. I would recommend that you get this bulb and this company is great to deal with as well as having good prices: http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-fluorescent-bulbs/504983/zoo-med-reptisun-10.0-uvb-bulb.html With this bulb, it can be placed 6 to 8" from your beardie while he's in his basking spot.

The stick-on thermometers can be as much as 20 degrees off so it's very important that you get either an infrared temperature gun or a digital thermometer with a long wire & probe end as those are the only 2 ways to get accurate readings. Walmart has a digital with probe that will give both the basking & cool side temps at the same time as well as a humidity readout for about $12.00, it's the AcuRite brand. Do you have a Walmart near you? You should be able to find this thermometer in either the garden center or the area where the outdoor plastic thermometers are.

With the Repti-Sun UVB at a distance of 6 to 8" of him, you should only need a 60 to 75 watt household bulb but you might need to use a lower wattage bulb on the cool side like a 40 watt, it's hard to know for sure. Once you get a better thermometer, then you'll be able to check the temps to see if you need to go up or down on the wattage but these are what I suggest you start with. Even at a distance of 13 or 14", I worried that the CHE is way too hot right now since it's 150 watts and that is too much wattage to use at night because they need to be cooler when they sleep. If your room temp doesn't drop lower than 65 degrees, you don't need any heat at night but you could use a 60 watt CHE as that would help raise the temps up a little bit if needed.

Do these changes seem like good possibilities for you? If you'd like a picture of the AcuRite digital with probe, let me know & I can post one for you.

 

[goalie75]

Ok, so I don't have a wal mart within 45 minutes of me, so if I'm out in that area I'll stop by and pick up one of those temp probes. I picked up a 75 watt day time bulb for him yesterday morning and when I held him last night he was cold, so I switched back to the CHE.