basking light question

[acpart]

I'm about to get a 6 year old dragon who is either an extremely small beardie, or, more likely, a Rankin dragon or cross (she's reportedly only 6-8" long). I haven't seen her in "person" yet so I don't know exactly which species she resembles. I'm setting up a 20 gallon long Visionarium for her which will have an 18" fixture with full spectrum florescent. The question is whether I can use a halogen 20w puck light for the basking feature. I use this successfully with my day geckos, who are, obviously, much smaller. My full-sized beardie has a full-sized basking light with a 75 w reptile flood light. Do you think the halogen puck light will have too small and focused a basking area? The reason I'm considering it is that I'm needing to fit the lighting into the recessed cover of the Visionarium (the enclosure is in the middle of a shelf unit) and there's not enough room for a standard dome light.

Aliza

 

[CooperDragon]

I haven't used the halogen puck lights. How much heat do they put out to the basking spot from where they are mounted?

 

[acpart]

Here are the temperatures from my day gecko cage, taken with a temp gun:

This cage has a piece of bamboo running the width of the cage about 2-3" under the light

--directly under the halogen light on top of the bamboo: 118.9F

--several inches horizontally from the halogen light also on the bamboo: 93.5F

If you know of any fixtures that would take an appropriate light that are only about 3-4" high, that would be helpful. I have heard bad things about using compact florescents with beardies, so obviously I'm going to stay away from that.

Aliza

 

[CooperDragon]

I used ceramic dome fixtures suspended above the tank and adjusted for appropriate heat. The basking area temp you described sounds OK if not slightly hot. Perhaps someone on here has had more experience with this type of lighting and can provide further information.

 

[timisimaginary]

for your tube fluorescent, make sure it's a Reptisun 10.0 UVB tube. the full spectrum bulbs do not output UVB, full spectrum only refers to the (human) visual spectrum, not the UVB wavelengths.

 

[acpart]

Yes, I only use the reptisun 10.0, though this dragon (remember, very small) will be in a Visionarium which is equivalent to a 20 long but a bit shorter in height. Consequently I'm considering a reptisun 5.0. I just found that visionarium sells a screw-in light fixture so I"ll probably get that for the basking.

Aliza