confused about lighting! please help.

[moongypsy]

hello!

I just got my dragon and I'm still not done setting up her tank.
I will be getting her UVB light today, but she has her heat lamp all set with a place to bask hide if she likes.

I'm confused about the lighting because I keep reading different things, so my questions are:

+ once i get the UVB light, Do i just turn it off at night and every time she sleeps?

+ Even though I live in So Cal, my bedroom can get pretty cold at night and I read somewhere that if the room gets below 50 degrees then I must keep the heat lamp on. So i did that (the light is red) . So my question is, am I doing it right? Is it okay to keep the heat lamp on all night so she stays warm (but of course have the UVB light off) ?

During the day when the UVB light is on, aren't I supposed to keep the heat lamp on as well or am I supposed to turn that off at times during the day?

I also read this: "You typically want to give a reptile 12 hours with lights and 12 hours without." - so this kind of ties back to my question about keeping the heat lamp on. Does the 12 hours with and without only apply to the UVB light?

any other tips, much appreciated.

ALSO, she's been asleep from 8 or 9pm last night until now. It is now 11:15am. Do i just let her wake on her own? Can I pick her up while she's asleep or will that make her mad?

thanks!
edit I found this: "DAy time heat should be about 95-105 basking, 90 on hot side, 75-80 on cool side. Night time temps should be about 65-70 F. UVB sould be turned off at night. and so should any lights even red ones (they can see the color and its like sleeping with the lights on)"

then I also found this which is what i did: "if it is the only source of heat then yes."
^^
So if I were to turn off the red heat lamp that I have at night, won't she freeze and possibly die since it's cold in my room? So if someone could please clarify this for me to make it better for her, I would appreciate it.

 

[BeardieGrandma]

Hi,
I live in So Cal too, so we have the same climate for the most part.

I keep the lights (all the lights - basking and UVB) on ~13 hours a day. They are on timers, go on at 5:15 AM, and turn off at 7:30 PM. Her basking site is 101, hot side of tank is about 90ish, cool side is 78-80ish during the day. At night, all the lights go out. Lighting interferes with beardie sleep, so no colored heat lamps at night. I have her in a 40gl breeder that's 36" long so she has a 24" reptisun 10.0 UVB along the back of her tank and a 100 watt heating bulb over her basking spot. I sometimes use a secondary heat lamp on the cool side to warm her tank up in the AM, and then set it back on a dimmer to keep the gradient temp on the cool side at no more than 80.

At night I have a heat pad, stuck on the back of the tank, that turns on with a timer when the lights go out, and turns off when the light comes on. At night the warm side is about 72, the cold side is about 67. We keep our house temps at 69 degrees right now.

I know the lighting thing can be confusing, I kept reading all sorts of posts too trying to figure it out...

here's a pic of my setup, if that helps: