Ok, so ive tried just about every bulb under the sun and my cool side still isnt under 80F its reading 86ish. My tank has 5 vents and is 48x21x18(whd) "'s atm I have a 75w bulb and the basking temps seems ok about 104F but the cool side is too high still, anyway of getting it down? its a wooden viv and i have a hole cut out the top to sit a dome into with a wire grill underneath to hold it.
Also what other bulb wattage do people use for that size of tank? not sure what it is in gallons.
I think the cool end should be around 78-80.
You may want to try a small fan or something to cool it down a little on that end. We have a computer fan in the end of one of ours vivs that was too warm.
What is the temp of the room? I was having probs when my room was about 85 in the day.
I have the same size tank, and i built a platform so she could get 6inches from the UVB, i found a 40 watt R63 bulb works perfectly (100-105 in diff sots on the platform, 90 at the edge of the platform, and 80 degrees at the cool side) of course this depends on the room, but if you can raise the basking spot and lower the wattage of the bulb you may get slightly cooler reading for the cool side.
Ah good to hear. Yeh my room is roughly 23C or something not sure what that is but must be near 80F so i try and leave the window open to help cool the tank down. yeh I had a 100w megaray bulb in and the cool side was like 88F now with a 75 watt it is about 82-83ish, should be Ok once the british summer is out the way. I'l try your idea out and put in a 60w maybe and just raise the basking spot higher which will also get him closer to his UVB.