I am a new beardie owner & feeling overwhelmed with all the information out there. I just picked up Fireball on Saturday, so I’ve only had him a few days. He’s a year old. I have him in a 40gal terrarium. My biggest concern is temperature because I keep my house around 64 degrees. I haven’t been able to get him to eat his greens yet, but he loves dubia roaches.
My house stays around 64 degrees. His terrarium has under tank heating pads. He has a 40-gal terrarium with the following:
ZooMed deep dome light fixture on top of screen with 100-watt basking bulb
2 light fixtures with daytime bulbs **
Zilla basking platform ramp
Hut (he sleeps under this)
** I’ve replacing these with light fixture that fits under screen & holds the Zoo Med ReptiSun 10.0 UVB T5HO 24 watt 22” Reptile Lighting Fluorescent Tube
Hello and Welcome! I would lose the under tank heating sources. I use those for my python, but don't recommend them for beardies. If you need to increase the heat in either end I would recommend using ceramic heat emitters from the top (if needed/and you cant get the gradient right with your basking bulb only). The CHE can also be used at night to keep warm if your temp drops too low. They don't put out any light so are your best option for over night heat if needed. It sounds like you are on the right track for your UVB light. Just remove the under the tank heating (in my opinion) and generate your heat from above plus your UVB and you are good. Get some good digital thermo/hygrometers and place them on both ends to measure the gradient. Should be about 80ish on cool end and gradually warm up toward other end with a basking spot in hot end of 105ish. I recommend getting an infrared thermometer to measure spots throughout the enclosure. You can get one on Amazon for about $15. Use this to measure the temp on your basking spot and elsewhere.