I have had my beardie for a day. He has a t8 10.0 desert zilla bulb mounted inside with the plastic taken off that's at most 9 inches from his main basking area. He has a "90watt" (but actually 72 watt) Philip Par38 Halogen for the basking spot. All the temps are good but I'm worried that A. the zilla sucks and B. that the halogen is too yellow and not bright white enough.
if I get a T5HO today, can I put it on the top of his metal lid? I'm worried it'll suddenly be less effective than the zilla for some reason. And should I add a third light to make the enclosure brighter? It's a 30 gallon. OR i could use my backup lucky herp t8 10.0 if it's any better?? The zilla came with the fixture.
I'm so scared to mess his eyes up or something if he lacks bright light, although I know the philip halogens are common. Any advice would be appreciated! I wanna get it figured out ASAP.
Keep the Zilla fixture ditch the Zilla bulb and replace w/ the Reptisun 10.0 T 8 --- later on invest in a 24" Zoo Med fixture w/ a Reptisun 10.0 T 5 --- distance for the T 8 should be 6-8 inches --- the basking bulb needs to be a bright white bulb no off white or yellowish bulbs --- that keeps temps 105-110 for a baby --- juvies / adults 95-100-- ditch the Lucky Herp T 8 ----
the Reptisun bulbs along w/ the Arcadia bulbs are the best on the market at this time --
Okay thank you! I am thinking about adding an LED light so that he has more Kelvins of light in the enclosure. I hope that ensures the UVB won't be harmful. The halogen I have is very bright but it's "soft white" color.
Feel free to post some pictures of his tank setup for us, just so we can double check the
distance of the lights for you.
If you are going to be using a T5 tube, then placing it on top of the screen should be fine
as long as the distance is within range. Is your screen top a fine mesh type of screen, or
are the mesh holes medium sized?