Help with lighting please

[Mackelyn]

I know there’s a thing on here that gives you the best way to light the enclosure. I’m gonna try and go to the pet store and figure it out. It is just so confusing though. Can someone explain to me what all kind of lighting I need? And when should the lights be off and what lights get shut off if not all? I am so new to this and from what I can figure, I think the last owners set her up with bad lighting.

 

[VenusAndSaturn]

I'll go over the simple stuff first before I go over UVB.

At the very least you'll need 1-2 lights, a heat source and a UVB source, sometimes you may need a second heat source. For the heat it should be a bright white bulb that gets the basking spot to 100-110. You can use regular reptile basking lights, halogen bulbs or flood lights. Just make sure they get the basking spot correct, and provide a bright regular white light.

If you need a second heat source for during the night or just for extra heat along side your basking bulb then you can use a low wattage ceramic heat emitter (CHE). Do note that you wont need one if night time temps never drop below 65. These produce no light at all and only heat which is great for night time heating as beardies see in color, which is why you can't use red, blue, purple, black or green lights on them. Despite what packaging says on those red reptile bulbs we and them can see the color, I mean if it was truly infrared we wouldn't even see it all.

Now for UVB lighting, preferably at the very least you want a tube light that stretches over the whole enclosure or at least half of it. I usually do the whole enclosure and then offer spots with cover from the UVB if they want to get to lower levels.

I'd recommend a Reptisun T5 HO 10.0 at the very least, this can be mounted on the screen as long as you can get it within 10-12 inches of the basking spot.
However a Arcadia T5 HO 12-14% bulb may work best as they provide UVB down to about 15-16 inches.
Make sure you have a fitting reflective fixture for it.

Now for the difference between T5's and T8's. Putting it as simple as possible T5's are stronger than T8's and produce more stronger UVB. T8 10.0 bulbs are basically like T5 5.0 bulbs in a way.
Also because screen blocks out about 30-50% of all UVB it makes mounting a T8 bulb on top of the mesh screen even weaker.

Theres also compact/coil bulbs that are out there, only good brand so far has been Exo Terra for these. However even then I'd stay away from these bulbs as they are similar to a T8 tube in a sense but unlike a tube light they do not have a wide pathway of UVB meaning all the UVB they produce is only in a single spot and not exactly spread evenly.

Now for MVBs, or mercury vapor bulbs, they produce both heat and UVB. These bulbs are pretty sucky at heating...they also produce a weird color, I have two 160 watts, ones a megaray and the other a solar glo. Solar glo pretty much sucks for UVB, Megaray however seems to be quite good on that portion.
Although this seems like the perfect all in one bulb... in reality it's not. They produce weird colors that aren't too noticeable but good luck taking any good pictures of the tank or the animal inside the tank, also because beardies need a bright white light and not what this offers that also is another downside to it... and the UVB pathway/beam is pretty narrow.. but not weak, in fact it may be too strong.
MVB's are best used for monitors and tegus or just as portable basking spots. I use MVB's for my tegu, but I hate it in all honesty, the lighting sucks, the heat sucks... doesn't even get one spot to 95 sometimes at about 10 inches away (this is with both 160 watt bulbs on). I hope to upgrade her lighting setup to a cluster lighting setup and also have tube lights. A cluster lighting setup really isn't needed for a bearded dragon as they don't exceed 2 feet usually or need 110+ temperatures.. it's basically a bunch of flood lights clustered together providing a nice large basking spot.

 

[Mackelyn]

This was super helpful. Thank you. And I think you helped me figure something else out. The heat light is a red light, which I was told is supposed to stay on 24/7 by the original owners. She’s been so restless and up super late, so if I get rid of the red light then that should fix the problem.

 

[VenusAndSaturn]

Also forgot to mention how long to keep the lights on, the basking bulb and UVB bulb need to stay on 14 hours each day at the very least.

Please do get rid of the red bulb, that is most likely whats causing her restlessness as she can see it.

 

[Mackelyn]

The red light most definitely was keeping her up at night. I turned it off an hour ago and she’s sleeping now. She’s never fallen asleep this early before. Thank you so much for all your help. I made a list of better lights and things for her to go get as soon as I have the money. Let me run this by you to see if it sounds good. I’m moving her to a 90 gallon tank keep in mind. I’m going to get a flourescent light fixture to put in the cage within a foot of her basking area. That fixture will hold the UVB light. Any specific wattage I should get for that? I am also going to get a halogen flood light which will shine over her basking area. For that light, I’m thinking 100W to 160W to ensure her basking spot gets hot enough. And I am gonna get a ceramic heat emitter to ensure it doesn’t get to cold at night and to keep the temp up in the winter. I am thinking like 100W for that. Does that sound good to you?