Heyyy guys
I just got my babyyy beardie today, and petsmart doesn't carry repti sun UVB bulbs, so instead I bought a Zilla slim line desert fixture that has the long florescent 18 inch 15 watt bulb. Now I know that every other bulb besides reptisun 10.0 i heard was bad, is this true? and right noww, my cool side temp is 76, my basking area is 130, ( that is the closest to the light he can be, and also down below on the basking side, its 118. Im using an acurite digital thermometer just in case you need to know.
I have paper towels down as his substrate, and hes in a 20 gallon tankk
I have the zilla 15 watt bulb and it works good and I had it for about 4 months now. The basking temp seems a little bit high. You want to try to get in between 100-110 and the cool side in the 80s. Hope this helps!!
Wow, 130 on the basking spot? You definitely need to lower the bulb wattage. Even 118 is too high, shouldn't go over 110 anywhere in the tank. What wattage are you using now in the 20 gallon tank? You really shouldn't need anything higher than a 60 watt. If that makes the cool side too cool, you could see what temp you get with a 25 watt household bulb on the cool side.
The Zilla bulbs don't put out the right amount of UVB so it wouldn't prevent metabolic bone disease and could also cause some other health issues. You could order the Repti-Sun 10.0 strip fluorescent from here for a very reasonable price. http://www.petmountain.com
i have a zilla desert 50, i've never seen a bad reaction from it but today i got a 18" reptisun 10.0 bulb at the san jose reptile show to replace the original bulb in it with and i can tell you that the reptisun clearly outputs more visible light than the zilla bulb did.
Okayy thanks, I'm going to go to walmart tomorrow and get a 50 watt halogen light bulb for his basking side because right now I'm using 75 because it's all I had. Also I just ordered reptisun 10.0 18" and that should be here in a few days, but in the mean while will the Zilla bulb be sufficient enough ?
The basking temperature would be efficient if the tank weren't a 20 Gallon long... Because they are not a "tall" in height designed tank. Sounds like your doing well! 10% UVB are good when its a higher elevated tank as well and not such low in height making the UVB Bulbs so close to the beardie when its not necassary to be that close. It can damage their eyes over time. The back of the boxing that the bulbs come in have a Diagram Chart that illustrates the Dissapation of the UVB rays in Inches, so you can place the bukb exactly where you need it in order for your beardie to recieve addiquate UVB.
jcodd, if your beardie shows any signs of eye irritation, I would suggest you turn it off. He would be fine for a few days without any UVB.
When you get the fluorescent Repti-Sun 10.0, it should be within 6 to 8" from your beardie and right alongside a bright white basking bulb. If that UVB bulb is further away, it won't provide the amount of UV rays that he needs. Unfortunately, you can't go by the info on the boxes that the UVB's come in.