Lighting confusion & more - Any advice for a new owner?

[jesswade]

Hi everyone,

First off - I thought I had done all of my research before purchasing my daughter's bearded dragon. Lighting always seemed to be confusing with the different bulbs/basking/UVA/UVB, etc. I knew that they needed a cool side & a basking side.

When I went to purchase all of my supplies from the exotic store in my area, the 2 people that helped me have bearded dragons themselves. They had me get the MVB Powersun 160W bulb for my 40gal tank & a red bulb (100W) for nighttime. The warm side of the aquarium is around 90 & the cool side is at 80. That is going up, as his bulb has only been on for 1 hour now.

Yesterday was our first day having him, he's about 4 months old & he was active & ate great yesterday. The temp in his cage got up to 100, its heating up faster today. When I turned off his light last night - he climbed down off his driftwood and kinda went in circles like a dog, pushing around his bedding and went to sleep.

His driftwood is about 7 inches from the top (or he is when he is on it) but I can lower that - I think I should??

I was told by someone on another forum to purchase a lamp stand - because - when moving the top back and forth yesterday to get him out, feed him , etc. The lamp started to melt the center rod to the aquarium! My husband and I didn't realize it was plastic. The mesh screen is just fine.

The last thing that bothers me is the substrate - I had been looking forward to just using paper towels and going to home depot for some tile. At the exotic store they are on Carefresh (I used to build large cages for my guinea pigs and I don't have them anymore - wasn't really looking forward to have that stuff in my house again). The woman suggested I keep using it because that is what they are used to in the store.

I decided to use it this week until he is used to his cage - but I already don't like it. I don't want loose stuff he can ingest & it is impossible to see the crickets - although he does a great job at getting them, I just get paranoid he will miss a couple and I won't see. I know I can feed him in a seperate container.

I have the crickets in a 10 gallon - I was going to order them online - but AGAIN was told they only eat about 15 crickets a DAY?? I was prepared to feed him 3 times that. I have all the stuff to make the crickets healthy.

I orded Phoenix worms online - is that ok?

Ugh - I did this with my guinea pigs 8 years ago - went in and listened to the store person - came home and changed everything. I didn't want this happening again so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

And he is pretty grumpy right now - puffing up, etc. But he doesn't stay like that and we've only had him less than 24 hours.

Thanks - Jessica

 

[beardcore]

first off welcome. aw the joys of lighting and heating. if your house gets say lower than 70 at night id run a Ceremic heat emiter not a 100 watt re bulb. second off what size is the tank. you could always raise the light fixture. use tile or paper towel tile works best with babies.

 

[beardcore]

what are u using for a theremometer? Digital with a probe right? 12 bucks at lowes.

 

[jesswade]

My tank is a 40 gallon, not using a digital therm. but will go get one today. I will upload a photo of my daughter's set up (she's almost 13). I've had animals my entire life, but when my sister was 7 (this was 24 years ago) her lizard had a tragic end after just one night. I would be devastated because it was a heat rock and cricket disaster - so we are all well aware of those dangers.

I know the lighting is extremely important - but I also didn't know about petmountain.com - so I spent $70 on that bulb.

If I have to change the set-up I will, but if this will work for now that would be great to hear.

The heat in my apartment is not consistent. Last night I kept watching the temperature & it didn't go below 70 in the tank but then it got a little colder in my apartment so around 2am I turned on his red light.

 

[HKzForDayz]

avoid using the red light, the light actually disturbs their sleep, even if you can't tell. If your not noticing any health problems, the mvb will work. But there has been many reported health problems so as soon as you notice something you need to take that bulb off. also i would switch to tile.

what are you measuring your temps with? if your using a temperature guage or strip, those can be off by a lot. I would either go to loewes and get a digital therm with probe or my personal fav is the tempgun availble for 30 dollars at www.tempgun.com

 

[jesswade]

So what is a CHM? Is that what I should use at night? If I notice the MVB isn't good, what ares the simplest things to get? (simple to understand I mean) moving the top with the lights are a hassle - I have the zoo med dome lights - do the lamp stands work well?

 

[Buggsy]

A CHE stands for ceramic heat emitter, it produces heat but no light, very good for night!

The .?! Bulbs are not the best at the min (mercury vapour bulbs) which is what you have. In the past year all manufacturors have hade major issues and many dragons have become very ill. The siplest lighting set up would be a UVB strip, reptisun or arcadia strips only, again there are many bad brands out there but these are the trusted ones, and a household bulb for heat. With the two bulbs you can play around with wattages etc to get the best temps. You do need to change the stips every six months though.

I noticed you said is basking spot is 7 inch from the top? This will be far too close the the MVB, with a 160W (which is too much for a 40gal anyway) you need to be 16 to 18 inches from the bulb, any closer and he could get UVB sickness (as well as dehydration). I think the easiest thing to do is return the bulb now, if you've only had it a few days they should be fine to return it, if not you could always argue that bulb is not fit for purpose and get legal on them, then spend to money getting the right bulbs!

I hate it when pet shops do this to people, it happened to me also, and many on here!

Oh I would also listen to your gut and take the substrate out, and particle is not only an ingestion issue, but a sanitation one also. It would be best to get all the stress over with now then to prolong it by changing bit at a time!

 

[jesswade]

Thanks for your advice. So I'm going to call the store and find out if I can return the light (anyhow - the employee showed me where to place the light and it melted part of my aquarium - so that should make them want to let me return it).

I was going to get: a Repti-Sun UVB Strip 10.0 36"; something to plug it into; a basking bulb (I know I can use a regular house bulb too right??) I was thinking 100watt - my house will not warm up even with my heat on (should I get a large wattage?); and a CHE.

Do I leave the CHE on all day as well or only at night??

Last 2 questions about lighting. I bought 2 of the Zoo Med deep domes (they glow) for my MVB bulb and my red light bulb. One medium and one large - I probably can't take the large back - I threw out the box.

1. Can I use the domes for the regular basking bulb and the CHE??
2. If I'm using the basking bulb - how far should he be from that one?

 

[Buggsy]

Ok, the dome i think you can use fro the normal bulb, the CHE needs a ceramic fixture, it melts normal plastic ones (my local pet shop sells the fixtures with heat resistant flax for £5!)

I actually have a spare thermostat so i set it up for the CHE, it automatically turns on if the tank gets below 67 (in the cool end - so at night or this time of year really)

My basking spot is about 9" from the bulb, but when she was younger and very lively and jumpy i had to put a saftey cage around it so she didnt burn herself!

 

[jesswade]

What size CHE should I get for a 40 gal viv? So I don't need a Under the tank heater, just the CHE will be good for night?

Its like in the 20's outside and his tank has been getting down to aobut 65 - but I get up all the through the night and check it because I'm so stressed out about his temps!!

 

[beardcore]

Don't worry. So much, call your maintenance I did. One morning I woke up it was 60. They came out 7 times let just say it works now lol. I don't know where u live but its illegal to have the heat not working if its below 50.

 

[Buggsy]

It's been getting down to 10 C in the house, but with a 100w CHE on the thermostat her tank has stayed steady (im chilly though!). Bearing in mind i have a 95gal tank and thats on a thermostat so not on full whack. As with any heat bulb it all depends on your particular set up/ house etc, so maybe get a 60w and see how it goes?

Under tank heaters are actually very dangerous for beardies so i would get that out right away!