lighting help please.

[Theelser]

I have run in circles trying get the proper UVB light for my bearded dragon.

At the advice of petsmart we had a coil 5.o reptisun I believe, which I found out is the reason he refuses to open his eyes now.

So I went and spent all of my money on a 10.0 t8 UVB ( Reptisun), and I didn't have enough for the hood ( which I dont get why it's like $65). I'm only 18 I don't have much money for that!!!
Instead I went to homedepot and purchased a cheaper fixture, But now the light emitting from the bulb seems to be too low. I don't know if it's supposed to be that low, but it seems too low that it's not even close to lighting anything at all!!!

HELP!!!

I have an All-Glass Aquarium 15w aquarium lamp that I was wondering if it would be safe to use or should I just not try and wait to find an alternative, and if so what do I do? My bearded baby needs the UVB but I just can't afford to get him the expensive hood and I'm stressing out because everything seems to be failing, I have run in circles for 3 days trying to fix this. In the meantime do I keep the coil light on or off? Ehhhh... please help...

 

[Theelser]

The last one isn't coil, I just forgot to change the paper. It's the new one, the 10.0 linear UVB. the brightness looks different once it's in his tank, it seems to do nothing

 

[Theelser]

This is the 10.0 t8 linear with out the basking light on, It seems to be doing nothing to me...

 

[CooperDragon]

You will need a basking light in addition to the UVB light. Does that T8 fixture have plastic in front of the bulb? If so, it will need to be removed so there is nothing between the bulb and your dragon. Plastic will intercept all of the UVB. A T8 should sit about 6'' above the basking spot to be effective.

The 5.0 compact won't be useful at all for a dragon because they just aren't powerful enough. If you want to use that fixture I suggest getting a 26w UVB200 which has a similar output to the T8 and should sit 6-8'' above the basking area.

You will need a basking light that produces heat and bright white light. A dome fixture with a PAR38 halogen flood light should work. You can pick up both at a hardware store. It's important to get a proper heat gradient so you'll want to measure surface temperatures using an IR temp gun or digital thermometers with probes (one for each side) like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0017N8W90/
You can adjust temps by hooking the light to a lamp dimmer or by raising/lowering the fixture.