Lighting Placement?

[Cheline101]

So I know that everyone says that the heat lights are supposed to be on one side of the tank and and other side should be colder, but i have a tank that is 6 feet long and most of that is cold with just one light on one side, so i've been putting one basking lamp on the right side with a log that gets him about 6 inches from the light, and on the opposite side I have a fake rock cave that retains heat pretty well on the bottom with a basking light on that, and the middle of the tank is around 75-80 degrees. Does this seem bad? He usually sits on the right side on the log right under the log, but right after he eats, he likes to bask on the rock on the left side. It doesn't seem to bother him, and he still has it pretty cool in the middle.

Another thing, i have a reptisun 10.0 on the side of the tank where he spends most of the time, but since the tank is so long, i would need another one to cover the other side, does that seem alright? Both of the basking lights are supposed to provide UVA... It doesn't say anything about UVB, so i figure it probably doesn't have it. Thoughts on that?

I've read book after book about bearded dragons, and I feel like I've got everything figured out except the lights...

 

[Grogshla]

hey cheline
i would reccomend say a 75 watt light on the hot side to get his basking spot to around 40celcius. I would then get a smaller wattage ceramic heat emitter for the middle of the tank to get temps to around 32 celcius give or take then leave the cool side alone.

As for the uvb tube (reptisun). For now i would sit it over the warm basking spot where the lizard will spend a lot of his time.

In the future i would invest in another tube and place it in between the cool and middle area.

The basking spots will not give off beneficial uvb. The uvb tube needs to be 8-10 inches from the dragon so he can get the benefits. Uvb does not travel through glass so you need mesh on top of your tank or you can mount the uvb lamp inside.

With the basking light i would not let the dragon get closer than 5 inches or so just for his own safety.

 

[Cheline101]

The tank i'm using is technically a fish tank so there is a plastic thing in the middle and about 6 inches of thick glass on either side of it that I can't remove, so I have a hard time with putting things in the middle. I threw away the 2 glass covers for either side of the tank and honestly didn't even use a top until I got my cats. Now I have a screen type top for it so the UV can still get in. Anyway... my point... I have a foot of glass that still covers the middle of the tank. Do you know of a way to hang the ceramic heat emmiter... I honestly don't think I even know what that is... I think I have an idea though. I don't want to make the whole thing too hot, (oh and I blew a cercuit with all of the things I have for the lizzard, you got any ideas on that? lol i had to take a light out but i seriously didn't have electricity in half my house for a while lol the things I do for that lizzard... thanks so much for your help. It seems like everybody tells me something different. I even have 2 bearded dragon books, and have to talked to the owner to the reptile store here but that guy's a rip off...