My first enclosure - so far so good?

[Potts]

Looking good, the only thing I have to say and its of personal choice, add a fake plant in the corner. Just make sure he doesn't eat it .

 

[DeweysMom]

Looking good so far Steve. I see you got one of the enclosures that I was originally planning on getting. How does the rock background look in person? I saw one of the smaller models on display and I was pretty disappointed with it how it looked so I decided to go a different route. Hopefully you'll get your temps right soon. I'll be toying with this myself soon. Can't wait!

 

[diamc]

Hello Steve, I was going to suggest that add another bulb on the cool side and use a taller basking area, I see you are exactly doing that now. Make sure you wait about 45 min for the temps to stop rising before deciding the final temps. Another thing to keep in mind is that the MVB's have a 2 to 3 day burn in time so the temps will be hotter the 2nd & 3rd day. Also make sure the probe end is actually resting on (touching) the basking log. You might need to use a piece of scotch tape on the wire near the probe but not touching the probe itself. Would also be a good idea to push the thermometer part as far to the cool side as possible to get completely accurate readings. Those AcuRite thermometers are great, I have 2 of them and they register very close to my temp guns. What are you getting for a humidity reading?

 

[SlabOMeat]

Looking good so far Steve. I see you got one of the enclosures that I was originally planning on getting. How does the rock background look in person? I saw one of the smaller models on display and I was pretty disappointed with it how it looked so I decided to go a different route. Hopefully you'll get your temps right soon. I'll be toying with this myself soon. Can't wait!

The rock backgrounds are pretty lame looking, but they will make a good starting point for doing the fake rock recipe in the articles section. The biggest problem with them IMO is the crappy slapped on paint job.

 

[sbattisti]

Hello Steve, I was going to suggest that add another bulb on the cool side and use a taller basking area, I see you are exactly doing that now. Make sure you wait about 45 min for the temps to stop rising before deciding the final temps. Another thing to keep in mind is that the MVB's have a 2 to 3 day burn in time so the temps will be hotter the 2nd & 3rd day. Also make sure the probe end is actually resting on (touching) the basking log. You might need to use a piece of scotch tape on the wire near the probe but not touching the probe itself. Would also be a good idea to push the thermometer part as far to the cool side as possible to get completely accurate readings. Those AcuRite thermometers are great, I have 2 of them and they register very close to my temp guns. What are you getting for a humidity reading?

More great info, thanks. I hadn't known about the "burn-in". I adjusted the thermometers again a bit, and will leave the lamps on today while I'm at work. Yesterday I had it up to 79.5 and 92.5 using the Mega-Ray and a regular 60W bulb.

I forgot to check the humidity, but if I recall, it was in the 30% range.

Oh, and we'll certainly get a plant eventually. I feel kind of eh about the background, but as far as plants and backgrounds go, I just want to get the basics right first so we can bring the beardie home!

Thanks again for all of your help!

Steve

 

[sbattisti]

Argh, so I came home for lunch today. Lights have been on all morning, about 4+ hours. My readings are:

Basking: 91.8
Cool: 75.2
Humidity: L0% (???)

*grumble*

I can try replacing the 60 w regular bulb with my Mega-Ray heat projector. But after that, I'm out of heating options. If that doesn't work, am I basically looking at needing a stronger MVB bulb? If that's the case, should I go from 100 w to 160 w. From there it leaps to 275. I can't imagine needing that!

Thanks again,

Steve

 

[Potts]

One solution I can think of is going for the higher rated bulb and using a dimming thermostat. They can cost a lot but make life so much easier. If you got one per bulb they would get your temps spot on and keep them that way. If you did go for the high rated bulb then the stat would use it as needed but before you go investing in more kit try the 160W.

http://www.eurorep.net/habistat/dimming.htm

I have the top one of the two, it cost me £67 and works like a charm.

 

[diamc]

One thing to keep in mind is that you can't use a thermostat on a MVB. Steve, what are the dimensions of your tank?

 

[sbattisti]

36" l x 18" w x 18" h

 

[diamc]

I checked those dimensions here http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/conversions/ and it's equal to a 50 gallon tank. I'm very surprised that you aren't getting higher temps with a 100 watt megaray and a 60 watt bulb. Must be because your house temps are at 60 degrees. I'm using the same Megaray in a 55 gallon with the distance at 14" from the basking spot and get a temp of about 104, I also use a 40 watt household bulb to get the cool side at 80. Of course, the dimensions of the 55 gallon are narrower at only 12" but it's a ft longer than yours. What if you try either a 75 or 100 watt household bulb alongside the Megaray?

 

[sbattisti]

*sigh*

I've put the heat projector up next to the MegaRay, and when I get home from work I'll see what that did and report back.

Of course, I guess there's always the possibility that the thermometer isn't reading correctly??

 

[diamc]

Yes, let us know what readings you have when you get home.

That thermometer is very dependable. How old is yours and have you replaced the batteries lately? If not, you might want to try that. If the humidity is still reading "low" then you need to put a water dish, wet washcloths or something similar in the viv to raise the humidity so that you will at least get a readout.

 

[sbattisti]

Brand new thermometer & batteries.

What should the humidity be for a beardie?

 

[diamc]

Well, there are differences of opinion but I prefer 35 to 45 because if the humidity in my beardie's tanks drop much lower than that, they have a real hard time shedding especially the adults.

 

[pimmsoclock87]

i used to have that exact same viv when i first got my beardie (came as a bearded dragon start up set from pets at home)

I had the exact same problem getting the temperature right, heat was escaping quicker then i could get it heated! i had 150w basking lamp and a 100w house bulb and was still getting no where near the right temps. in the end i sold it to a mate for his bird eating tarantulas and bought a new viv.