My new buddy Syd

[extric8]

Hi All,

First off, I want to thank everyone for all the valuable information I've obtained from this site! I'm a new beardie enthusiast and have learned so much thanks to you all! This is Syd; I purchased him from a pet store on Feb 28th. . I have him housed in a 40 gallon breeder tank with a 160watt Powersun MVB and a 150 watt ZooMed basking light. Warm side ambient air temp of about 90, basking area around 105, cool side at 80. He has a voracious appetite and easily puts down 25 crickets in about 10 minutes. I'm in the process of breeding some Dubia roaches, but will continue with the crickets until my colony is better established. I have finally been able to get him eating some greens but he certainly prefers the crickets! Anyway, are there any other suggestions you guys can offer in terms of care?

Thanks,
Tony

 

[BG23]

Hello your little guy is beautiful. Love the colors. Is there anyway you can post a pic of the whole setup, you said that your using a MVB and a basking bulb so I'm curious as to how this it set up usually a MVB is all you need since it's a combination of both heat and uvb. Here's my setup which is the same size as yours and hello from my girl Sliptornavich!

 

[extric8]

According to the manufacturer of the MVB, the bulb needs to be a minimum of 14 inches from Syd. At that distance I was only getting temps in the low 90's so I incorporated the basking bulb as well. I tried a CHE but that didn't work all that great. I'm hoping this will be fine because I literally have hundreds of dollars wrapped up in light fixtures and bulbs that I can't use in order to get the necessary temps and UVB exposure. Good looking girl you have there BTW!

For whatever reason I can't figure out how to attach the picture I just took...must have gotten lucky the first time. Anyway, I'll try to describe how I have the MVB and basking bulb set up. The MVB is on a stand so that it is about 15 inches away from Syd's basking spot. The basking bulb sits on top of the screen top just to the right of the MVB. Hope this paints a good enough picture for you. I'll continue to try to figure out how to upload the darn pic!

 

[BG23]

Yea I understand I had issues too at first just go to the sites picture uploaded from the pull down tab on the top left it will say user picture upload at the bottom of the tab and when you chose a new file it might not upload at first but just refresh the page and it should work.

 

[extric8]

Ahhh, thank you!!

 

[BG23]

No problem I really like your tank the only thing I would suggest is just getting a tube uvb people seem to be much happier with those but it's up to you. Also the tank needs to be totally lit up see how it's dark on the right side I would put another light to make it bright I did the same tbi G at first and when I put the other light there it changed how my girl acted tremendously. Everything looks great tho.

 

[extric8]

I have a tube UVB, a Reptisun 10.0. The problem is that I am unable to mount it inside the tank. There aren't any cut outs in the screen top for the cord to some through. When I had it sitting on top of the screen, I was measuring next to nothing in terms of UVB exposure. Thanks for the advise on the additional light!

 

[Dragonmommie]

I have a 40g as well. I mounted the ReptiSun under the metal screen in the middle. I have a fixture from Walmart and placed screws through the metal top so that I could attach it that way. The cord comes off the side where the screen bends so it's not caught directly under the screen. I'd take a pic, bu she's asleep. If you're interested in seeing, I can tomorrow.

 

[HKzForDayz]

Using a seperate basking bulb in conjunction with a MVB bulb is not uncommon, however if youre going to use a MVB i personally would recommend using a higher quality bulb such as a megaray or an arcadia. Supposedly powerson has gotten their stuff together in recent years, but for as long as i have been into reptiles i have heard of problems with powersuns, id personally prefer to be on the side of caution. You could also switch out the MVB bulb for a t5HO fixture if you were wanting a tube setup, t5 optimal distance is 12-14" from bulb and they generally do much better through screens as long as you get a fixture w/reflector.

Just my .02 though, my issues with powersuns have turned me off of all mvb bulbs for life, i stick to the t5 arcadia 12/reptisun 10s.