New Setup Looking for Recommendations.

[ASneakyFatman]

Hello all.

I haven't kept any kind of reptile for a long time so the whole serup thing was fairly new to me. At least the UVB thing was.

After doing a lot of research, I ended up with what you see here.

I got the terrarium off a guy on craigslist in a trade for an aquarium. It is a 40B. I have made my own screen top out if some polyurethane grid sheeting that would normally be used in shop lighting. I mounted the UVB strip light inside the tank for maximum exposure. I have a mini halogen for heating purposes/basking spot. I had to cut a small hole in the grid to keep it from melting completely.

I will be cutting up some leftover flooring that I have laying around to make a tile floor. I will have to run a bead of silicone through the middle. I assume aquarium safe silicone would work.

Is there a way I could make the cave more suited for sleeping at night. I was thinking I could add something like the reptile carpeting to the floor in the cave.

Still a ways from actually getting the beardie itself. Wanting to make sure I do this right. All comments greatly appreciated

 

[Onlymediocre]

You could put reptile carpet under the cave, or give your beardie a small blanket to sleep on, I wrap mine up in washcloths cause they are still both pretty small. And I put them to sleep on their hammocks. The UVB you have is the reptisun 10.0 tube or the arcadia 12% correct? IDK about the halogen bulb? I use a basking bulb from the pet store, cause Id bought one b4 I found out you can use a reg old fashion clear household bulb. I ran silicone around the edges of my viv after I had grouted the tile, but I made my viv so IDK if that would be dif in an aquarium or not (i guess you wouldnt want it as a permanent fixture? maybe not even seal it at all so they are easy to remove and clean?). Aquarium silicone will be fine, I used the GE silicone 1 for doors and windows..and make sure you give it plenty of time to air out. The only thing I can see in the pic that I would change, is you need to have ur thermometer probe on the basking spot to get a proper temp, also do you have another probe for the cold side? and a humidity gauge?

 

[ASneakyFatman]

The light fixture is zilla 50.

The temps are 78-80 everywhere except the basking spot which is currently reading just under 150°. Will probably need to get that exchanged for the smaller watt version.

 

[Onlymediocre]

150 is WAY too hot... so yea def change that. Also the Reptisun 10.0 or arcadia 12% ar ethe only UVB lights to use with beardies, all the others can cause problems.

 

[FranktheTank]

Yea 150 will cook your bearded dragon, a good temp is from 100-110 degrees.. I agree the reptisun 10.0 or 12% arcadia are definitely the way to go. The others have a tendency to cause serious eye problems and a multitude of other health problems. Other than that your set up looks great. Oh I would give your beardie a blanket to snuggle up in in his/her cave, they do enjoy soft things.

-Kaleen

 

[lillylizard]

Yes only reptisun or the other one. I use reptisun but i had my boy on a normal uvb light and his bottom eye lid sags now. She is on reptisun 10.0 tube bulb now but even just a reptisun 5.0 compact light did so much damage. I din't think his eyes will never be the same but take it from me other uvb lights are just plain bad.

 

[ASneakyFatman]

I traded the mini halogen bulb in today for the weaker version and the basking spot temp is currenty at 116. That isn't too hot right?

I found a 3d background online I will be getting. It will allow me to forego cutting the tile for the bottom as it was about 1" short and the background will cover it.

I looked at the reptisun 10 bulb today. Is it really necessary to change it over? I did a bit of reading on the zilla fixtures and it seems that the only hard info I could find on the subject was older and applied to the t12 bulbs.

If it turns out that the issue is just with the light intensity couldn't you just adjust a timer to turn off at 15 minute intervals?

When you say give them a blanket do you mean like a child's blanket, (the soft fuzzy ones) or something like a dish towel? Is there anything I should avoid?

Sorry for all the questions. Thanks to those that reply.

 

[Onlymediocre]

116 is still a bit high, anyway you can raise the light a little, or lower the basking spot... or you could pick up a dimmer switch to put on the bulb so you can adjust it where you need it...

IDK about the zilla bulbs, all I know is the reptisun 10.0 or arcadia 12% are the best.. i DO know i see a lot of ppl post on here with variuos problems with their dragon, and LOTS of times they switch over to the reptisun or arcadia and the problems go away...SO Id say its safe to say those bulbs still have issues. You can pick up the Reptisun 10.0 tube bulb pretty cheap at petmountain.com...but once I tacked on the shipping I found it was cheaper for me to order one on eBay. Theres a guy that has them listed on there all the time, he only deals in reptile supplies (and fish stuff) and he sells his for 29.99 buy it now with free shipping for the 24". He has the other sizes too, all around the same price range...

Any blanket would do, some ppl use big fuzzy ones, some dont.. mine currently sleep wrapped up in a wash cloth, or one of my t-shirts.