My question is, how far is too far for a uva basking bulb to be away form the beardie. Right now I’m about 11 inches from the basking location and still 117 degrees. I hate to put the light any further up and the beardie not get the correct amount of uva! Please help!
Hey Brandon! Thanks for responding. I’m picking up my beardie tomorrow and just want to get everything squared away before he enters his new home. It is not my only bulb. My basking bulb 100w is directly over the basking area (obviously) but a little high in my opinion, 11 inches! I do have a fluorescent uvb bulb mounted in the tank as well and and on the cool side I have a 100w regular house bulb just for lighting. I have a ceramic heat emitter in the center of the tank more more towards the cool side and when that was on it was upwards of 125 degrees in the basking area. So I shut it off and it’s only down to around 115-117 now.
So is the basking bulb an MVB bulb, or just a regular heat bulb?
If it's not a MVB, it's not going to be producing much UVA anyways, your UVB bulb will be producing the bulb of your UVA. So if that's the case, just get a wattage size and put it at a distance that gives you the temperatures that you need. That's the important part.
You will probably want to lower your basking site a bit too. Your basking bulb wattage is too high, temperatures are too much. I wouldn't be concerned with the UVA (or lack of) that the basking bulb provides.
What UVB bulb do you have? That will determine the distance that it needs to be from your basking site.
Do you use digital with probe end thermometers? Only asking because I see the dial stick ons.
Here’s a picture of the basking bulb I have. And isn’t the basking bulb that produces UVA essential for their digestion of calcium and vitaminsD3? And the UVB bulb is the 10.0 and I do have the probe at the top of the basking location.
Nope you have it backwards, the UVB is what allows the skin to synthesize Vit D and absorb Calcium. A basking bulb has 1 purpose, and that's to provide the proper temperatures in your tank. It has UVA in it, but so does every other lightbulb in the world. The UVB bulb produces the bulk of the UVA and UVB as it's designed to output UV.
If you are using the 100w and it's getting your temps that high, you might want to try the 75w or even the 50w. You could even use a regular household bulb if you wanted. Many of us do. Like I said, as long as it gets you the temperatures you need, you're golden.
Awesome, thanks for the help Brandon! I was unaware of the 10.0 producing UVA as well. This is a relief knowing I don’t have to sweat the basking bulb other than just for temps!
So since the T5 is much stronger than the t8, it's ideal distance would be 12-15 inches unobstructed. 8 inches would be the number if it were to be mounted ontop of the mesh.
I would look into perhaps changing how you have it setup. You also want it to be higher than the basking site (it looks about the same height in your picture, could just be the picture) that way it's not shining directly into their eyes. UV is necessary, but it can also be damaging. So if it's overhead, their eyes are protected.