UVB help

[Jsw]

My guy used to be in one of the standard 3 x 1.5 x 1.5 enclosures with the wire mesh lid and front opening doors. He had a Reptisun 10.0 T5 bulb above the wire mesh and 6" above his highest perch.

Now he's in an enclosure based on the Crossfire plans with white walls and has the same UVB bulb inside the enclosure without a wire mesh and 12"-9" above the highest perch.

He seems to be spending a lot more time in his cave, and he was already spending a lot of time in his cave. He doesn't like basking at all very much.

Could the UVB be too bright?

Is there an easy way to check that without buying a UVB monitor thing? I'm getting pretty tapped out in the bearded dragon budget. :?

 

[CooperDragon]

How long has he been in the new enclosure? It could just be stress from the change. 9'' is a bit close but 12'' is perfect with a reflector. How long is the tube vs the length of the tank? If there is plenty of gradient it shouldn't really pose a problem. You can estimate the UVB output pretty well by using the chart that Taterbug put together. Just find your combination on the chart to estimate UVI at a given distance. https://sites.google.com/site/thelizardmadness/lighting-guides You'll want to be somewhere in the area of 3-6UVI over the basking area with some shade areas available as well so there is a nice gradient available across the tank. Some small areas of high UVI are OK as long as he can get away from it if he wants to.