Hi all
After several weeks of research and planning we've now a 5 month old bd, named Dave (my son's chosen it so.....!).
We've a 46x20x20 vivarium and have set everything up properly - basking spot, cork hide, Beardy Life substrate, digital therms, thermostat, T5 Arcadia UVB strip etc etc. The dragon was purchased from a local reptile specialist store who had them on sand so I felt ok with a 'loose' substrate'
We did have a 75w basking spotlight on his basking spot, and this reached 105/110 happily (cool end was 82/85), however the bulb seemed to be mostly dimmed.
We then changed to a 50w basking spotlight with basking temps 105 and a 85 cool end - Dave seems absolutely fine and is happily gaping on the basking spot, moving round the viv and hunting etc.
With the 50w bulb the light remains on constant with no dimming (I put this down to the lesser wattage than the 75W), which I think (correct me if I'm wrong) gives more UV over the mostly dimmed 75w bulb.
However, with the 50w bulb the viv is taking around 2-2.5 hours to get to the 105 basking heat. The heat light comes on via a timer at 6.30am with ambient temps starting at 78. During this time, Dave is quite happy moving and we feed him about 1.5 hours after the heat light comes on.
My question is - does a 2-2.5 hour 'warm up' time affect anything? Once the 50w has hit 105 it tends to stay at that all day, maybe going 108 at a point or two.
I feel that having a 2.5 hour warm up is offset by Dave having a full brightness UV bulb until it switches off a 8.30pm, rather than a 75w that gets to temp in an hour but then is dimmed at least half the day!
Any advice or help from you would be very much appreciated!
After several weeks of research and planning we've now a 5 month old bd, named Dave (my son's chosen it so.....!).
We've a 46x20x20 vivarium and have set everything up properly - basking spot, cork hide, Beardy Life substrate, digital therms, thermostat, T5 Arcadia UVB strip etc etc. The dragon was purchased from a local reptile specialist store who had them on sand so I felt ok with a 'loose' substrate'
We did have a 75w basking spotlight on his basking spot, and this reached 105/110 happily (cool end was 82/85), however the bulb seemed to be mostly dimmed.
We then changed to a 50w basking spotlight with basking temps 105 and a 85 cool end - Dave seems absolutely fine and is happily gaping on the basking spot, moving round the viv and hunting etc.
With the 50w bulb the light remains on constant with no dimming (I put this down to the lesser wattage than the 75W), which I think (correct me if I'm wrong) gives more UV over the mostly dimmed 75w bulb.
However, with the 50w bulb the viv is taking around 2-2.5 hours to get to the 105 basking heat. The heat light comes on via a timer at 6.30am with ambient temps starting at 78. During this time, Dave is quite happy moving and we feed him about 1.5 hours after the heat light comes on.
My question is - does a 2-2.5 hour 'warm up' time affect anything? Once the 50w has hit 105 it tends to stay at that all day, maybe going 108 at a point or two.
I feel that having a 2.5 hour warm up is offset by Dave having a full brightness UV bulb until it switches off a 8.30pm, rather than a 75w that gets to temp in an hour but then is dimmed at least half the day!
Any advice or help from you would be very much appreciated!
