What wattage CHE to purchase?

[nsalabes]

I am so excited to be a the proud owner of an adopted beardie. Tarey is 3 1/2 years old and about 12 inches long from tip to tail. I have a 4' long enclosure which is about 60 gallons. I have a UVB and a red night lamp on the left hand side, which is the warm side). The red lamp stay on all the time and the UVB stay on during the day only. The cool side temp is about 70 and the warm side is about 100. I read on this site that a CHE is better than the red heat bulb. But I don't know what wattage to get.

Also, I have been reading that I should not have any heat lamp at night either. Is that true?
The tank doesn't quite look like this now because I have a ground walnut sand bed and the bowl has a tiny amount of water in it.

 

[CooperDragon]

Yeah I would remove the red light and replace it either with a bright white incandescent for extra visible lighting or a CHE/Heat Projector. The basking lights and the overnight/CHE is all temperature dependent. You want to have it configured so the surface temps over the basking zone are around 100-110 or so with a gradient down to about 75-80 on the other side of the tank so there are plenty of options available. Overnight, it's normal for them to have cooler temps. As long as the temps stay above about 65 on their own overnight, you don't need any additional heat. If it does get cooler, a low wattage CHE (50w up to maybe 100w) can be used to bump the temps a little. You don't need to bring them up higher than the low 70s though so it doesn't take much power in most cases. Unless it gets really cold in the house a 50w CHE should be fine.

 

[nsalabes]

So,l it looks like you are saying a 50W CHE at night would be a good idea. But, that is my only heat source (aside from the residual UVA/UVB light heat). So, during the day is a 50W CHE enough heat?

 

[CooperDragon]

No, during the day you want a bright white light to produce heat. Try a PAR38 halogen flood light. They can be hooked to a lamp dimmer to fine tune output (get as close as you can to those temp ranges I discussed by changing wattages first though - start with maybe a 60w and go from there). The goal is to produce light that imitate natural sunlight as closely as you can so bright light, heat, and UVB combining over the basking area is what you want. The purpose of using a CHE overnight is that it produces only heat, no visible light which can disrupt their sleep. As I said though, if the house stays warmer than 65 overnight then you don't need to use the CHE at all.

 

[nsalabes]

Thank you for your help. I really appreciate it.

The enclosure I have has (1) round opening where i currently have the red light. It also has (1) long rectangular opening where I currently have the Reptisun UVA/UVB bulb. I dont think I have the space in this enclosure for a third light.

I thought the UVA/ UVB was enough light to provide a "bright light" during the day. And I thought that, combined with the CHE was enough. If not, I will have cut a hole or something.

 

[CooperDragon]

OK that's fine. Go with the PAR38 halogen flood light as a basking light then and use it during the daytime.

 

[nsalabes]

Can't I use the Reptisun UVA/UVB 24" long bulb at the daytime light?

 

[CooperDragon]

The ReptiSun 10 is a good UVB light but it doesn't produce heat so you'll need to use it in combination with a bright white light that produces adequate heat.

 

[nsalabes]

I am SO SORRY to be a pain. But can't I just use the Reptisun with the CHE? I am confused.

 

[CooperDragon]

The CHE doesn't produce bright enough light to imitate sunlight. It's best for overnight use if needed. For the basking light you'll probably want something like this https://www.amazon.com/80W-PAR38-Halogen-Light-Bulb/dp/B00AKDGZXS but you may need to try some different wattages to see what temperatures are produced in your tank. The light from this combined with the light from the ReptiSun 10 will imitate sunlight and be adequate for basking.

 

[nsalabes]

Thank you for your time on this topic.

 

[Drache613]

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