Need Advise on Setting up my Dragons Home(uvb and heat)

[theBabydragon]

This is my first beardie so please bare with me, do it to make my dragon happy, not me.

I'm tired of reading around and asking petshops for advice on my baby beardie because its just making me more unsure of how I should set up his home.That brings me here. To cut to the chase, I bought a 40 breeder to get him/her out of the temporary 10 gallon he's in with a coil bulb. Yes a coil bulb with no uvb(this is my first beardie, and petshop said its all I need. Anyways, I have the 40 breeder, now I need to know exactly what I should get for proper day heat, uvb and night heat. Ill be having AC on during the summer so I need to know what to get for night heat. I read somewhere that red bulbs mess up their eyes and/or bother them, is this true? All the nightlights I usually see are red, what do I buy?. Soo so far I've come to guessing what I need is a reptisun 10.0 tube, a day heat lamp, and a night heat lamp. Or a MVB and night time heatlamp. What's better? Please please give me brand names and specifics on what will be good enough for a 40 breeder. I also need the tube fixture (and a lid? if its not included with the tube bulbs fixture..) please, what do I buy???? :?: :study:

Thanks in advance, I know ill get the right advice here because there seems to be a lot of healthy dragon owners here. Ill post pictures when its all set, and you can see my beardie. For the record, he seems happy, loves to be handled(holds on to my hand instead of jumping bak in the tank), eats about 15 1/4to1/2inch crickets a day, and has a basking area of 100-110.

 

[jjh1]

This is my first beardie so please bare with me, do it to make my dragon happy, not me.

I'm tired of reading around and asking petshops for advice on my baby beardie because its just making me more unsure of how I should set up his home.That brings me here. To cut to the chase, I bought a 40 breeder to get him/her out of the temporary 10 gallon he's in with a coil bulb. Yes a coil bulb with no uvb(this is my first beardie, and petshop said its all I need. Anyways, I have the 40 breeder, now I need to know exactly what I should get for proper day heat, uvb and night heat. Ill be having AC on during the summer so I need to know what to get for night heat. I read somewhere that red bulbs mess up their eyes and/or bother them, is this true? All the nightlights I usually see are red, what do I buy?. Soo so far I've come to guessing what I need is a reptisun 10.0 tube, a day heat lamp, and a night heat lamp. Or a MVB and night time heatlamp. What's better? Please please give me brand names and specifics on what will be good enough for a 40 breeder. I also need the tube fixture (and a lid? if its not included with the tube bulbs fixture..) please, what do I buy???? :?: :study:

So you should get for sure the 10.0 tube and you could get a light strip so that it could be mounted inside the viv. For the basking what I use is a flood light that I got from my local hardware store gives off 120 heat but how I have it regulated with the digital temp probe its between 98-96F thats because my guys are 1 year old but babies need it about 110 but keep an eye on that because sometimes if its to hot your beardie will not want to bask.
Because you have the AC on depending on the temps beardies are okay with temps between 80-75f but if its cooler then that then you could get a black night light beardies normally like to sleep in darkness like us. What you could do is use a blanket like a baby blanket to cover at night alot of us do that makes them have a great beauty sleep.

Also getting a timer for the lights is a great thing to have so that the lights go on at a certain time for 12 hours and then go off at night.
I usually have my lights come on at 8am off at 8pm

Hope that helps you. Thats just what I have done with my male and female and they are big and healthy also spoilt lol

Thanks in advance, I know ill get the right advice here because there seems to be a lot of healthy dragon owners here. Ill post pictures when its all set, and you can see my beardie. For the record, he seems happy, loves to be handled(holds on to my hand instead of jumping bak in the tank), eats about 15 1/4to1/2inch crickets a day, and has a basking area of 100-110.

 

[theBabydragon]

Thank you for your response. i am going with the Reptisun due to its great feedback. Plus i figured out that the mvb has to be at least a foot away from my beardie, and im working with a 40 breeder which is only 17" high. when you say have the light strip inside the viv, you mean literally under the lid? I was thinking i would make a hole in my mesh lid and tie it to it. what do you think?

As for the night heat, i'm not sure that a blanket will be enough to hold the heat in the tank through the ac, so is there any night heat bulbs you can recommend to me?

 

[FBradshaw]

Don't use any sort of light at night, even the black light bulbs give off visible light that can disturb their sleep. If your temps drop below 65 degrees you can use a ceramic heating element, or CHE, to provide additional heat, but only if it gets below 65 is this needed. The CHE will screw into a fixture just like your basking bulb. During the day you will want a basking area around 105 to 100, a cool side around 80 to 85, with an overall tank gradient of about 90 to 95. The tube style UVB lamps are alot safer than MVB or the coil type, so definitely go with a tube preferably the Reptisun 10.0 or the Reptiglo 10.0. If you do use a tube you will need a white basking light to ensure proper digestion.

 

[theBabydragon]

Alright, so im getting a reptisun 10.0 and a white basking heat bulb, and a CHE.

Another question:
Would if be ok to put the CHE on his cool side so i wont have too many bulbs on that left side looking like so:

__uvb_____________
_o_bask _o_CHE

or will this setup be no good, considering it might confuse him on where the cooler side of his tank is.
(note: the CHE will only be on when the basking light and uvb is off)
Another thing..
Will having just one CHE actually heat up a 38x18x17 enough for a cold room? it worries me because i consider that i will have a mesh hood so the cool air might be going right into the tank.

 

[MikeRC]

I use a 150w CEH and keep it on the cool side of my 75 gallon tank and it adds about 10 degrees or so over on the warm side. Meaning when my temps are around 65 the CEH brings me up to 73-80 degrees. My beardie sleeps on the warm side every night and I don't think having the CEH on the cooler side bothers her.

 

[catUK]

Alright, so im getting a reptisun 10.0 and a white basking heat bulb, and a CHE.

Another question:
Would if be ok to put the CHE on his cool side so i wont have too many bulbs on that left side looking like so:

__uvb_____________
_o_bask _o_CHE

or will this setup be no good, considering it might confuse him on where the cooler side of his tank is.
(note: the CHE will only be on when the basking light and uvb is off)
Another thing..
Will having just one CHE actually heat up a 38x18x17 enough for a cold room? it worries me because i consider that i will have a mesh hood so the cool air might be going right into the tank.

I also have the CHE on the cool side for use at night. I have it linked to a thermostat to stay in the 74F range at night- i find that if left on without the thermostat the temps get too high. CHEs can get very hot and will heat up your size viv

 

[theBabydragon]

i got a thermostat and the che, i cant wait for it to be delivered so i can get this viv going .... is 80 good for a baby? or should i do cooler?

 

[Drache613]

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