Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was wondering what everyone uses for heat lamps. i currently switched to ceramic heat emmitters, but they are expensive and dont put off any light, and from new advice i got thats not good. the plus side is they last along time. so i read that you could use regular household bulbs or halogen bulbs. so my question really is what kind of household or halogen bulbs to use and what wattage is good for 40 gallon breeder tanks and bigger?

Hello! Well I use zoomed bulbs but thats just because i was stupid and didnt know that you could use a regular type one or the light and the heat. As long as you have your tube light supplying the uva/uvb. I would recomend buying a few different wattage bulbs and seeing wich ones get the temps you desire. Maybe start off with a 75 watt and a 60 or something like that. I use a 75 watt zoomed light and i actually have one that directs the light more onto one spot so it doesnt spread out much but i temped it the other day and the basking spot right underneath was like 120 or higher and I think thats a lil to hot, then the other one that i have the light spreads out more and it doesnt really get as hot as i would like it to so now Im faced with trying and adjusting the height of the furniture in the cage!! Ugh!!

Good Luck!
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Mike & Wendy

2.0.0 Siberian husky, Jackrussel/schitzu
0.0.1 Ball Python
1.0.1 Leopard Gecko
4.0.0 Beta's
3.1.0 Future Herper's

You can use the regular light bulbs you get from Walmart or anyother store, but you still need to have the UVB/UVA tube, ofcourse. I read on some websites and books that said you don't really need the UVB/UVA tube for dragon as long as you supplement their diet with multivitamin with vitamin D3 by dusting their food. I've tried with some fence lizards I've caught and it work pretty well to tell you the truth. In addition I also feed the crickets nutritious food like crush dogfood and unmedicated chicken mash which has a lot of vitamin D3, calcium and protien so that crickets are nice and fat. But I'm not sure how that would work with dragons, so to be on the safe side, I'd still provide it with full spectrum lighting tube.

Hey, I've had beardies for a few years, and I've always had luck with the incandescent light bulbs that provide more naturalistic white light(Reveal or something), I think its $2.07 for a 4 pack at Wal-mart. For a 40 gallon, I'd try a 100 to 150 watt at one end of the cage to provide a proper temperature gradient, along with a 7% or higher (10% is best) UVB rated UV bulb. Just make sure to replace the UV bulb at least every 6 months. It will still produce light, but not at the correct wavelength or UV output. And remember, no artificial light, however expensive, coems anywhere close to being as beneficial as natural unfiltered sunlight!