Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What watt bulb do you guys think is good to keep my 40 breeder well heated with a good hot spot? The tank is in normal room temperature.
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Grunngg@yahoo.com

anything from a 75-150W bulb.

It is very hard to say what wattage would work as we know nothing of the kind of tank you have, what sort of cover, substrate etc and what 'normal' room temp you have. What is normal for me may be 10F higher or lower than what is normal to you. Also, how much do your room temps fluctuate during cold days or warm days?

Something else I have noticed is alot of light bulbs being made are more energy efficient and often what this means is it no longer produces as much heat as an equivalant watt bulb from 5 years ago. Since I recently picked up a bearded dragon, I have noticed even a 100 watt bulb didn't heat up the basking spot very much.

So when buying bulbs, look for the ones that are the least energy efficient. I think they have a rating based on luminescent or 'candle power', the higher this value compared to teh wattage means more effecient light. Though you don't want the light to be practically 'dark' either, as lizards need that light to respond to.

For my blue tongues they have a 40-60 watt bulb (lower is used during summer) for their hot spot and that works well so far. However their cage is about the same as a 30gal long. Haven't moved them into their adult cage yet...which should be in the next month or two, once I build it and get it all set up.
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PHLdyPayne

buy a temp gun to be sure of temps...

www.tempgun.com
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1 Eastern Blue Tongue Skink
2 Tarahumara Mountain Kingsnakes - Knoblochi
1 Thayer's Kingsnake - Thayeri
2 Golden Greek Tortoises
1 Pyxie Frog - 14 years old