Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I dug through the archives, but I'm still a little unsure....

My wife and I are soon to purchase a frilled dragon, after researching dozens of interesting possibilities it won hands down . For a temporary habitat we've aquired a 100 gallon aquarium with the dimensions 18" deep, 48" wide, and 24" high. The 100 gallon tank has two openings of 16.25" X 22.25". We have established a maximum purch at about 16.5" with plenty of climbing available.

This will be our first reptile and I am concerned about getting the lighting and heat right since we intend to buy and raise a young (possibly month or two old) Frillie. We've found plenty of information on general care and feeding of the frillie and I know exactly (within a range) the temperature necessary; but not how to achieve it within our enclosure, and I want to be sure that I'm doing the right thing.

So I've seen a lot on the Mucury Vapor UV Floodlights, but based on what I'm reading it seems this may be overkill for the application?

We were thinking about the ZooMed Slider hood since it would provide the most options for lighting/heating with the secondary effect of not having to build a screen cover, all of the following lighting would keep that in mind, along with the fact that Exo-Terra seems to hold the Seattle market pretty well.

Would a high UV fluorescent (such as the Exo-Terra Repti Glo 8) provide enough UVB for the Frillie? The maximum distance would be 24" but the Basking spot would be well within the 8-10" recommendation. This would be paired with an incandescent basking lamp during daylight hours.

Additionally since we will most likely have 2 of the hoods we would use a light more suited for viewing/Frillie eating on the cool side (Like the Repti-Glo 2.0).

Does anyone have an idea how _much_ heating is necessary to keep the proper temperatures in a 100 gallon Terrarium (95-100 Basking and 70-80 Coolzone)? Would we need another mild heat lamp on the cool side? Should we consider an undertank heater? I expect winter temperatures to drop to 50 in our house. Summer hovers around 70.

Since we would have plenty of outlets for additional heat lamps/elements should we choose to go with the ZooMed Hood (or is this going to be serious overkill?), what should we consider for night lighting/heating? Are Frillies sensitive to night lights the way I've heard some lizzards are? Should we use ceramics or can we use night light (red/blue) bulbs?

Thanks for any guidance you can provide!

Michael and Nikki

It is sort of hard to guess the wattage that you will need. The best thing to do is to do some tests. You can use regular house bulbs for this to figure out what wattage you will need. I would guess a 75 or 100 watt bulb for summer, then an additional bulb or higher wattage for winter. No night bulb for summer, maybe a low wattage red or black one for winter.
All else sounds good. Your uvb should be fine. I do prefer the mercury vapor, but everyone is different.
Eventually, you will want to get/construct an enclosure with more height (4 feet high is good).
Have fun!
DAna