Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have my dragon in a 75 gallon tank (adult dragon) and have given up on the RHP heating idea and went with an aquaruim and bulbs. I have a reg UV strip light, one red bulb midway across the tank, and a halogin bulb on the basking spot. I need a UVB source but am undecided on the route to go as of yet. To add a UVB strip would run me out of room for my basking bulb on the top of the tank unless I can think of another way to mount the strip. I hear the compact bulbs are a waste but have no experience with them other than using them to grow plants.

Most of my experience is with large boids so dragons are new to me and I am finding that they are a vastly different type of care. I love this girl and she is so friendly so I want to be sure to do things right from the begining to keep her healthy and avoid wasting money. Almost all my supplies are excess snake equipment I have had laying around until I hit the UVB wall.

Any advice is appreciated. This is a HUGE tank and I am guessing by what I have spent reading for 3 days I only really need UVB on half of the cage which is a huge price saver. Not only that, but tube stop at 48" in UVB so the entire tank is impossible to light with UVB.

Well Im not sure of the website that states this although i have read it and I believe its been posted in this forum that the compact flourescents cause major eye problems to the animals, so I would stick with the tube light. And I've never heard they only need uvb on one half of the cage everything I've ever read said to run it the length of the tank which in your situation Im not sure how you would do that except maybe have two strip lights (Im not sure how long a 75 gallon is.)

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coheed196
1.1 raptor leos (dorito, sunshine)
0.1 beardie (scarlet)
1.1 veiled chameleon (cricket,penny)
1.1 panther chameleon (apollo, athena)
0.1 albino burmese (peaches)
1.0 pit bull (ajax)
0.1 pyrenees mix

The dimension of the tank is 75 Gallon, 48 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 21 3/8

The compact does hurt the animals eyes as does the red bulb. You may want to rethink your lighting altogether.

My suggestion is to use a MVB bulb for that size cage and to use a regular tube style bulb that well stretch most of the enclosure.

Ernie
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www.midnightdragons.net

Giving the size of your tank a 4' florescent tube is fine. I have a 5' long tank and use the 4' long tubes. The idea is to cover as much as the tank as possible with UVB rays but not every single inch needs to be covered.

The compact UVB bulbs cause major issue..how they are designed causes high UV Index rays in the tank which cause problems (why in the summer there is always warnings about avoiding high UV Index exposures when possible...it damages skin and other tissues. Lizards are the same. In nature they would stay out of direct sunlight during these high UV index periods.

From the description you gave I expect you have an aquarium lighting hood for your tank. personally I would remove that and just build your own top. Half wood half screen with a double florescent fixture suspected or screwed into the underside of the top will allow both a UVB tube and a normal full spectrum florescent light tube to increase light. Then you just need the basking bulb. Attaching a hinged section to serve as a lid for easy opening and closing for feeding, cleaning etc, can then be done.

I use the shop ready to plug in type florescent tubes but these need to be suspended by chains, which makes them a bit difficult to deal with in a top opening cage. But I am quite sure Home Depot have long screw in style under cabinet florescent tube fixtures. I just don't know if they are all single or double fixtures. If single, I expect you can just mount two, side by side. One for the UVB tube, the other for full spectrum lighting (ie normal lightening)

However, do keep in mind that not all UVB tubes can push UVB deep enough in the cage so taller ones may be better served with either the repti-sun 10.0 tubes, or a fixture suspected by chains, so you can lower it closer to the basking area (but do keep about 8" above the basking area..or other high areas of tanks to prevent dragons trying to jump at them)

www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor.htm is the site talking about the dangers of compact uvb bulbs
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PHLdyPayne

Okay I think I solved my problems once and for all. I am keeping the 48" UV bulb and light fixture that came with the aquaruim but ditched the hood. I cut a sheet of plywood that is cool side intact but hot side screened. It has a 36" UVB tube recessed inside that cage (48" tube didn't fit inside and only ontop), a ProProducts RHP in the middle of the plywood for ambient air temp which was a problem maintaining, and a 150 watt halogen basking bulb on the screen side set to 100 degrees for the basking site with probe on the high end of a wooden branch.

I currently have playsand substrate which may not last long on this planet. I have laminate flooring and there's a problem with the constant sand being tracked on the floor when you get in and out of the cage. I usually use a 25% soil, 25% sand and 50% eco earth mix but I was afraid it would hold too much moisture for a bearded dragon until it dried out which can take awhile and I was in a hurry.

Oh and btw, this entire set up is regulated with a herpstat thermostat I also had sitting from my unused snake equipment.

Please let me know if I can improve on this setup. I want this ti be a good as I can get it without breaking the bank. My husband is currently out of work and I am trying to stay on a budget with this my important new family member here

You shouldn't use an on/off type thermostat with bulbs which I think yours is. Is it? With bulbs you should use a proportional thermostat that dims and brightens the bulbs.

It's a proportional.