Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am converting a six foot long dresser into a bearded dragon enclosure and was exploring options for lighting. How many 10.0 compact fluorescents (the screw in kind) would it take to get good coverage for the length of the cage?

Why CFL's? Why not use linear tubes? I don't trust the CFL's to not cause eye damage.

I could, but I am having trouble finding the 36 inch shop lights as cheap as i want to find them. I can find 4 footers but then it dosent leave space enough for my incandesent heaters. Actual inside length is like 5-7. I just thoguth since im running light fixtures anyway it would be easy to run two or three more.

You can buy 4' long double bulb shoplights with plug for about $30 or less. I use these in my 5' long cages and still have plenty of room for the basking lights.

Just curious, how wide is the dresser? You don't want the cage too narrow, as this will reduce overall floor space.
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PHLdyPayne

It is 19.5 front to back and im doing a fake rock wall complete with basking shelf to increase floor space

its a little narrow, but setting up the main basking areas as part of the rock wall should help. Just be careful with putting too much shadow in the main part of the cage. You don't really want the entire bottom of the cage to be in shadow. Just something to think about when designing the rock wall and positioning the basking lights and your main cage lighting. (One reason I use the double fixtures is I have one UVB tube light and one regular full spectrum plant growing type bulb (tends to be brighter than typical florescent tubes but not overly bright...more like natural sunlight...doens't provide sufficient UVB though to use alone as a UVB source. But it certainly lights up the entire cage nicely, especially since UVB bulbs don't do that well, in my opinion.)
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PHLdyPayne