Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am having a difficult time trying to decide what to do? I have two beardie cages that are 22-25"deep and wanted to use the reptisun 10.0 but then heard that they are only effective for 20" below the bulb. I wanted to do that with the combination of my 100watt zoo med basking bulb, so now i'm forced to use the powersun that penetrates deeper then 20" and also another 100 watts to ring up the electric bill.

If you posted a picture of your setups it would be easier to give a recommendation.

I am going to assume you are planning to just lay the florescent fixture ontop of a screen over your dragon's cage. I suggest toss the screen completely and build a cover out of wood (leave a small opening to serve as a vent over the cool side). Mount your florescent fixture to the underside of the wooden lid. This will lower your UVB light 2-4" automatically and you won't have screen cutting out half of your UVB rays. You can also use a raised basking area to bring your dragon closer to both heat and UVB bulb.

This setup does make it inconvenient since you are likely going to have to lift off the entire lid to feed, handle etc. Thus its always best to build or buy cages that have front doors. It makes it far easier to access your dragons without needing to move the light fixtures...also you can mount the fixtures underneath the top, providing the cage is sufficiently deep enough there is no risk of your dragon getting into contact with a hot bulb (for the most part, unless the basking light is within 6" of your dragon, there is no risk of him getting into direct contact). Another benefit of a solid or mostly solid top is less heat escapes from the cage, thus making it easier to maintain proper temperatures without using really high wattage bulbs.
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PHLdyPayne

You really have 2 options. Make a lid like LdyPayne suggests so that the lights hangs down inside the enclosure. Or you can build up the floor so the dragons are closer to the top. Either should work well. I mount all of my lights inside. It is the best way to conserve heat.

You should also consider larger basking areas. They seem way to small especially for 2 dragons. You could go basic and just put slate tile on top of landscape bricks. Otherwise the cages are pretty nice looking.

The first picture of one of my enclosures. The top cage is 2' x 4' x 2'tall. But inside is a dragon that cannot use any of his arms or legs so he cannot walk or climb. What I did was make a riser so that the floor was raised closer to the lights so that he can get the benefit of the UVB bulb.

Nice, I like the tiles grouted and mounted on the back walls.

What are the green digital led type readout displays on the left rear above the enclosures...

Cooking temperatures?

Thermostats?