Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering about these mercury bulbs and what difference they make in a tank. As of this moment, I have:

1: A 60 gal., front-sliding aquarium...
2: One UVa/UVb flourescent bulb running the length of his tank...
3: One 100wt. Halogen heat bulb on the left side of his tank...
4: One Micro De-humidifier on the right-side bottom of his tank...
5: A concrete "skull" for basking...
6: An outdoor/indoor thermometer close to the basking light at the bottom.

At this moment his MAXIMUM temps are 65 ~ 70 deg. at night, 86 ~ 90 deg. during the day. As a result of this, Draconis tends to be sluggish at times and does not eat regularly, if at all. But when I have a 150wt. bulb in there, Draconis won't bask because the temps get to over 115 ~ 120 deg., and he hides all day long. What exactly are mercury vapour bulbs, and what should be a proper basking lamp, whether Halogen or non-Halogen, be? I know I need his temps between 100~110 deg., so is it possible the Halogen bulb is making his concrete skull (light-tan colored) too hot? I will admit that skull can get warm...
-----
Dl

Also note, he just came out of hibernation recently (since August), so I really need something to help stimulate him to eating better.
-----
Dl

Get the 150 watt halogen bulb and then get a lamp dimmer. Zoo Med sells a relatively cheap one that will work for up to a 150 watt bulb. I'll try to put a link to it.

I have a 100 watt bulb in my beardie's tank, but sometimes that gets too hot, so I have this really nice dimmer I had gotten from the local reptile place when I bought his first setup.

Hope this helps. If you have a clamp lamp you could get a lamp stand and adjust the height to adjust the temperatures, but those are mainly intended for mercury vapor bulbs. When I used to have a standard aquarium (now I have a specialized one) I used a lamp stand and a dimmer. The dimmer was what I used to control the temperature most of the time, but the lamp stand was really convenient because it was a good place for the light to be when I needed to get in the tank, instead of having to set the lamp somewhere or clamp it on something.

Here's the link to the thing I'm talking about. I guess they have one that can handle 500 watts now too:
Here

>>Get the 150 watt halogen bulb and then get a lamp dimmer. Zoo Med sells a relatively cheap one that will work for up to a 150 watt bulb. I'll try to put a link to it.

I did forget to mention I do have a ZooMed dimmer on my light, but the caveat to that is when you dim the lamp to drop heat, you're also dropping light as well.

When I had the 150wt. bulb in there, I would drop the light down to adjust the heat, then Draconis would avoid the light altogether because he probably thought it was time to sleep again. Is there a 125wt. bulb available? It would be a good way to handle the situation.
-----
Dl

A Mercury Vapor lamp will be as hot or hotter than a halogen of the same rated wattage.

in adition to the mentioned rheastat also get one or two of the metal stands, you can adjust them to hang your lamp to best provide light coverage and heat.

a MV lamp will give more UVB than the floresent tube can...
I have both over my bd setup on the idea that if one stops / loses qualiy of output I have some backup.

with a 60 you *may* have a problem with overall light level.
the light the bd gets should not be "One bright blast, and everywhere else dim"
but rather "every where is lit up nice and one area is hotter"
and of course some hiding places... and a cool end.

also you may want to add a small 4" "Muffin fan" like is used in your computer's powersupply, it can help to even out the heat and keep the humidity lower also. Not directed at the inside of the tank but rather at the bulbs, to blow some of the heat away.
and try adding some small boxes etc... to let the bd find the "right spot"
-----
This space reserved for future use...

Yup, I can see me redesigning Draconis' tank here real soon, looks like I have a few more ideas to try...

1: Stagger his basking levels more...
2: Add another smaller light to brighten his tank more...
3: Throw in a few more hiding areas...
4: Go ahead and increase his bulb wattage to 150wt.

Hate to have to remove his basking skull, as much as he likes it, but looks like that will probably happen now.
-----
Dl