Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i swithced to a halogen 90 watt philips bulb and it heats the same as the 150 watt basking zoomed bulb i have, and i'm the using the flood halogen bulb just like the pic u posted but they even had the halogen spot bulb with the same wattage it probably works even better,the flood bulb i got gets the slate rock to 130 from almost a foot away , i would say like 10inches away, the 45 watt one could probably make a basking spot of 105-110 for my beardie, well thanks for posting the info on the bulbs and the bulb was only $5.75 at home depot

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Right now I'm using a 100 watt zoomed spot bulb for my bearded dragon's enclosure, and it's on a dimmer so it's usually turned up about 90%. I would think a 45 watt halogen bulb would be hot enough and provide more light, but wouldn't it melt the plastic fixture that's in the tank? The fixture is built in, it's plastic, and it's only rated at 100 watts (I'm now noticing the errors in buying all-in one reptile tanks...I should have built one instead). Since the halogen gets so much hotter, would this cause a problem?

I know I'm going to use a halogen bulb in my uro's tank...once the powersun bulb I payed 50 bucks for dies. Right now, using the overpriced reptile bulbs, I have to use the powersun bulb and another spot bulb on a dimmer to get the right temps. I can't remember how much watts the spot bulb uses, but the powersun alone is 160! And I can't lower the powersun bulb or raise the basking spot without raising the powersun bulb because I just read in the instructions that you can't have it any closer than 12" from the reptile! I'd prefer a nice low wattage halogen bulb accompanied by a reptisun 5.0 anyday.

So if you know anything about the plastic fixture thing, let me know. If it will melt the fixture, are there any other "hardware store bulbs" that would work?

-ryan

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It's an "oceanic systems lizard lounge". I wouldn't reccomend them to anybody. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but in hindsight, it is a terrible design. That's why I would like to build some stacking 4'x2'x2' cages for my bearded dragon any uromastyx. Then I could have a nice installed lighting system with ceramic or porcelain incandescent fixtures. here's a pic of what I have now. The only good thing about it is that the top is glass, allowing less hot air to escape, but it would be nicer if there was a way to put a clamp lamp on it.

Here's a picture of the top.

stick with the floods, you want that broader cast of light. and important aspect of a proper basking area is a large enough cast of light so that the animal(s) can fit completely within the throw of the light. it heats the body quickly and evenly.

that is why for larger stuff like Blackthroat monitors, we go to a tri-array of bulbs, to keep that basking area nice and wide.

animals kept under spot bulbs often get burned because the cast is narrow, often not large enough to do the whole body at once, and they will stay under the hotter, tighter focus, while trying to regulate whole body temps, and end up with bad burns.

it happens to folks on the monitor forum once in a while, and it isn't pretty. stick with the widest, floodiest, cast possible
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles