Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am having such a difficult time heating my bearded dragons basking area between 90° to 100°. I have a 150 gallon glass tank with a screen top. I have two 25 Watt substrate heaters that stick to the bottom of the tank, one hot rock, two ReptiSun 5.0 fluorescent bulbs, and a 150 Watt purple light bulb. Together they heat the entire tank to 80°. I have the purple light over the basking area and I never turn it off. It just doesn't seem to be doing the trick. Can anyone suggest something I can do or buy? Also, let me know if I am doing something wrong. Thanks a million.

What are you checking the temps with first off?

Also, ditch the hot rock......they've benn known burn reptiles....undertank heaters don't raise the ambient temps much in the tank, just warm the substrate......

A 150 watt bulb should be fine.....you said the whole tank is 80, but the side without the 150 watt should be cooler than the side with, 80 for the cool side is perfect....did you check the air temp on both sides? How far is the basking spot from the 150 watt bulb and what's the room temp where the tank is? Your wamr side air ambient should be 90.....various basking spots with a surface temp range of 100-110.....

Once you know you have accurate temps via digital thermometer or temp gun, the adjust the basking spot if your able to change the basking temps or add another bulb to the basking area if needed....you could do 2 100 watt household bulbs to start....
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Tracey
Tracey's Beardies
www.beardiecrazy.com
"Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous.
It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood" ~Maya Angelou

I am using a Zoo Med gage thermometer. The side of the tank without the 150 Watt bulb is around 70/75°. The side with the bulb is 80°. I have three thermometers: one on each end of the tank and one in the middle. The basking shot is directly under the 150 Watt bulb. I'll try adding another bulb. Hopefully that'll do the trick.

Those types of thermometers aren't very accurate....I would get a digital one with probe from Walmart or Radio Shack.....hang the probe in the air on either end of the tank....about mid way .....and see what you get, then place the probe on various parts of your basking area to check surface temps....

Your temps may be fine....it may just be those gage thermometers.
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Tracey
Tracey's Beardies
www.beardiecrazy.com
"Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous.
It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood" ~Maya Angelou

You can try a T-Rex's UV heat bulb. You'll need to decide if the FLOOD version or the SPOT version is best for tank's size. The spot version is best for large enclosures and it focuses light and heat in a small area. So point the spot right at the basking spot would mostly affect that spot. Floods obviously put out light and heat over a larger area and so it's more flexible. It's also a better deal for smaller enclosures. I'm using a 100 watt flood because my enclosure is smaller.

OR

You can go with infrared heat using a ceramic heat element pointed directly at the spot. Basking spots doesn't have to be lit because the key here is to heat it up. Also, if you use a material on your basking spot that holds heat that will help too. I.e. ceramic heater pointed at rock basking spot will cause the rock to warm up and stay warm for a few hours. That's how Dragons get heat to the belly in nature. I've also got one of these to supplement heat in my tank. Heat is good for Dragon's (obviously reptiles in general) immune system.

OR

Adding Halogen lights that point at the spot would work too. As you probably know Halogen bulbs give off a lot of heat which is great. They're also cheap at the Hardware store and easy to replace. I also think they give off certain UV rays but I'm not sure if it's UV A or UV B.
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0.0.2 Bearded Dragons(Ziggy and Stardust)