Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I haven't posted here in a while, but my bearded dragon came today and I need some help. I have a mercury vapor bulb and it's 160 watts. I thought it was going to be 100 watt bulb so I bought a ceramic based dome that can hold up to 150 watts. I'm not sure whether to get 100 watt bulb or stay with the 160. Will it be safe? Also, I bought an undertank heater and I'm sure whether to put it on the hot side or under his hide on the cool side. The bulb would be on during the day, and then when the bulb turned off the undertank heater would turn on under the hide for night time heat. I'm not sure what to do, any advice would be appreciated.
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3 dogs,1 cat,2 rats and 1 leopard gecko ...**TARZANA**

It would be cheaper to get a new fixture to meet the 160 bulb. The 160's do get hotter so watch the temps.

Now, as far at the UTH, as long as your night time temps don't drop bellow the upper 60's you don't need any night time heat! UTH's are known to short out and cause fires so unless you really need one, I would stay away from them. I do have close call pics of one that almost burnt my house down..

I hope that helps.
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Joel R

Coming Soon!
www.SpikesAndScales.com

Omg that is my biggest fear. I have two leopard gecko set ups and now this one in one room. I am so scared to have electrical fires, and that's the only thing that I don't like about reptiles is that they require so many cords and so much heat. Okay well then I'll return the UTH because it doesn't get that cold at night. Thankyou for the advice, Kara
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3 dogs,1 cat,2 rats and 1 leopard gecko ...**TARZANA**

Get a "Good" surge protector or GFI power strip and plug the UTH into it. That will give you a little more protection.
Not all power strips are created equal. A power strip is just that,, it only provides power. One with GFI built in, or one with good surge protection, will pop if there are any problems. (theoretically). For the most part with most electronic stuff,, you get what you pay for. Don't get the $5.00 ones.

Good luck.
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Joel R

Coming Soon!
www.SpikesAndScales.com

Easier to just heat the room so it doesn't drop below 65F at night. There are all kinds of quality space heaters out in the market that you can set for a certain temperature. I use a ceramic heater in the room I keep my snake and gecko. Once plugged in you just turn the temp all the way up and once the room reaches the temp you want, you turn the dial down till it stops running. Then, once it cools in the room, the heater comes on to bring it back to your max temperature.

An alternative to under tank heaters (though bearded dragons don't really need these) is to use a heating pad made for humans. That is what I use for my cornsnake and it works fine. I had to prop up the bottom of my 35 gal tank my snake is in so it didn't crush the heating pad, but other than that it has worked fine for a year now. It has two settings, high and low, I leave it on low and it heats the bottom of the aquarium perfectly (about 80-85 F above the pad).