Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All.

I am planning on setting up a small breeding facility here in England for both Beardies and also Collared lizards as there seems to be a lack of these, especially high colour beardies over here. Before anyone comments, yes i do have experience with both and it will not be a battery hen type facility that is purely a money maker

I have done many hours of research and am happy of what requirements this project will take, but my question is this.

How do you have your lighting/heating set ups ??

Let me elaborate,, I am thinking of having 3 full size vivs (48*24*20) for the trio i am starting off with.
one mid size viv for a laying viv and then 6 or 7 mini vivs or maybe plastic tubs for the babies to live in.

What substrate i use for the babies is still up in the air as i have seen large breeders who use sand with no problems and also others of the same standard use paper,,,we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

anyhow going back to my question.
how do you rig up all your electrics for your heat/UV for all these vivs and keep the electricity bills preferably lower than 4 figures a quarter.

can you recommend thermostats/ low wattage bulbs or any method that will not reduce the quality of life for the little fella's but might keep the bills a little lower.

many thanks

Funkymonkey

One way to cut lighting costs would be to use halogen bulbs instead of incandescent. Halogens burn hotter then incandescent, and last longer. You can use lower wattage, and get the same high temps required, and with longer burn times too. No need for "reptile bulbs" for the basking bulbs. They are over priced regular light bulbs... Get basking bulbs at Home Depot or another hardware store.. Most of my cages light intensity comes from fluorescent bulbs, and for the basking spot I use low watt halogens 50watt hooked up into inline dimmers, so the temps can be correct all season without changing bulbs, but by adjusting the dimmer switches, and I only use as much wattage as is exactly needed to get the proper basking temps..

Fluorescent bulbs are brighter and are low watt a 40 watt bulb is 48 inches long and quite bright.. I myself run dual fluorescent fixtures over my baby bins, and also in some of my lower height dragon enclosures. With these if you want to provide UVB, which is a huge plus when raising beardies, and I highly recommend providing it. Buy the more expensive reptile bulbs here. I use Repti-Sun 5.0 bulbs. These can be used for the cages light intensity, and a low wattage 50-65 watt halogen spot can be dimmed very low to get the correct temps over the basking spots.

It's a little savings doing it this way as you use exactly what is needed for heating by dimming the basking bulbs, but still get the important light intensity and UVB using lower wattage fluorescents for the dragons cages..

If you wanted to create the same light intensity using incandescent bulbs as a dual 4 ft fluorescent fixture you'd be using way more energy, and wattage to equal the same light intensity and will probably fry anything under the bulbs..
-----

Mystical-Dragons Web Site
Webshots photos