Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If bulbs are not designed for use with thermostats, how am I supposed to control the temperature in my cage?? I need help with this please, I am confused.
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~Brian and Kerri~

There are thermostats you can buy that can be connected to incadesent (sp) bulbs, but then you cut the amount of light your lizard has, and you limit their ability to have radiant heat all the time.

You should spend a couple of hours finding the right Wattage for your set up to provide a basking spot of 95-115F all the time. (the more ventilation you have the higher Wattage) For example in my set up (I have a 55 gallon, w/screen top, Wheatbran substrate, with a rock formation on the basking side along with an UTH.) I have 2-100W bulbs to provide a basking side temp of 101-105 ; however, the other beardie I had had different wattage (I had the same tank but no rocks and sand substrate...I had a 250W bulb and then a 100W in the winter to provide a 105-110 basking). It takes some work in the beginning (and consideration), but once it is set up you have little adjustments to make (unless you have the tank by an outside door...like me, then winter time requires a little extra).
PS: The UVB should be on alllll the time (during waking hours I mean)
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Hangin with the Herps
ZZ

Our tank is actually an old display case we converted. I'd say it's about the size of a 100-125 tank. It is seperated into two sides, one for each beardie. It has a screen top, one glass side, and three wooden sides. Our substrate is sand. What wattage would you reccommend?
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~Brian and Kerri~

I would try a 75W first. Your tank is bigger than mine, but it has 3 wood sides which will hold heat more than glass. Give that setting a 1/2hour to an hour. If that doesn't work, try 100W (make sure you have a digital thermometer to record the temp...those little strip things are useless.) If you have rocks for them to bask on, you will see temps rise suddenly, but they will level out. Sand holds a good amount of heat too (I had my baby on papertowels in a 20L and needed a special spotlight bulb 150W to get the basking temp to 110-115F)

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Hangin with the Herps
ZZ

was so tiny! They all were! Gosh they grow up fast! Heres Fionas mommy on top!

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