Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, Im new to the whole bearded dragon thing, and am looking to get a beardie of my own. I was wondering what kind of lights everyone uses, so I might be able to base my decision off of yours. What are some good lights to use as heat lights for basking, and what lights are going to provide my dragon with the right amounts of uvb and uva rays?
Thanks.

For UVB use Reptisun 5.0 (for short cages) or 10.0 (for tall cages) or, for *really* big cages, an MVB (don't know as much about them). For heat you can use regular household bulbs (when you get a "reptile" bulb you pay for the lizard on the package...). For big cages, use halogen bulbs for heat.
I hope that helps you out!
-Drew
-----
Owned by:
1.2 bearded dragons - Legolas, Rosy, Miss Scarlet
0.1 Indonesian blue tongue skink - Sarah
1.0 reverse oketee corn snake - Bernard
1.0 ball python - Patrick
2.0 guinea pigs (I know, they're not herps!) - Punky, Jeepers

Thanks, that helps a lot. One more question, how many watts would you suggest for a 40-50 gal tank for the heat lamp?

I would just buy several bulbs from Home-Depot ranging from around 50 to 100 watts and experiment (that is for incandescants, if you want to use halogens change that to around 40-75 watts, I personally use 50 watt halogens, but my tank is really tall...).
-Drew
-----
Owned by:
1.2 bearded dragons - Legolas, Rosy, Miss Scarlet
0.1 Indonesian blue tongue skink - Sarah
1.0 reverse oketee corn snake - Bernard
1.0 ball python - Patrick
2.0 guinea pigs (I know, they're not herps!) - Punky, Jeepers

For the 50 gallon tank, I'd buy a 150 watt bulb and use a dimmer switch. You can buy these at home depot. the dimmer plugs into a wall socket and then the light plugs into the dimmer. that way to can control the temperature. You'll want something like this because the summer is warmer and you'll need to turn down the intensity of the bulb....and vise versa in the winter.

I just bought my first mercury vapor bulb (a "powersun" for $35), they provide more UVB light than flourescent tubes (up to six feet range where as a the reptisun's range is 3-6 inches). In addition to the extended UV output the mercury vapor produces heat, unlike its fluorescent cousin. So you only need one light.

hope this helps a little.

hey dude