Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know a basking light is needed for a beardie but what about the strip light--We have been using one and a friend whos getting ready to purchase a baby beardie just told me that the pet store told her she did not need a strip light because the basking light offers enough uva/uvb--is this true?

Depends on the striplight. Some florescent tubes are specially designed to produce UVB, others are not. Repti-glo and repti-sun both produce uvb. There are now compact florescent lights available that produce uvb, though how effective they are I don't know. These look like coiled florescent tubes.

The only basking light I know of that also produces UVB light are mercury vapour bulbs. These produce heat and UVB but need to be at least 18" above the basking spot, as they produce high amounts of UVB and too close of exposure can be harmful. Not sure how effective they are at rising the basking temperature to the correct range at that height though, so additional heat may be needed to keep the basking temp between 95-115F.
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PHLdyPayne

That was a very helpful info, because it's one of my big concerns also. I currently have a strip light that produces 3% UVB and 7% UVA. I've been thinking to exchange it to one with higher UVB, but I noticed that my dragon spends his days busking under the heating light and both fixtures are large enough that they don't fit next to each other, so UVB light is on the cool side of the tank and my beardy is on the hot side. Therefore I figured he's not getting enough UVB. So I think it will solve the problem to have an all-in-one bulb, heat and UVA/UVB together. Does mercury bulb produces UVA also? Any suggestions will be appreciated.Thanks.