Help

[tylor]

1. I have read that the coil uvb lites stop giving out vitamin d after a month or two what bulb is best suited for this reptile
2. Is there a certain distance the the uvb bulb has to be like same as the heating lite or does it not matter

 

[PatsyB]

Coil UVB lights are horrible for beardies. You want them to have at least 2/3 of the tank covered by UVB and with coil bulbs it's just concentrated to that one spot. Some people use a MVB(mercury vapor bulb) but I think most of us use a tube style 10.0 Reptisun or Arcadia bulb. I know if you use a 10.0 Reptisun T8 tube style bulb and you have it sitting on the mesh screen, the beardie is going to need to get at least 6" inches from the bulb. The mesh blocks out a lot of the UVB and the bulbs will need to be changed every 6 months (maybe sooner). Last year I switch out to the T5 style bulbs and even on top of the mesh screen they don't have to be as close to the UVB and the bulbs should last a year. I feel like I work for them, but Dr. Foster Smith is having a great lighting sale at the moment, good until the 16th. That's how got my set ups last year.

Oh and in the mean time, make sure Dude can't touch those dome lights that you have hanging in his tank. You don't want him to jump up and burn himself. Make sure you have some sort of digital thermometer to measure temps. Either a temp gun or a probe that you can stick right to the basking spot. You want to make sure that the spot he is basking on is 110-115 degrees during the day and the cool side should be between 80-85. At night the whole tank shouldn't get lower than 65.