Enclosure finally done! New to the Forum - Daryl & Dimebag

[court713]

Hey everyone, I'm fairly new to the forum and decided to finally introduce our beardie to the world of dragon lovers. His name is Dimebag, he's almost a year old now. He was tiny when we got him and I don't notice unless I look back at pictures but he's grown quite a bit. His favorite foods are crickets and kale (also enjoys superworms as a treat and fresh diced apple chunks, oh and mango!) We struggled a bit with dialing in pretty much everything to where we wanted it. I freaked about humidity for a long time and just couldn't seem to get it right until we switched to a digital thermometer/hygrometer. The analog works great for temperature readings but not for humidity. Also I was getting SO much conflicting info on humidity and finally we just started checking the weather in the part of Australia where they live naturally and realized there is widely varying weather, temperatures and humidity there. It's obviously important but if you're new to beardies and freak out like I did about humidity, in my opinion, you can have a happy healthy dragon within a wide, varying range of humidities. We started with the kit from Zoo Med and honestly, and if you're new to beardies...don't waste your time or money. It says it has "everything" to set up your beardies new home but that's completely false unless you want an unhappy dragon in my opinion. Plus the quality is horrible. The screen lid was junk and I ended up modifying it to suit our needs better. Right now the set up is...

- 40 gallon enclosure (will be going to 55 wide soon)
- Custom lid
- Double sided 320w max fixture
- ReptiSun 160w UV/Heat basking lamp
- ZooMed 60w purple nighttime heat lamp
- Timer for lights is set up with 2 Kasa smart plugs controlled with Alexa
- reptile carpet
- 3D background
- Koa wood basking log
- Artificial stack stones (they hold warth really well)
- food and water dishes
- 2 digital thermometer/hygrometers on each end
- Analog thermometer/hygrometer under basking lamp
- 2 desert plants and a skull decoration.
- Awesome Amazon fish tank stand/cabinet that we got for 100$

Enjoy and please let us know what you think/suggestions!

 

[Sadie]

Hey everyone, I'm fairly new to the forum and decided to finally introduce our beardie to the world of dragon lovers. His name is Dimebag, he's almost a year old now. He was tiny when we got him and I don't notice unless I look back at pictures but he's grown quite a bit. His favorite foods are crickets and kale (also enjoys superworms as a treat and fresh diced apple chunks, oh and mango!) We struggled a bit with dialing in pretty much everything to where we wanted it. I freaked about humidity for a long time and just couldn't seem to get it right until we switched to a digital thermometer/hygrometer. The analog works great for temperature readings but not for humidity. Also I was getting SO much conflicting info on humidity and finally we just started checking the weather in the part of Australia where they live naturally and realized there is widely varying weather, temperatures and humidity there. It's obviously important but if you're new to beardies and freak out like I did about humidity, in my opinion, you can have a happy healthy dragon within a wide, varying range of humidities. We started with the kit from Zoo Med and honestly, and if you're new to beardies...don't waste your time or money. It says it has "everything" to set up your beardies new home but that's completely false unless you want an unhappy dragon in my opinion. Plus the quality is horrible. The screen lid was junk and I ended up modifying it to suit our needs better. Right now the set up is...

- 40 gallon enclosure (will be going to 55 wide soon)
- Custom lid
- Double sided 320w max fixture
- ReptiSun 160w UV/Heat basking lamp
- ZooMed 60w purple nighttime heat lamp
- Timer for lights is set up with 2 Kasa smart plugs controlled with Alexa
- reptile carpet
- 3D background
- Koa wood basking log
- Artificial stack stones (they hold warth really well)
- food and water dishes
- 2 digital thermometer/hygrometers on each end
- Analog thermometer/hygrometer under basking lamp
- 2 desert plants and a skull decoration.
- Awesome Amazon fish tank stand/cabinet that we got for 100$

Enjoy and please let us know what you think/suggestions!

The tank looks really nice -- here are some suggestions -- I would get two digital probe thermometers- they are the most accurate for getting surface basking temps-- the analog your only getting ambient temps- next is the 160w a MVB? I recommend getting a long tube fixture for a UVB -- Zoo Med or a Arcadia Pro T5 12% 24 watt or a Sunblaster Nano Tech w/ a Reptisun 10.0 T5 bulb-- the purple bulb please get rid of it-- cant stress that enough - the light is harmful to the eyes and it will / can cause long term eye issues and it disrupts the sleep-- if your tank is falling below 65 at night then I would recommend getting a ceramic heat emitter-- no light only heat --

 

[court713]

The tank looks really nice -- here are some suggestions -- I would get two digital probe thermometers- they are the most accurate for getting surface basking temps-- the analog your only getting ambient temps- next is the 160w a MVB? I recommend getting a long tube fixture for a UVB -- Zoo Med or a Arcadia Pro T5 12% 24 watt or a Sunblaster Nano Tech w/ a Reptisun 10.0 T5 bulb-- the purple bulb please get rid of it-- cant stress that enough - the light is harmful to the eyes and it will / can cause long term eye issues and it disrupts the sleep-- if your tank is falling below 65 at night then I would recommend getting a ceramic heat emitter-- no light only heat --

Thanks! It took me a few months to get it all together how I wanted it to look and arranging it based on where he likes to hang out or sleep/hide. I mistakenly wrote reptisun for the 160w bulb it's a PowerSun 160w MVB broad spectrum UV and heat lamp. The purple light looks very bright in the picture because of my phone camera but in reality when it comes on at night you can't see anything in the tank if there are no other lights on in the room. It barely has any actual visible light emission. Do you think I should still swap it out? Lowest nighttime temps I have seen in the tank are 63-68 degrees. I would like him to have the option to move a warmer area if he chooses so I would prefer to have a night lamp. Definitely will look into swapping out the purple if you think that's still no good. Please lmk what you think. Also definitely going to order the probe thermometer because I really want to know his basking spot temp. I put the lower koa wood log under the light because he didn't seem to want to bask on the taller branch when it was under the bulb. Figured it was too hot.

 

[court713]

Here is the actual nighttime light level without any other lights on in the room and my phone not in "Night Mode"

 

[Sadie]

Here is the actual nighttime light level without any other lights on in the room and my phone not in "Night Mode"

No colored bulbs are good -- dragons have a 3rd eye on top of their head for predators and the light shining on that eye will damage it - dragons like cool and dark to sleep - you want the heat emitter to keep temps around 65 - 75 at night - unless the dragon is ill then you would want nite temps around 80 to help w/ their immune system -- the PowerSun is great for heat but I am not a fan of the UVB aspects - you haft to get that bulb just right for temps and UVI index - it is always best to have a back up UVB long tube fixture in the tank as well -- screens block 30% of UVB rays and w/ the PowerSun sitting on the screen hes not getting much UVB-- MVB's are great for heat not so much UVB -- I can recommend 3 good UVB's if you like --

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome!