Mercury Bulb vs Basking Bulb

[mjfreaks]

Hello all...
I have my 6 month old beardie under this new Mercury Bulb by Evergreen. The ratings via Amazon were great and my MegaRay bulb didnt work so I went with this...

My questions are...
1. Is it normal for this light to not be as BRIGHT as a regular basking bulb?
2. Do I HAVE to keep the temp in the tank above 95 degrees, because since it is winter still in New Hampshire it is hard to get it there as well as the humidity without me adding an addtl basking bulb??
3. Do I need to keep the tube UVB on as well?


4. Does my buddy look healthy as well? He is 6 months and a lil growth spurty and Im thinking it is my fault he hasnt grown rapidly or have an appetite like a monster..he is just a chill lil guy...

 

[Rbange1]

He looks great to me! I'm not sure about the bulb not being as bright. I would suggest keeping a white light to help with that issue. I would also suggest keeping the tube uvb to be sure he's getting the proper uvb as the other bulb isn't spreading it to much of an area. The temperature definitely needs to be at 95 or above at all times during the day. You can do so by adding the white light with a higher wattage if necessary.

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[mjfreaks]

He looks great to me! I'm not sure about the bulb not being as bright. I would suggest keeping a white light to help with that issue. I would also suggest keeping the tube uvb to be sure he's getting the proper uvb as the other bulb isn't spreading it to much of an area. The temperature definitely needs to be at 95 or above at all times during the day. You can do so by adding the white light with a higher wattage if necessary.

Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using Tapatalk

I currently have the basking bulb and the new mercury bulb on plus the tube uvb...when i left for work it was at like 78...trying to get it up and keep it up but its winter out here in NH so its cold, its freezing then cold..

 

[Rbange1]

Maybe you can get a higher wattage halogen bulb or two to help? I know places like hardware stores or tractor supply typically have them at an affordable price and usually can get 2 for about $12.

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[JasperMoon]

Just to clarify... The overall temperature in the tank does NOT need to be at 95 degrees or higher. What you need to be 95-110 degrees is the basking site, as in just one spot/area in the tank needs to be at 95-110. I live in Colorado and the room where I keep my dragon sits over the garage so it gets quite cold... sometimes down to 57 degrees. I have an MVB over a cave that reaches 95-110 degrees (checked with a laser digital temp gun) but the rest of the tank is NOT that warm. I have stick-on dial thermometers to give me the air temp on the warm and cool sides of the tank. I keep the air temp on the cool side at 80 degrees and on the warm side 85-90. I noticed that if the temp gets over 90 degrees that my dragon will start gaping and/or go hide in his cave. So anyway, just wanted to clarify that.... when I first got into care of dragons that confused me. I thought I needed to keep the air temp in the tank at 95-110 which WOULD prove VERY difficult. Even to keep the tank air temps at 80 and 85-90 I had to put in an extra heating bulb. So our dragons' tanks both have MVB's (UVB & heat) and another regular heating bulb to keep it warm enough, plus another UVB bulb to increase the UV coverage plus a bright 100 watt LED bulb to keep it nice and bright in the tanks. Hope this helps.

 

[mjfreaks]

hello there. very very helpful...
i have the uvb tube on the back of the tank
i have the mercry bulb and the basking bulb to get the temps up to 90. NOW they are in the range of about 90-93. Before the mercury bulb i was at maybe 85-88 with 2 basking bulbs...
i upped the wattage on the basking bulb to 150 w and i was still not at 90 in the tank but his basking spot was where it needed to be..my concern is do i need a better tank for better lighting?? is that a factor as well???
going to the vet on the 22nd. i will keep you posted.
thanks so much for that info. i dont feel so alone in the pogona world

 

[JasperMoon]

I put a 100 watt daytime brightness LED bulb on the left side of the tank, which is the cool side, to brighten it up. From the books I've read on Bearded Dragons they do better with bright conditions in their tanks. Since all my heating lights are on the right/warm side of the tank, the left side seemed dim so I had just bought that bulb and put it in there all of my own accord. I figured that trying to duplicate their natural habitats would be best and knowing they are usually out in the bright Australian sun, I thought it best to brighten it up. I later bought some books and read that indeed, the brighter the better for them. Next to the 100 watt daytime bulb I have a 100 watt UVA heating bulb, then next to that I have a 125 watt MVB, then next to that an additional UVB (non-heat) bulb, a 26 watt ReptiSun 10.0. So basically the top of my 40 gallon tank (36Lx18Wx18H) is lined with lights, 4 fixtures altogether but the one with the daytime brightness bulb is a double. I keep a night time heating bulb on the other side, which I end up having to move over to the other right side at night so that it's over my dragon since he sleeps in his hammock which is on the warm side. I have a big cave sitting right underneath the MVB for his basking site and today the temp readings are 98-101 (varies some depending on the room temperature). Last night it was super windy, blowing straight at the windows in the room so it got down to 57 degrees. Needless to say I had the night time heat bulb right over Jasper, a 50 watt. During the summer I usually end up turning the extra heating bulb off and just the MVB is enough to keep the air temps 80 on the cool side and 85-90 on the warm side. I've had days when I've had to turn off the MVB bulb too cause once it starts approaching 100 degrees on the warm side Jasper gets too hot (I've always watched and observed him carefully). Because the room he's in (mine and hubby's room) sits over the garage, the temp in there fluctuates way more than the other bedrooms and in addition, the room is on the west side of the house with 3 huge windows so when the sun gets low in the sky it heats up too much in the room. I read somewhere about using a dimmer switch but I haven't really looked into that yet, as of right now I don't really understand how just a dimmer switch would help since as far as my understanding, I'd still have to be the one to adjust it, which to me isn't much different than just turning the MVB off until the tank cools off enough. What's nice about my snakes is that they both have thermostats that their UTH's are plugged into so it makes it easy..... the thermostat just shuts the UTH off whenever it gets to a certain temperature. It would be nice to have something like that in the dragon tanks but I don't even know that it's possible to do with lights, or that you'd want lights turning on and off... plus with MVB's they can't be turned on too soon after being shut off... they have to cool down first.

Also, during the winter the air temp in Jasper's tank on the warm side is rarely ever at 90... and I noticed if it starts creeping over 90 then he starts gaping. My stick-on dial thermometer which is right behind him when he's in his hammock (where he spends most of his time) reads 82-85 during the winter and he seems perfectly content. I just periodically check the basking spot temp and make sure it's at least 95, that's what's the most important. So I really don't think it's absolutely critical to have the air temp on the warm side at 90... if they want to be warmer they'll move closer to the basking spot. Best thing to do is to pay attention to your dragon, keep a thermometer in the same location always, and as you adjust temperatures see what he does. If he starts gaping then it's probably best to decrease the temp a bit. Now if he's gaping when on the basking spot that's probably okay, Jasper often does this even when I know the basking spot temp is where it needs to be. They'll move to a cooler location once they're done basking, so you don't want the cooler location to be as high of a temp as the basking spot. They don't like to stay at those temperatures, they only do it to facilitate digestion, for the most part.