New beardie owner, need advice

[haleyannette]

Hi everyone. I am a new Beardie owner, I just bought him today - he is a Fancy, still very young and is about 6-8 inches in length. I got him a 20 gallon tank that came with 2 lights - a 75 watt "basking bulb" and a 13 watt UVB high-output bulb.
From my understanding, I'm supposed to keep the basking bulb on during the day (to mimic sunlight), and then turn that off at night and turn on the UVB light?
Or do I keep both on during the day, and just the UVB at night?
Or none at night?
Or is there more lights or heat emitters I'm supposed to have?
I keep getting different answers when I research and ask people at the pet store so I would really appreciate some guidance.
And also - I also got a thermometer that sticks to the side of the tank. What temp should it stay at for both day and night?
Thanks everyone in advance.

 

[PatsyB]

Check out the link below my comment for info on general care.

They need complete darkness at night so they need to be on a light cycle. Most people do 12 hours on and 12 hours off. Meaning both the UVB and the basking light go on at the same time each day and off at the same time each day. You only need a ceramic heat emitter if the tank drops below 65 degrees at night. If that happens use a low watt CHE to get your temps between 65-70 degrees. They don't need the tank real warm at night.

The gauges that you stick on the side of the tank don't really work well. You need something to measure the temps in the spots your dragon actually sits. A digital probe thermometer or even better an infrared temp gun would be the thing to get. You want the temp in the basking spot to hit 107 degrees and then have a gradient over to the cool side of the tank where it should be around 80 during the day.

They are going to grow out of the 20 gallon tank pretty fast so prepare to get a 36x18x18 as soon as possible. Petsmart sometimes has them on sale for Black Friday. Also the compact UVB bulb is not going to put off enough UVB for your dragon. If it's a coil bulb, it is definitely bad and shouldn't be used at all, if it's a compact fluorescent, it's okay to use temporarily but not for a long time. You really need a tube UVB bulb.

 

[haleyannette]

Check out the link below my comment for info on general care.

They need complete darkness at night so they need to be on a light cycle. Most people do 12 hours on and 12 hours off. Meaning both the UVB and the basking light go on at the same time each day and off at the same time each day. You only need a ceramic heat emitter if the tank drops below 65 degrees at night. If that happens use a low watt CHE to get your temps between 65-70 degrees. They don't need the tank real warm at night.

The gauges that you stick on the side of the tank don't really work well. You need something to measure the temps in the spots your dragon actually sits. A digital probe thermometer or even better an infrared temp gun would be the thing to get. You want the temp in the basking spot to hit 107 degrees and then have a gradient over to the cool side of the tank where it should be around 80 during the day.

They are going to grow out of the 20 gallon tank pretty fast so prepare to get a 36x18x18 as soon as possible. Petsmart sometimes has them on sale for Black Friday. Also the compact UVB bulb is not going to put off enough UVB for your dragon. If it's a coil bulb, it is definitely bad and shouldn't be used at all, if it's a compact fluorescent, it's okay to use temporarily but not for a long time. You really need a tube UVB bulb.

Thank you!! Yes, for the UVB, I looked into it all night and plan on getting the reptisun 10.0 today. and do you think I should just get the larger tank now or would that overwhelm him? Thanks again.

 

[PatsyB]

I started all mine in the big tank and just gave them lots of places to hide and things to climb on. Just remember that if you get a T8 bulb it needs to be mounted inside the tank and a T5 bulb can be placed on top of the mesh. Also, your UVB should cover 1/2-2/3 of the tank.

 

[haleyannette]

I started all mine in the big tank and just gave them lots of places to hide and things to climb on. Just remember that if you get a T8 bulb it needs to be mounted inside the tank and a T5 bulb can be placed on top of the mesh. Also, your UVB should cover 1/2-2/3 of the tank.

so if I am getting the Reptisun 10 and want it mounted inside the cage, I get a T8 fixture?

 

[PatsyB]

Correct. And if you mount it in the tank you want it as high over there head as possible so the light can’t shine diirectly in their eyes.

 

[haleyannette]

I can only find a under counter fixture that has a 15 watt bulb in it. Is it ok to replace the 15 watt with the 75 watt UVB bulb? Can the fixture handle that?

 

[PatsyB]

They don’t make 75watt UVB tube bulbs. The wattage of the bulb stays the same for the length of the bulb, I believe a 15 Watt bulb is a 22 or 24” and a 17 watt is a 36” bulb.