T8 Lighting vs T5 Lighting

[Jup4_Lita85]

My 3 month old Beardie; Maui is currently living in a 20 and has a 18" T8 zilla fixture with a zoo med 10.0 UVB bulb. The fixture is mounted inside his tank and resides about 8" away from Maui's main basking area there is also a heat lamp above the tank keeping his basking area between 103 - 108 degrees.

I have had Maui for about 2 1/2 weeks now and I feel that his appetite isn't as good as it should be. I get about 5-10 dubias and 5 to 10 crickets into him a day. I have read plenty on this site about the correct UVB lighting turning a bearded dragon into a eating machine putting them on a positive growth path. Would I be better off to change out my lighting to a t5 fixture with a zoo med 10.0 bulb? I've also had people recommend a reptile all-in - one -bulb as well. Has anyone had more success with these types of bulbs over the t8's?

 

[HoomanSlave]

The T8 bulbs have some flickering issues (if you take a video of yours you might notice it), and they don't give off as much UVB. I prefer to use the T5, but it's really personal preference. The T5 can also be mounted on top of the screen (if it's wide-holed), so it's a bit less hassle to change out the bulb and connect the fixture to the outlet.

The all-in-one (mercury vapor) bulbs are only for people with a lot of experience in maintaining reptiles, since there's no way to control the temperatures and UVB output. They can give off dangerous levels of radiation, unless you have a UVB reader you can use to get the distance right. Using a mercury vapor bulb will also require some changes to the supplement schedule.