Why is my bearded dragon still glass surfing?

[amfninja]

Howdy,

Proud owner of an eleven month old, 22 inch bearded dragon named Koh. I noticed in August that he was starting to glass surf in his 40-gallon breeder, which I figured meant he wanted a bigger enclosure. I upgraded him to a 120 gallon, which he seemed happy in for a couple days. I then got a bigger/stronger basking light for him, to help maintain the recommended basking temperature of around 100-103°F. The cool side of his tank measures around 78-80°F, and the warm side of his tank is maintained around 90°F, measured with an IR gun. I was told to update his coil UVB bulb to a T5 HO light, which I did. He is, however, still glass surfing. It started mostly after I upgraded his basking spot light, so now I'm considering taking it out again, but his basking spot won't be near the recommended temperatures. He gets fresh veggies every day, and I feed him between 15-20 feeder crickets dusted with calcium+d3 and herptivite vitamin.
Does anyone know why on earth he would still be glass surfing?

 

[Emilia Thuet]

Do you have a 10.0 UVB light or a 5.0 UVB light? Also if you don't mind me asking what is the brand you're using for the bulb

 

[amfninja]

Do you have a 10.0 UVB light or a 5.0 UVB light? Also if you don't mind me asking what is the brand you're using for the bulb

It’s a reptisun 10.0, and for the basking bulb I bought a halogen flood bulb from the Home Depot

 

[Emilia Thuet]

How far away is he from both his basking bulb and UVB?

 

[Emilia Thuet]

Sorry also how long is the reptisun compared to the length of your tank?

 

[amfninja]

Sorry also how long is the reptisun compared to the length of your tank?

He is about 14 inches from the UVB (it’s on the inside of his tank) and 16 from the basking light (it rests on top of the mesh top for his tank). His UVB is 24 inches which means it only spans half the tank, starting from his basking spot.

 

[Emilia Thuet]

The problem may be that he is too far away from his UVB light. He should be within 6"-8", 10" max. Try find a way to get him closer to it. If he is still glassing surfing it could be because he's getting used to his new tank so maybe give him a week or so and if he's still glass surfing than I suggest you come back to the forum and see if there could be something else that's wrong.

 

[amfninja]

The problem may be that he is too far away from his UVB light. He should be within 6"-8", 10" max. Try find a way to get him closer to it. If he is still glassing surfing it could be because he's getting used to his new tank so maybe give him a week or so and if he's still glass surfing than I suggest you come back to the forum and see if there could be something else that's wrong.

Oh okay, thank you for the info! I was under the impression that he shouldn’t be closer than 12 inches from his UVB because of how strong the T5 bulb is. I’ll update you in a couple days/weeks!

 

[HoomanSlave]

There are longer Reptisuns and fixtures available, your UVB should be covering about 3/4 of the tank. I recommend upgrading to a 34" Reptisun and seeing how that goes.