• Hello guest! Are you a Bearded Dragon enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Beardie enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your dragons and enclosures and have a great time with other Bearded Dragon enthusiasts. Sign up today!

Lighting for large enclosures

Robert R Buskey Jr

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
1
I plan on building (wife needs more convincing) a 12'L x 36" x 24" enclosure for bearded dragons for my ALL ANIMAL loving nine year old. I figure I'd start with one female beardie and go from there. If my daughter really enjoys the beardie and wants more I could easily house another female and a male in an enclosure of this size. My plan is to have a bio-active substrate (we live in the woods on 12 acres).
My question concerns lighting. I was thinking of using six staggered 4' reptisun T5's down the middle of the enclosure, 4 halogen flood lamps directed at elevated basking wood and rock decor, and two 6500K daylight LED's (for the cool end). Along the rear of the enclosure I would string: three staggered 4' 5500-6500K plant tubes. I would use link-together fixtures https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XPV236S/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20 for the tubes and put everything on staggered timers. Sounded great to me till I went to the zoo med site: https://zoomed.com/wp-content/uploads/Choosing-Correct-UVB-Lamp-2018-07.pdf according to this chart, my, oops my daughters; dragon needs to be within seven inches of the bulb to receive sufficient light? Do I need to go with MH or mercury bulbs or will the T5 ReptiSuns reach the 16" or so distance to the basking area's? Lighting would be hidden from view in a "hood" but open below to the Vivarium.
 
Top