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Please help! (lighting)

mygirl071980

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
10
My daughter is dying for a beardie, and I am trying to get the enclosure perfect! However, there is so much to know, and every site differs. I have a 55 gallon tank, the inside of the cage is not an issue, but this lighting is just confusing the heck out of me. Some say keep one at one end and on at the other, and then there are the dual bulb fixtures side by side! Please help me make my cage perfect for him.
 

Crabs Mcjones

Juvenile Dragon
Messages
219
Welcome to The Bearded Dragon Forum!

Lighting can be very confusing and overwhelming.
I'll try to sum it up as best I can.
Basically you want to have two halves to your enclosure. You want a hot side and a cool side. This is so your beardie can move back and fourth to regulate their body temperature.
On one side you'll want a basking bulb, this can be accomplished with a dome fixture and a basking bulb, for a 55 you'll likely want 100 to 150 watts. For their UVB bulb you want to use a T5 bulb, personal preference is the Reptisun 10.0
A 55 gallon tank should be 48" long, so you'll want the 34" bulb. Then you'll need to get a fixture for the T5 bulb. You can use a simple fixture found at the hardware store and mount it inside the tank. Or you can buy pre-made fixtures such as the Carolina Custom lights found on Amazon. I personally use this one, it has both his basking bulb and t5 fixture in one.
Hope this helps, and if you have any other questions please dont hesitate to ask :)
 

Bostonfinest

Juvenile Dragon
Messages
212
I agree with the above post. The way my setup is currently I have the dual fixtures one of the bulbs is his basking light which hold a 150 watt bulb and the other one hold a coil UVB light in addition to that I also have a T8 tube UVB light. They also need a cool side as well so they go to if they get to hot, keep in mind a bearded dragon will not eat if the temp isn’t right in the enclosure.
 

mygirl071980

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
10
Welcome to The Bearded Dragon Forum!

Lighting can be very confusing and overwhelming.
I'll try to sum it up as best I can.
Basically you want to have two halves to your enclosure. You want a hot side and a cool side. This is so your beardie can move back and fourth to regulate their body temperature.
On one side you'll want a basking bulb, this can be accomplished with a dome fixture and a basking bulb, for a 55 you'll likely want 100 to 150 watts. For their UVB bulb you want to use a T5 bulb, personal preference is the Reptisun 10.0
A 55 gallon tank should be 48" long, so you'll want the 34" bulb. Then you'll need to get a fixture for the T5 bulb. You can use a simple fixture found at the hardware store and mount it inside the tank. Or you can buy pre-made fixtures such as the Carolina Custom lights found on Amazon. I personally use this one, it has both his basking bulb and t5 fixture in one.
Hope this helps, and if you have any other questions please dont hesitate to ask :)


Omg this does help so much! I am going to probably have many more questions! Thank you.
 

mygirl071980

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
10
I agree with the above post. The way my setup is currently I have the dual fixtures one of the bulbs is his basking light which hold a 150 watt bulb and the other one hold a coil UVB light in addition to that I also have a T8 tubeUVB light. The also need a cool side as well so they go to if they get to hot.
Thank you so much! I am totally lost because there is so much to know.
 

mygirl071980

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
10
This is a great sight and I am so excited I found it! Thanks for your help :D If anyone would have a pic of there enclosures would you care to share it with me.
 

Bostonfinest

Juvenile Dragon
Messages
212
Thank you so much! I am totally lost because there is so much to know.
I agree, before I got my bearded dragon I did so much research. One thing I will recommend is Never purchase a beardie from PetSmart or Petco and the reason why I say that is because they give people misinformation on how to care for the beardie.and the kits they sell is pretty much junk and bad for the beardie. Here are some things I will recommend for your enclosure a climbing branch or maybe two, a hide and a couple of digital temp readers. I will also recommend a temp gun as well.
 

Bostonfinest

Juvenile Dragon
Messages
212
This is a great sight and I am so excited I found it! Thanks for your help :D If anyone would have a pic of there enclosures would you care to share it with me.
My boy is growing fast and I need to buy a bigger enclosure for him currently he is in a 30 gallon long tank. He is currently 8 months old and he is 16 inches and weigh 177 grams.
 

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mygirl071980

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
10
What kind of sand do you recommend. I have found desert sand, but just wanna double check the safest for him.
 

Bostonfinest

Juvenile Dragon
Messages
212
That is what I have started reading. Thank you for confirming that for me.
No problem I use paper towel currently, it is cheap and easy to clean, I know a lot of people that use newspaper, tile will help keep their nails file (which I will be using soon) some people use that repti carpet, but in my opinion they hold a lot of bacteria
 
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