Question about what type of halogen light to use?

[Bri624]

Hello everyone,
my name is Bri and I am here with my buddy toothless! Recently, I decided to go about buying a new basking light bulb for my little guy because the zoomed 100 watt I got blew out already( 3 months later). As of right now I am using a 75 watt soft white bulb. Unfortunately, it is not keeping his temp in the 105-110 range. I did some research and found a lot of people using halogen bulbs for basking lights. So, I went to Wal-Mart and after a half hour of searching I found some GE halogen clear bulbs. I figured they would work, but I was not sure of what wattage to use. I got the 100 watt clear halogen bulb and found it to be much too hot and too bright for my guys 20 gallon long tank! Before I was using a 100 watt zoomed basking bulb and it was keeping his basking side at just the right temps. So, now I am stumped and I don't know if I should try a different wattage or different kind of bulb. I will be upgrading him to his 40 gallon very soon as well so I want to stock up on bulbs for that tank too! On some of the forums I was reading people were saying that they need a lot of bright light. Let me tell you when I turned this light on it blinded my eyes and I wasn't even looking at it. Thus, I unscrewed it because I was scared of blinding my beardy and hurting his eyes. I also have a 10.0 reptisun tube uvb light for him so he gets a lot of light from that. He gets really hot too and will go lay under his log to cool down so I do not want something that is going to make his whole tank hot, but just enough for his to go basking under. Anyways, any suggestions would be great, and appreciate the time! P.S. I use the zoomed double reflector domes for his basking bulbs so it has to be able to fit in that, and I am using the zoomed 20 gallon tank atm!

 

[timbalan]

I got the 35w short halogen from walmart its only about 3-4" in length. I had a 60w regular size halogen when i had him in a55gal tank. But now that i built a viv for him i didnt need that big a light. its kinda hard to see in this pic but maybe you can tell its def shorter that a regular halogen. A regular one is about twice as long as this one its the smallest one i could find at walmart. Once you move him to the 40 gal tho its all going to change again. His lights just went out so maybe its cool enough i could take it out to get a better pic of it for u

 

[timbalan]

 

[jarich]

Ya, I would agree a 100 watt would be way too hot for a 20 gallon tank. I would say start with a 50 watt and see if that works for you. Id recommend a PAR 38 outdoor halogen flood light so you get a nice wide beam. If its still a bit too hot (it should be close to the right temp anyway) then you can just move it a bit further away from the basking spot.

 

[smokejunky]

I use a 75 watt for a 20 long 50 was to cold and 100 is way to hot

 

[smokejunky]

Yeah use a flood not spot light

 

[Bri624]

I ended up getting the clear halogen light but 60 watts instead. At the moment it is keeping his tank at just the right temps and it is not too bright that it will blind him. For winter though I will probably need to go with the 75 watt one and in the 40 gallon I might try and use the flood light. The had some at walmart but they were only 50 watts and they either didn't have anything bigger or were out that I saw. So, once I upgrade him to the 40 gallon I'll probably have to do trial and error again.

 

[Bri624]

View attachment 8900View attachment 8901

That was the one I saw at walmart but they only had a 50 watt. I don't think that would work for my 40 gallon at all. I like the halogen clear bulbs a lot though they seem to work very well.

 

[timbalan]

Ya that little bulb is perfect for my tank. I also have the regular one but it gets the temps up way to high. I think the other one is a 65w or something

 

[Persei8]

I use Powersun UV by Zoo Med. It's 100w for a little over 20 gal. But with a stand and up high enough the temps get just right. It has the UVA and UVB that they need.

 

[jarich]

The Powersuns are pretty widely variable, but in order for your dragon to get decent exposure that bulb needs to be within 12" of your dragon with no screen in the way. If there is screen, you'd want it more like 8-9" away

 

[Bri624]

I ended up getting the 90 watt indoor/outdoor flood light by GE it works perfectly in keeping his temps in the 100-105 range. I also got another dome reflector from walmart the 8 inch one to put the food light light in seeing as it is very wide and does not fit in my double dome combo. Does anyone know if this is okay to use ? It says it can do up to 150 watts I just worry because it doesn't have the ceramic end and it gets super hot!

 

[timbalan]

Ya im not sure id trust it without the ceramic end but its up to u

 

[Mike2450]

Will this be okay for my 40 gallon breeder tank or a 4x2x2