im getting a baby bearded dragon tomorow, and today i bought all the lighting + heating i needed, thermostat, heat mat, 15 watt uv light and 40 watt bulb, the thing is the temperature is far too high in the hot end of the tank, which is whereb the 40 watt bulb is... it gets to over 120 and in the cooler end about right or maybe a little low... how do i get out of this, i would really love it if i could buy the beardie 2morrow, but i cant do this if its viv is the wrong temperature. should i get a lower watt bulb??.. plz help thanks- Rich
i tend to notice it does in my tank but i have the 1 light set up with 5 bulbs. If it gets to hot i just turn one of the switches off. I would try a lower wattage, if you bought it from a petstore they will exchange it and if it doesn't work your not out anything
Whoah! Easy fix here guys. 1. Dump the heat mat. Put a flat piece of slate under the lamp that will give him a basking spot. If the mat is one of those rip off, stick permanently to the tank deals, just unplug it. It'll still come in handy this winter. 2. Lift the light up a little bit, put a couple of wood blocks under the corners of fixture, hood or whatever. 3. How big is the tank? If those don't lower the temp enough, by all means get a lower watt bulb. With summer coming it might be a good idea anyway. Goodluck! Sharon
thanks for all your posts :lol: the tank is 23 X 11 X 11 i know it's small but the beardie im getting is only a baby, and also very soon i will be converting my wardrobe into a huge vivarium we foned the reptile shop this morning and they said: cut a whole in the top of the tank and put something like mesh on it, for even more ventilation, and then put the bulb on the outside of the tank, shining through the 'hole'... i sure hope this works because then i'll have to wait AgAiN for my lizard..
Um, what do you have for top on this? An aquarium hood? That would be one major problem because of the lack of airflow. On the other hand, if it is an aquarium hood, again its an easy fix. Sharon
huh? im not sure i got the tank 2nd hand but it's ok, it's just a wooden top, not a lid.. but my dad's a carpenter so if it's messed up he'll fix it, if not then i'll just have a bigger ventilation hole, i'll make sure all of the temperatures are alright before i buy the dragon
Well, I've melted more than a couple of plastic framed screens so I say that the light should NOT be able to shine directly onto the wood. I imagine it would smoulder or scorch even. What I think you should do is just make a wooden frame, inside of the frame put either aluminum screen or hardware cloth. Then you have something you can safely set your high powered lights on. I have one terrarium with a wooden frame, it works, but good god is it heavy!! Your beardie needs good ventilation too. And one hole cut in the top where the light will fit isn't really good enough. Where did you have the light before? I've seen an aquarium crack when a heat lamp was placed against/near the glass... Only saw it the once though. Sharon
i have now bought my beardie, by the way... i now have it all done, there is a very small ventilation hole that was already part of the tank, and my dad has cut a hole - and made a structure that makes the spot light shine down, it's on the 'outside'. (it's shining through a ventilation, so basically i have just lifted it up) the new ventilaion hole os as wide as i think it needs to be, the whole light shines down onto a piece of cork bark that he likes to rest on i have a question,*** the temperature in the hot end on the viv is around 100, sometimes it reaches 108 and sometimes it goes down to about 96, in the morning i checked the temperature (all of the lgihts were off in the night, but the heat mat was on) and it was around 80 *** in the cooler end, the temperature inhe day is around 80, in the morning it's about 70.*** Can you please tell me if these temperaturres are ok, because i am worried that they are too hot still, can i carry on or should i make it cooler?? please hepl~ if this makes it any clearer, ~day-time~ cool end = 80 to 90 hot end = around 100 ~early morning~ (without lights on) cool end = 70 hot end 80
Without going to check a few websites to verify temps, they sound like a decent range to me. If you are hitting 108 F in the day time that might be a little on the high side. Hopefully someone else can answer that one better. Sharon
