Erloas
2014-12-03, 04:45 PM
I know a few people around here have reptiles, and I'm sure a lot of others that haven't posted about them or with pictures of them, etc. are around. So rather than finding some new random forum and starting there for this one question I figured I would start here.
So a while ago I inherited a bearded dragon, my boss's daughter was moving and didn't have the ability to take it with her. He claims it had everything it needed and was good to go.
I did quite a bit of research on them before I got it.
The first thing I noticed is the only source of heat they had was a heat rock (which everyone says not to use anyway) and the only light was a normal "daylight" tank light, ie "daylight colored" and not a UV light.
Since I had a spare 55g tank, (came in a 20g) I used to use as an aquarium but the top brace broke so I can't use it for water anymore, I moved it to that. I got a large under tank heater, a 150W ceramic heat element, and a UV CFL bulb. (and yes, I read about the problems with the first designs that had too much UVC and could hurt their eyes, every indication is that this is a newer generation CFL that doesn't have that problem).
I bought a temperature controller for the rock and UTH. I intended to remove the rock once I got the other heat sources in place, which is where I'm running into problems. I did cover the heat rock with real rocks so if it does overheat it has a lot more material to heat up before it gets dangerous.
Everything recommends that the tank should be 80f on the cool side and about 110ish on the hot side. My house is normally set to 65-70f for the furnace, varying during the day.
So far even in the middle of the day with the rock, UTH, and ceramic heater I'm not seeing temperatures much about ~70-72f.
The thermostat is about 6-8" away from the ceramic heater, and I even dropped the ceramic heater inside the tank and closer to the ground/rocks.
I'm thinking about trying to insulate the back/sides of the tank to see if that helps but I haven't yet. I know they don't recommend covering the tank at all, but I'm thinking I might cover a decent amount just to hold the heat in, I'm not really worried about humidity because I live in a desert and it is always really dry around here anyway. (I checked before for another project and when adjusted to 70F we averaged a RH of about 30%).
The ceramic heater is heating up, it just doesn't seem to do enough for the cage. I'm wondering if instead a small "personal" heater would be a better choice? Anything I do use would be connected to the temperature controller.
I'm also wondering if a wooden cage would hold the heat better? But I'm not sure how I would use anything like UTHs with a wooden cage? I don't know how I would heat that any better.
The lizard doesn't seem too bothered, but it does spend a lot of time close to the ceramic heater, so it is probably on the cool side. It seems to be eating just fine.
So a while ago I inherited a bearded dragon, my boss's daughter was moving and didn't have the ability to take it with her. He claims it had everything it needed and was good to go.
I did quite a bit of research on them before I got it.
The first thing I noticed is the only source of heat they had was a heat rock (which everyone says not to use anyway) and the only light was a normal "daylight" tank light, ie "daylight colored" and not a UV light.
Since I had a spare 55g tank, (came in a 20g) I used to use as an aquarium but the top brace broke so I can't use it for water anymore, I moved it to that. I got a large under tank heater, a 150W ceramic heat element, and a UV CFL bulb. (and yes, I read about the problems with the first designs that had too much UVC and could hurt their eyes, every indication is that this is a newer generation CFL that doesn't have that problem).
I bought a temperature controller for the rock and UTH. I intended to remove the rock once I got the other heat sources in place, which is where I'm running into problems. I did cover the heat rock with real rocks so if it does overheat it has a lot more material to heat up before it gets dangerous.
Everything recommends that the tank should be 80f on the cool side and about 110ish on the hot side. My house is normally set to 65-70f for the furnace, varying during the day.
So far even in the middle of the day with the rock, UTH, and ceramic heater I'm not seeing temperatures much about ~70-72f.
The thermostat is about 6-8" away from the ceramic heater, and I even dropped the ceramic heater inside the tank and closer to the ground/rocks.
I'm thinking about trying to insulate the back/sides of the tank to see if that helps but I haven't yet. I know they don't recommend covering the tank at all, but I'm thinking I might cover a decent amount just to hold the heat in, I'm not really worried about humidity because I live in a desert and it is always really dry around here anyway. (I checked before for another project and when adjusted to 70F we averaged a RH of about 30%).
The ceramic heater is heating up, it just doesn't seem to do enough for the cage. I'm wondering if instead a small "personal" heater would be a better choice? Anything I do use would be connected to the temperature controller.
I'm also wondering if a wooden cage would hold the heat better? But I'm not sure how I would use anything like UTHs with a wooden cage? I don't know how I would heat that any better.
The lizard doesn't seem too bothered, but it does spend a lot of time close to the ceramic heater, so it is probably on the cool side. It seems to be eating just fine.