Beardie Question

[Xenogenesis]

Gday, I'm new to the lizards side of things and was just woundering the good/bad points, or suitability as a beardies UV source, merc vapour & fluro tube

[Xenogenesis]

cmon! i know theres many of you beardie pro's out there!

[junglepython2]

Nothing beats the sun, the beardies need to be quite close to the fluros for them to be any good.

[Xenogenesis]

*nods* i know they need to be close, but i'm just thinking a merc vapor bulb would generate too much heat to be on for 8 hours strait

[hugsta]

Can you give some details of your enclosure? Oz Brights (mercury vapour) are great for dragons and monitors as they supply heaps of UV and also heat. The only down side is they cannot be run off a thermostat. You can stick them on a timer though and if your enclosure is big enough you may not even have to do this, all depends on the size, ventilation etc etc.

You can use 10% style UV tubes such as outback max or compact fluoros such as compact max, it all comes down to size of enclosure. These can both be used with timers to stimulate a photoperiod and have a oz black or oz white ceramic for a heat source, or an infrared if you prefer a globe. These can be put onto a dimmer stat like a microclimate B1 to control your temps. Although the 10% UV tubes provide a lot of UV, you should allow your beardies to get fairly close as they will get mcuh better UV the closer they are.

Natural daylight is unbeatable, but you need to have them time to ensure that they get an hour a day and also that they have shade and water in case they get too hot, personally, I just give them articial UV as they do just as well on it provided they can get near enough to the UV source.

[Xenogenesis]

I like to find these things out before I get the animal so he/she's in optimal conditions from the word go. (so I do not have a beardie yet), but the proposed enclosure is 60cmX80cmX60cm

[Xenogenesis]

sorry, made of probably 8mm ply

[hugsta]

An Oz Bright would be too much for an enclosure of that size. I would consider one of the other options I meantioned earlier. You can also get the compact UV with a built in reflector shroud so it directs all the UV towards the basking area. Clink on my link below to see what I mean. Go into the UV section to see them.

[Xenogenesis]

Ok thanks.