Thermostat

[The_oboe_man]

I've heard from many people saying that you may not need a thermostat depending on your situation. Well my situation is that I have a 3ft *1ft*1ft glass tank for a bearded dragon with a 2ft batton and basking light. so do i need a thermostat.

Im also wondering if i would need to get a heating mat to go with the basking light...

Also, there are a huge range of thermostats, from the basic ones at about $30 al the way to the really good ones, such as the microclimet, all priced at around $100. So which would be the best to get and how are they different?

So many questions...

[Rennie]

I don't think you need a heat mat as long as the ground under the basking light is warm enough (at least 30 - 35c)
I don't think you need a thermostat as long as the basking light is up one end and the cool end isn't getting too hot (stays below about 25c)
There is a big difference between all the thermostats, some are pre-wired ready to go, some need wiring up, some are accurate to 0.5c some up to 4c, some do different temps for day and night, some switch on and off and some dim. It depends what you need it to do and if you want to wire it up or pay an electrician to do it.

[cris]

I wouldnt ever use a thermostat for dragons, unless i felt like wasting heaps of money on a dimming stat. A thermostat that click on and off is one off the worst thing you can have for basking lizard IMO.
If you give it a good basking light probably a 60 watt reflector globe, maybe a 40 watt in warm temperatues that is all the heating you will need turn it on in the morning and off at night. I like to use a rock for them to sit on under the light it will hold some heat through the night(although that isnt really needed).
Heating through the night will speed up growth, but thats all it will do.

I like to give mine a basking spot(the hottest part it can get to) of about 40 degrees plus or minus afew degrees.