basking light for a bearded dragon .

[harry cresty]

Hi guys i have just joined and i have nearly finnished setting up my 4ft x 18"x 18" vivexotic for a bearded dragon which i hope to get in a couple of months time .
my problem is i had a 100w basking light on to a piece of wood and the temperature only went up to 93f so i got a 150w basking bulb but that one takes the basking temp up to 117f but i have been told that i need about 110f for the beardies , so i brought a microclimate b1 dimming thermostat but that only lets the temperature go up to 95f than the bulb starts dimming and the bulb nearly goes off, what am i doing wrong ? thanks in advance .

[tomcannon]

By the sounds of things the thermostat is dimming the bulb because your probe is directly under the basking light and doesn't allow the bulb to get up to temp.

You need to move your thermostat probe away from the basking spot so that the thermostat allows the basking spot to get up to temp before it dims.

Have a look at this thread for more info.

I don't quite understand how a 100w or 150w didn't get the basking spot up to temp without a thermostat. It should do easily, a 60/75w is normally plenty.

Can you give a pic of your setup. That'll help no end and I can explain exactly how to do it.

[harry cresty]

Hi tomcannon , without the thermosate the 100w only gets to 95f on the basking log with the thermometer on the spot and the 150w goes up to 117f ,with the thermometer on the log at the basking spot so i have found out now i have to plug in the thermostat and move the thermostat prob away from the basking spot untill i get about 110f, so i think i have worked that out if it is right !. The next question is as soon as the light gets up near the temperature it is set at it dims quite a lot nearly turns off in fact repeatadly is this normal i thought it would dim slightly but not go out shourly the bulb wont last long with it doing that all the time , is the thermostat faulty its a microclimate b1 dimmer stat . i havent got any pics at the moment as i have just set it up but i will try and get some soon , the vivarium is the one with the basking lamp on top outside the viv and the distance from the basking log to the lamp is 8 inches thanks .

[awh]

wow the bulbs must be rubbish then as i use 100watt household spotlight bulbs (reflector type) in mine and without the stat they heat the basking spot to 130f but i use them with a dimming stat and the temps are held spot on and mine basking lights are 12 inches away from the branch

during the summer i swap down to 75watt bulbs

[harry cresty]

The bulbs i have are the 100w is a daylight basking spot from exo terra and the 150w is a daylight spotlight from eurorep , and on the box of the 100w it says the distance from the light to the basking area at 8 inches the temp will be 93f and at 4 inches the temp will be 122f , well i think 4 inches is to high the beardy will be hitting his head all the time lol. Are there better bulbs or what ones do you use .