Water Dragon UVB

Question
I recently bought a Chinese water dragon and complete vivarium setup. The lamp they gave me is a complete UVA, UVB, basking lamp and heat source combined (Solar Glow). It is 125w and very bright. I have been doing a bit of research on the web and understand they need a period of darkness to sleep,(understandably), constant light will cause distress. This light is on a Lucky Reptile stat and is on and off every five minutes. Its driving me mad, god knows what its doing to him. Would I not be better off using a ceramic or IR lamp for heating and basking and a UV tube? If so how many hours a day should the UVB tube be on and what type would you recommend. Thanks.

Answer
Hello Martyn,

Ok, what type of light fixture are you using?  Since the Solar Glo is 125 watts, your ceramic dome light fixture needs to be rated to at least 300 watts in order to support that much wattage.  
She will need a 12 hour daylight cycle & a 12 hour nighttime cycle.  
I would take it off of the stat that is probably screwing it up right now.  
The Mercury Vapor Bulbs cannot be used on dimmers & probably even stats, I would think.  It needs a constant & steady wattage going through it.  The MVB's have a protection device to shut them off if they get too hot or a surge of electricity hits them.  
If you decide to go with a basking bulb & a flourescent tube bulb you can get the Arcadia D3 12% flourescent tube bulb, & use a halogen bulb along with it.  No, using a ceramic heat emitter or an IR lamp are not bright enough to protect the eyes against the UVB or to stimulate activity & feeding.

Tracie