Enclosure advice for new owner

Quemeleon

New Member
Greetings all,
I am new to the forum but have learned a lot from you all so far. Thanks! This is, however, my first post so please bear with me.
I am a fairly new veiled cham owner(5mo) but have cared for several other herps for years. I am also the owner of a beautiful, 2yr old Bearded Dragon. So far my cham (Cock-eyed Willie) has grown at a good rate and looks healthy. I began and currently have him in a 20gal. long aquarium with a screen cage topper. Because hes significantly grown, it is now time to purchase a larger tank. I am writing for all of you experienced owner's opinion of which cage to purchase. I am currently debating between the following 2 enclosures:
1) aluminum enclosure sold by lllreptile.com (24x24x48in, $79)
http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/reptile-supplies/reptile-cages-glass-and-screen/
2) large cage (30x18x36in, $125) sold at chameleonsonly.com.
http://chameleonsonly.com/Screen-Enclosures.htm

I am leaning toward the chameleons only cage because its larger, I like the ability to open(for cleaning, food dish, etc) the bottom and it seems to be better built. not sure.

I am also currently using an exo-terra mercury vapor bulb(125w) during the day and a ceramic heater(100w) for night. I plan to continue using the mercury vapor bulb until its use is up and next purchase a reptisun 5.0 and a normal house light for heat. Although the idea of having two in one(UV and heat) seems to be a good one, after reading through some of the posts, this seems to be the preferred method. What do you think? and Is the ceramic heater even necessary for night being that the temp in my house stays around 70s anyway?

All/any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Personally I would go for the LLL reptile (24x24x48) cage because it's cheaper and taller. Also if you're looking at overall size, the LLL reptile cage is bigger. 24x24x48 = 27,648 cubic inches and 30x18x36 = 19,440 cubic inches. You could spend the $50 you would save on other supplies.

EDIT:
As for the lighting, I would go for the reptisun 5.0 and the normal housebulb. You can buy it with the money you save on the cage. =) The wattage seems a little high for the night time bulb especially since your house stays around the 70s. What exactly is the temperature range for that ceremic heater? I would just ditch the night time bulb all together.
 
Get rid of the ceramic heater, it's actually better for the temp to drop at night for them. in my opinion as long as it doesn't drop below 65 it's fine.
 
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