The color of the bulb makes no difference, your friend is, unfortunately, uninformed regardless of how many reptiles he has. If you're looking to keep reptiles, one thing you'll want to know is that there are a lot of folks out there who simply do not keep on top of current knowledge and husbandry. Please don't ever let someone tell you they're right because they've been doing it for x years or have y many animals - instead try to do your own research, or talk to folks who do. In the case of red bulbs, you pay more for something that offers no benefit to the animal (and may actually offers a lower visual range within its environment). Just be sure you're spot checking your temperatures with an infrared thermostat to be sure they're right.

For UV, personally I glued a light fixture to the back of our dragon's enclosure and replaced the standard bulb with a UV bulb. Also I would definitely ditch the pellets in favor of slate tiles and perhaps a dig box. The dragon could definitely ingest some of those while hunting bugs. Loose substrates can be safely done, but since you're still learning, it would probably be easiest and safest to stick to tile for now so you can easily monitor your dragon's droppings and hunting habits, as well as ease of keeping the enclosure clean.

You might also see about picking up some nice rocks to climb on and rub against for shedding. Beardies love climbing around on things. Ours has several big slabs of slate that he lays on and a big rock cave he can go into or on top of to bask. Basically, as many things to climb on or hide under as you can get in there will be great for the dragon.

Best of luck, they are such awesome and amusing companions!