# coil bulbs



## dragonqueen4 (Apr 2, 2009)

well, we all saw what became of my tegu trooper from the use of coil uvb bulbs, even though I was supplementing him with calcium and d3. I would not recommend these bulbs to anyone with a tegu and Im sure you all feel the same way.
Butttt.....
I work in a pet store and and customer with a 2 year old tegu came in yesterday to buy a new light. She told me shes been using the coil bulbs for the past year. Before that the tegu was in a pet store where the bulbs are not better. She said her tegu is fine and shows no signs of MBD. 
ummmm, I dont get it. Why would these bulbs be working for her tegu and not mine :chin


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## TehPenguin (Apr 2, 2009)

It could be that some give off better UVB than others. I have a coil at home, one of my bearded dragons almost got killed due to an eye infection from it. Now I use reptisun. But, some people use them and have success with them. Maybe only 1 out of 4 are good. Who knows.


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## Patimus (Apr 2, 2009)

How can they get eye infections? I have an exo Terra sun glo MVB about 14 inches from her basking spot. It is a 160 watt. Can this be harmful to her?


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## dragonqueen4 (Apr 2, 2009)

Patimus said:


> How can they get eye infections? I have an exo Terra sun glo MVB about 14 inches from her basking spot. It is a 160 watt. Can this be harmful to her?



no, those are fine. they are a fairly good bulb. its the coil bulbs that can cause eye problems, not MVB's


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## PinkPunisher (Apr 3, 2009)

dragonqueen4 said:


> Patimus said:
> 
> 
> > How can they get eye infections? I have an exo Terra sun glo MVB about 14 inches from her basking spot. It is a 160 watt. Can this be harmful to her?
> ...




To my knowledge I don't think thats true. Its the _amount of UVB exposed_ to the animal that causes the eye problems. The problem with the coil bulbs is that they tend to produce dangerously high amounts of UVB which causes the animal to contract (not the best wording) photoconjunctivites. I believe that would be the eye infection TehPenguin speaks of. 

Now onto Patimus's quote, the bulb should be okay. I've been using two Sun Glo's on my tegu's and iguana and neither are showing any health issues. With photoconjuntivites you will notice the animal not open it eyes, in which case you should turn off your UVB bulb for a few days and see if the issue clears up. If the animal has its eyes open much more after the bulb has been off then you need to buy a new UVB light. In most cases the animal won't need to go to a vet unless it gets infected (I think!). 

So as long as you follow the 12" rule and have proper temps I would say your animal is fine. 

Spencer


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## dragonqueen4 (Apr 3, 2009)

the coil bulbs are known for being too bright which causes eye problems. i have never heard of a long bulb or MVB causing eye problems. its the new compact/coil bulbs on the market that are garbage and cause eye problems


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## Tux (Apr 3, 2009)

A) she may not know what shes looking for like 99% of keepers
B) She may think something which is abnormal is infact normal.
C) Just don't use coil bulbs, just don't, some of them are "ok" but none are optimal so why take the risk?

photokeratoconjunctivitis is what your thinking of, in humans we call it welders flash. The good news is that it is reversible. The bad news is that it's not the only negative effect. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor.htm</a><!-- m --> and if not caught early enough the animal can die.

Sun Glo's are UVA bulbs, they won't cause eye issues but they sure won't provide uvb either....and who would buy them, they are just rebranded overpriced halogen lights.


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## dragonqueen4 (Apr 3, 2009)

no worries, i am not using the coil bulbs anymore
you are right, sun glos are uva only and they dont produce heat either.. they are just like a regular lightbulb..or u can get the halogen with heat, still no uvb
i was thinking of solar glos ..thats what i have, its a mvb, uvb and heat in one, perhaps thats what patimus has??


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## Tux (Apr 3, 2009)

sunglos do actually produce heat (though not much) The solarglos seem to be ok though not as good as megaray, they also suffer from the same issue as the powersun having a fast decay rate.

The uvb issue with the coils has alot to do with the wavelength of uvb output not just the amount.


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## PinkPunisher (Apr 3, 2009)

Oops, I should have checked my bulb boxes. Turns out I have two Solar Glo's not Sun Glo's. My mistake, sorry for the confusion everyone! lol

Spencer


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## fleco_brown (Apr 9, 2009)

coils have been an issue since I first started getting into reptiles. Crazy. I know people with coils and no problems, and others that have experienced problems. Just like with sand and all the substrate issues. Some people are just lucky nothing happens to them. Otherwise, all these products would be illegal.


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## jmiles50 (Apr 9, 2009)

I pretty sure the eye problem's are going to be because of UVB overexposure. That's the only thing I've heard of, that would cause eye problems. Like a sunburn to the eye's(welder's get it alot......called flash burn).


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## laurarfl (Apr 9, 2009)

It's not UVB overexposure with coil lights, it's the phosphor used that causes UVC to be produced. UVC causes cellular damage in skin and eyes...photo (light) kerato (keratitis-inflamed corneas) conjunctivitis (inflammation of the conjunctival tissues of the eye). Certain brands were known for producing such problems.

There can also be issues with bright light that damages the eye, like snow blindness, which is also a form of photokeratoconjunctivitis. Someone on-line had an ig problem last winter when the ig sat by the window on a bright sunny day after a snowfall. A properly operating bulb wouldn't be a problem at a safe distance.

As for why one animal reacts differently, that is interesting. Another on-line friend had two tegus of the same age kept in the same enclosure under equal conditions and fed the same diet. One developed tremors that resolved with bulb replacement and supplementation. The other tegu never had a problem. Weird....


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## RehabRalphy (Apr 9, 2009)

Just think about it. UVC can penetrate through cells and changes the DNA molecule. This eliminates cell replication which leads to cell death (kills bacteria, good and bad). The eyes will be first effected if a noticeable high output of UVC is present. AKA Inflammation of the mucous membrane.

laurarfl is corrent. Fluorescent lighting (such as the coil bulb) discharges gas that uses your electricity to create mercury vapor. The vapor produces short wave UV. UVC is a short wavelength. Phosphor thats coated on the outside of the bulb then produces visible light. 

The coil lamp has a small tightly coiled tube which may requires a different process to coat the tubing. More buildup of Phosphor in the coils due to the awkward design and small tubing. Thus, produces substantial amounts of UV-C. Since I have no evidence to support this claim, then it can only be viewed as an opinion


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## Tux (Apr 10, 2009)

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor-tests.htm#UVC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyph ... ts.htm#UVC</a><!-- m -->



> Some of these lamps do emit traces of UVC, which correspond to the high-wavelength UVC (from 275nm - 280nm) seen on the spectrograms. However, this UVC output is low and at more than a few inches from the lamp, seems unlikely to be very significant.



The UVC issue is confusing as I can't find the original reports on it, anyone got them? I know from what I read it was actually low wavelength UVB in the Zilla and other brands.


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## RehabRalphy (Apr 10, 2009)

No idea where they got their information, but 240 - 280nm (UV-C) is a short wavelength.


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## RehabRalphy (Apr 10, 2009)

Heres some interesting information about this.

"UVC radiation only travels very short distances through air and it seems unlikely that any would reach a basking spot below one of these lamps. "

They were referring to MVB's, but its the first part of the quote that caught my attention.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.reptileuvinfo.com/html/mega-ray-narrow-flood-report.htm#UVC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.reptileuvinfo.com/html/mega- ... rt.htm#UVC</a><!-- m -->


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## Filphfio (Apr 10, 2009)

coil bulbs contain enough mercury to poison 6,000 gallons of water...


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## laurarfl (Apr 10, 2009)

It was the Zilla slimline Desert bulbs that were recalled for phosphor problems. They were in fact producing UVC and many lizards were affected with PKC and some died. The UVC did reach the basking areas and the bulbs were awful.


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## Tux (Apr 10, 2009)

laurarfl said:


> It was the Zilla slimline Desert bulbs that were recalled for phosphor problems. They were in fact producing UVC and many lizards were affected with PKC and some died. The UVC did reach the basking areas and the bulbs were awful.





> A recent QC check by our R&D Labs on the ZillaÃ?Â¢Ã¢â?¬Å¾Ã?Â¢ Desert 50 bulb has indicated a potential issue with the Ã?Â¢Ã¢â??Â¬Ã?â??phosphorÃ?Â¢Ã¢â??Â¬Ã?Â coating of the ZillaÃ?Â¢Ã¢â?¬Å¾Ã?Â¢ Desert 50 Bulb. The phosphor coating is a complex chemical matrix which is utilized to yield the unique characteristic of any fluorescent bulb. In the case of the ZillaÃ?Â¢Ã¢â?¬Å¾Ã?Â¢ Desert 50 Series, one of the chemical elements present produces a low-wavelength UVB fluorescent emission. While still in the UVB emission range (280-320 nm), the effective influence of the low wavelength light is more significant than that of higher UVB constituents (those near 320 nm). As is well known, over exposure of UVB light can cause photo-kerato-conjunctivitis in certain species of reptiles-primarily turtles and lizards. The ZillaÃ?Â¢Ã¢â?¬Å¾Ã?Â¢ Desert 50 bulb contains UVB light which is required for animal health; however, if not properly used, harmful overexposure may occur. The very low-wavelength UVB light is most pronounced during the first 120 hours of use.
> 
> Based on these findings we are reformulating the Ã?Â¢Ã¢â??Â¬Ã?â??phosphorÃ?Â¢Ã¢â??Â¬Ã?Â coating of the ZillaÃ?Â¢Ã¢â?¬Å¾Ã?Â¢ Desert 50 bulbs to reduce overexposure risk. Until these reformulated bulbs are available we will be out of stock on the items listed below.
> 
> Until the new ZillaÃ?Â¢Ã¢â?¬Å¾Ã?Â¢ Desert 50 products are in your store, we would recommend that you stop selling the skuÃ?Â¢Ã¢â??Â¬Ã¢â??Â¢s listed below and return the product to your distributor or your Central AquaticsÃ?Â¢Ã¢â?¬Å¾Ã?Â¢ Sales Representative for credit. Central AquaticsÃ?Â¢Ã¢â?¬Å¾Ã?Â¢ will also replace products that have already been sold that contain the effected bulbs.



check out the entire page. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor-summary.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyph ... ummary.htm</a><!-- m -->


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## laurarfl (Apr 10, 2009)

It's been a couple of years, if I'm mistaken, I must've interpreted the low wavelength UVB as meaning UVC. Sorry about that!


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## Tux (Apr 10, 2009)

It's pretty dang close and would be easy to confuse with UVC. One place I know their are issues with UVC is with Chinese made MVBs.


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