Which UVB fixture is preferable?

[viejo]

I am finishing up my new enclosure- 8' x 4' x 40" and am trying to decide between using a mercury vapor uvb bulb or going with a 48" HO fluorescent fixture. I'm thinking that the fluorescent would cover a bigger area but would it indeed be preferable?

 

[viejo]

Also, what is a good source of mercury vapor if I decided to go that route?

 

[viejo]

I have decided to go with both the MVB & a HO fluorescent. Hopefully not overkill with the UV.

 

[snibborsirk]

Personally I prefer the t5 high output fluorescent bulbs over using the expensive (and easily breakable !) mercury vapor uvb bulbs. The fluorescent bulbs last months and cover a large area. I get the $8 Philips heat lamp bulbs from Home Depot for a basking spot. They have 125, 175, and 250 watt heat spot bulbs in white and red light. I've had bad luck with pretty much all of the mercury vapor spot bulbs - too much of a pain in the butt having to send them off to get replacements while they are under warranty.

 

[Jessicak]

I bought the Zilla uvb lamp and hood. We'll see how it works. Looking for product reviews but I can't find many

 

[snibborsirk]

Jessicak...Did you buy the Zilla t5, t8 slimline, or regular t8 fluorescent hood/bulb combo? Regardless, let us know how you like it - been wondering if they are a good product or not since they are a bit cheaper. Thanks

 

[Jessicak]

I got the 18 inch slimline in 'desert'

 

[Jessicak]

It's supposed to emit 50 (micro watts?) of uvb but I've heard that a screen top cancels out like 30%? Is that the case?

 

[snibborsirk]

It all depends on the type of screen and distance from the bulb to your tegu/reptile. Obviously the more dense/smaller screens will block out more than a larger screen. I've seen some testing done where uvb is cut in half by the smaller screen tops. Might want to consider mounting the slimline Zilla fixture just underneath the screen top if at all possible to get it inside the cage. The t8 fluorescent bulbs for your fixture need to prob be around 10-12" from the tegu for optimal uvb levels. If you got the t5 high output fixture/bulb, especially a higher quality one like the reptisun 10.0, you could easily double that distance to your tegu and still have a good uvb level.

 

[Jessicak]

I might just mount it under the scree top. He's just in a 40B gallon tank for now. He's right at the right distance

 

[N8bub]

Might want to check out mega ray mvb bulbs. Reptileuv.com is the site, lots of info. Also if you wanted to do the t5 route try lightyourreptiles.com. can't speak for their products personally but they look legitimate. Have had a good experience however with the megarays, good luck.

 

[Odonata]

I am sure you have already made decisions, just providing for input.

I am a big fan of having a separate UVB flourescent fixture, and then creating a basking spot from multiple lower wattage flood lights. It makes it more easy to control total ambient temperature in the enclosure and create gradients. By using multiple lights for the basking spot you create a larger, more evenly heated area appropriate to the size of the tegu (I recently added a third light to mine). The other reason for the flood lights is that some tegus like to bang stuff around, and the heavy duty glass can take a beating without breaking.

In terms of brands/vendors I will give a big thumbs up out to Todd at Light your Reptiles for Arcadia lighting in the US. These are not cheap, though very highly rated. I use the T5 high output fixtures and bulbs for all my lizards and own 4 of these fixtures. I recently had an issue with one of the connectors coming loose on the fixture which caused a short and melted the connector (my tegu occasionally bangs stuff around and probably caused the problem). I called Todd and he was happy to mail out some new connectors so that I could repair the fixture. Great customer service.

Site if you are interested:

http://www.lightyourreptiles.com/

And an informative site on UV lighting for reptiles:

http://www.uvguide.co.uk/index.htm

 

[CameronJayBauer]

I got the 18 inch slimline in 'desert'

One thing I would like to mention on that particular fixture is that for some reason, (which to this day I still can't understand) zilla puts a plastic cover over the bulb within the hood. This layer of plastic (as far as I'm aware) blocks the UVB rays from getting to your tegu, essentially rendering the light useless. So I'd pop that little plastic cover off as soon as you get it, it's just unnecessary

 

[viejo]

Can someone tell me what would be the useful life of a t5 HO 10 uvb bulb?

 

[Roadkill]

I personally recommend both, an ambient fluorescent bulb and a focal basking mercury vapor bulb.

As for the type of bulbs....we don't have much selection, IMO. I've tried the 'Zilla T5s, and all I can say is if they aren't on drastic sale, I wouldn't buy them. They seem to have excellent output to begin with, but burnout (completely, not just UV) REALLY fast. I've been meaning to give the Arcadia brand a try, could hardly be worse.

 

[viejo]

Mine is a Reptisun & seems to be holding up well lumens wise (no darkening on the ends so far) but I don't have a meter to check for UV. This one has been going for around 6 months. BTW: Can you recommend a good meter?

 

[Shayne Laymon]

Megaray

 

[viejo]

Still no reply to my original question - 'How long is the useful life of HO uvb bulbs?' I prefer the separate UVB option to a mercury vapor bulb as they have always had a very short life span in my experience. I also prefer the control ability of using separate bulbs.

 

[Roadkill]

Honestly, I don't think anyone can truthfully say how long is the useful life with any sort of realistic accuracy. You'll encounter the typical "six months replacement" regurgitation, but I don't actually think this is based on any empirical evidence whatsoever. There are two main problems that would hinder anyone to give an accurate answer: very few actually have the appropriate equipment to realistically measure their output (I've seen a wonderful piece of equipment and for some reason I can't even get the manufacturer to give me a damned quote on what it costs), and no one really knows how much UVB is essential to not only promote good health, but ensure it.

Now, having said this, I have some anecdotal evidence that, contrary to what is often said (even by myself), seems to point in a direction many would argue against (including myself). Years ago when dinosaurs roamed North America and I was just starting out my first steps in research with tegus, my supervisor had brought me my initial collection of something like 35 baby tegus and had me set them up to his guidelines. Now, I was no where near as knowledgeable (or confident) as I am now, but even them I was "well, I wouldn't set them up that way, but you're the boss". Basically, they were kept in large fiberglass bins with brooder heat lamps (the big red bulbs), being fed a ground meat mash with chopped veggies and vitamin/mineral supplementation. It wasn't too long before some started showing the early signs of calcium deficiency (muscle tremors). Called in our departmental veterinarian, he concurred, we gave them some shots of calcium (and I think vit D3), tremors went away. Then came back. So we tried mixing up the shots, including other vitamins and such associated with the whole calcium regulation pathways, each time succeeding in driving off the tremors only to have them return later. We really analysed what I was feeding them and were quite certain that mineral and nutritional needs were being met. And the numbers of tegus affected kept growing. Being somewhat analytical and wanting to figure out what was going wrong, I started dividing up the tegus according to the severity/repeatedness I was observing. Before long, had run out of suitable housing in our lab, and so did what I usually did: brought in my own stuff to completely separate all the affected animals. Set them up individually, and before long, started to see a pattern. Some of the tegus kept developing tremors, some got better and we never saw tremors in them again. Looking at who got treated with what, there was no clear pattern to indicate which treatment we'd tried seemed to be working. Until it dawned on me - the ones that were no longer exhibiting tremors were ones now being housed in MY terrariums with MY lighting.....fluorescent bulbs with UV output. Here's the kicker: this was BEFORE the selection of bulbs we have now, and I certainly didn't bring in brand new bulbs at my own expense, these were old Vitalite bulbs, some before the "patented twist" line, that I had kicking around, wasn't using anymore as I thought they were likely "spent". Some of these bulbs were likely 5-7 years old, and the Vitalites never had the intensity we now have in reptile lighting. These old bulbs clearly had enough UVB to correct the problem.

Here's the issue, though. Even with this story behind me, this is NOT a statement that any old bulb will do, or that old bulbs will continue to produce adequate UVB for years. Only that in this situation, it was enough to adjust a "bad" situation and make it better. Since then I've learned a lot more and understand the situation better than it appears most do. Most of us are aware that UVB helps the calcium metabolism pathway. Some understand that what UVB does is convert pre-vitamin D3 to bioactive pro-vitaminD3 (it's far more complicated than this, but this is suitable for what we're talking about). Fewer seem to understand that vitamin D3 is a lipid soluble vitamin (unlike most), and therefore can be sequestered and stored in tissues, and as such can thereby reach hazardous, toxic levels (water soluble vitamins we just pee out). This is because surprisingly we don't have an innate, biological method of regulating our vitamin D3 content. What very few seem to realise (including the human health practitioners that go on about how many units of vitamin D3 you should intake every day) is that once the vitamin D3 levels reach a sufficient concentration in our plasma and with sufficient intensity of UVB, that the pro-vitamin D3 is FURTHER converted to two inert forms that are apparently non-toxic at any concentration. So we need some UVB to photoactivate vitamin D3 into a usable form, and then we need MORE UVB of sufficient intensity to properly regulate Vitamin D3 levels.

Short'n'sweet: A suitable fluorescent bulb can likely produce UVB of sufficient intensity to activate some vitamin D3 for quite some time, but to produce enough UVB to properly regulate the vitamin D3 ........... no one really knows what intensity is necessary or how long the various bulbs can maintain that intensity.

 

[Justin]

I've read 6 months for uvb bulbs.