Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Solar brite 100 watt self-ballasted mercury vapor GLOBE with two main components. The first is a standard incandescent filament, which is the first to light. The second is a mercury vapor arc tube, which takes a few minutes to heat up. There will be a change in color when the bulb is fully functioning. Because the Solar Brite mercury vapor is a self-ballasted bulb it must be used in any ceramic socket that is rated to handle the high energy. This bulb puts out 25 to 50 micro watt cm2 as far as 36 inches. High UVB Spectrum covers an 18 inch circumference at 36 inches. This high level of UVB is more than enough high energy full spectrum for your animal. Anything more may be harmful to your animal. Animals have been burned under lights that produce over 50 micro watts cm2. The flourecents we have been using for over 20 years have performed well at 15 micro watts cm2 at 18". When an animal is trapped inside of an encloser It cannot escape the UVB spectrum after it gets what it needs. In the wild heat is the signal that its time to find shade, inside of a terrarium we employ devices that control a desired temperature never giving the signal to get out of the UVB spectrum. The moral of this story is too much UVB is not better its harmful.

this sounds a like little bit too much. does it to anyone else???? would you recommend this or should i just get the Reptisun 5.0????? thanx!

I have read that they put out no UVB. Thelink isn't around anymore. But if the price is too good to be true it probably is.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

I really don't think there is such a thing as too much UVB. In the wild animals are under the sun all the time, only getting out of it when too hot. Reptiles use UVB to produce D3 but once they reach the maximun amount their bodies need, they just stop producing D3 in their bodies. UVB by itself won't harm the reptile.

There was a great link to an artical about UVB awhile back...wish I could remember the site as it had some great information. Maybe somebody else here can remember it. YOu can try doing a search on UVB but that is bound to bring up way to many hits to make it easy to track down which thread at the link.

n/p