Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone, I just got a baby bearded dragon today and was looking to get a mercury vapor light for heat and both uva and uvb. I found a mercury vapor light fixture at Lowe's and was wondering if anyone knew if it would emit the same uva and uvb as the reptile specific mercury vapor bulbs. I looked at the box and it did not say anything about uv. I would think all mercury vapor lights would emit the same stuff. Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated Here is a link to the light...
Lowe's Light

No, this light will not provide UVB at all, or if it does it is at extremely low levels. Mercury Vapor bulbs found at hardware stores are completely different than UVB producing MVBs designed for reptiles. They are called MVB due to how the bulb is made/lights up, not if they produce UVB rays or not. Just like most florescent lights do not produce any UVB rays, but there are plenty of these light bulbs available for home use.

However, flood light style MVB at Lowes can be used for a basking spot light.
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PHLdyPayne

The outer bulb on a normal mercury light will block the the UV needed buy the dragon, The same for normal Metal Halide lamps.
the bulbs used for uvb and uva are made from a diffrent type of glass that can pass that wavelength of light. Also as the bulb ages the uv output falls off as the glass is effected over time.
I have flouecent rocks and need a filtered UVC fixture for that, even though the buld is rated for 10k hours the filterglass usaly lasts a few thusand hours.
I belive the incandecent reptile bulbs need to be replaced before they burn out for the same reason.
I think it should be noted that if a normal flourecent fixture is used with a reptile bulb that any diffuser or cover over the bulb can filter out or reduce the UV