Reptile & Amphibian Forums

With my little guy I have a Repti-Sun 5.0 bulb and a basking bulb with him now. The other day I bought a ESU Super UV Coil Lamp, for one of my other lizards I have, Was just using it for lighting for the cage. My question is though when I put it over my dragons cage for just about an hour, he seemed to show a lot better color under that bulb then he does with his Repti sun and that bulb is new to, just a month old. Would it be ok to use that as my UVA UVB bulb? As does it throw off enough UV for them? Any info would be apprecaited!! Thanks!!!

D

Don't remember where but i've heard that the coil lamps do not put out enough UVB for reptiles with a high UVB requirement like a bearded dragon. Interesting though about the color change.

according to a study on the yahoo UVB users group:
ESU Reptile Super UV coil lamp 20 watts-new 8-9" 50

that seems sufficient however keep in mind that this test is for new. after break in it will be substantially less. If I remember correctly, the last time I asked about that particular bulb, I was told (by Axe from the Reptile Room) that it had a very poor rating. Every test of ESU light I have done showed very poor results.
-----
Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

I don't plan on unsing it I was just curious. Thank you guys for your imput. Just one last question with this bulb... why do you think it made his color so much nicer then under the reptisun bulb, its a 5.0!

D

>>I don't plan on unsing it I was just curious. Thank you guys for your imput. Just one last question with this bulb... why do you think it made his color so much nicer then under the reptisun bulb, its a 5.0!
>>
>>D

If you were using both maybe the added UVB caused the change in color. Also, it was indicated that a new coil puts out 50 at 8-9" which I think is probably more than you were getting with your reptisun, especially if the reptisun was old.

Another explanation could be the shade of light or intensity of UVA the coil was producing.
-----
Rob Talkington