Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone know anything about these? I bought the 100 watt for "Saphira" - she has a name now (the dragon in my son's favorite book "Eragon". Anyone know anything good or bad? They are supposed to last 1 year, give 15% more heat, light & UVA than basking spot lights. Also, the Super UV Coil lamp for UVB & UVA? I wanted to have more of a spot light UVA/UVB in the same location as the heat lamp, rather than the traditional fluorescent. Is this set up good???

Well, I know that the Halogen bulbs are great for these guys, but I have never worked with the coiled UV lights but I am sure they work fine too.

The halogens are very good but can get very hot on the spot the light is focused on so watch where you put it.

>>Does anyone know anything about these? I bought the 100 watt for "Saphira" - she has a name now (the dragon in my son's favorite book "Eragon". Anyone know anything good or bad? They are supposed to last 1 year, give 15% more heat, light & UVA than basking spot lights. Also, the Super UV Coil lamp for UVB & UVA? I wanted to have more of a spot light UVA/UVB in the same location as the heat lamp, rather than the traditional fluorescent. Is this set up good???

I agree the halogens are great buy you can get the same thing at your local home improvement store and spend a fraction of the money. What you're paying for is the name. Slap a reptile manufacturer's name on the same old bulb then the price magically doubles. Funny how that works.

FYI, I've read the super UV Coil's aren't that good. Check out this site.

UVB Testing

Hope this helps.
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Rob Talkington

Normal household halogens will not produce UVB or UVA, those rays are dangerous for people, so normal bulbs don't make them.
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Normal hologens do produce UVA as does every other kind of lightbulb made. UVB is what you are talking about which requires a special kind of bulb and glass.

If someone is going to use a ZooMed halogen bulb they are wasting their money when they can get the same thing at the Home Depot.

A ZooMed halogen does not produce any UVB and is mainly used for UVA, which is also the heat that is produced. Any halogen bulb can accomplish this same thing. My personal experience is the halogens that Zoomed puts out don't last longer than about 3 mos while the GE halogen I have has lasted 8 mos now.

If you'd like a better explanation of UVA compared to UVB email me. They are different things and UVA comes out of every household bulb manufactured on this planet. UVA is not dangerous.
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Rob Talkington

What are the best spot and UVB lights to get? I can still take these back. But I'm still at a loss as to what to get. Can anyone give me specific recomendation? Tank size is 30" long, 12" deep x 19" tall. (She's still a baby...my husband is going to build her a bigger tank in a few months). THANKS FOR ANY HELP!

This is what I would do. I'd definitely take both bulbs back and get a refund.

Then I'd look into getting a Mercury Vapor Bulb. I use the PowerSun bulbs made by Zoomed. These bulbs produce everything you will probably need. They put out heat (UVA) and UVB (necessary to produce D3 which makes calcium useable in reptiles).

With that tank I think the 100W would do the trick. You can get these bulbs online. I usually buy most of my supplies at www.bigappleherp.com but you may be able to get the bulbs cheaper somewhere else, I honestly don't know (shop around).

There are other MVB manufacturers out there and I think one of the best ones are made by vitalite. Check out this forum link.

MVB User Forum

Keep in mind with these MVB bulbs it may be necessary to buy an additional heat source. Some people say they don't get enough heat out of the MVB's. If that's the case any old incandescent near the MVB might do the trick. You will need to use the MVB first to see what kinds of temps you can generate.

Some people may tell you it is not necessary to use a bulb that produces UVB. They will tell you if you use a calcium supplement with vitamin d3 in it you'll be fine. My opinion on that is better safe than sorry. If you use a UVB producing bulb you give the reptile the ability to regulate it's own production of D3 while if only using supplements with d3 in them you are regulating that yourself. Overdosing or underdosing with vitamin D3 can be dangerous. Leave that to the experienced keepers. Just thought I'd stick that in here since we're talking UVB anyway.

Hope this helps!
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Rob Talkington