Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My red 60W incandescent night light just burned out. I have a GE 60W incandescent blacklight just lying around...does anyone know whether it's safe to use this for night viewing? Am I correct in thinking that there's little or no UV emitted by this type of incandescent bulb? To my eye the emitted light looks just like that from the "moonlight" bulb I purchased from the pet store, but of course that's purely subjective. Any info would be appreciated.

Chris

There is a difference between a reptile "blacklight" (or blue light) and a home depot "blacklight". The GE one I would assume would make your white shirt glow when turned on while the reptile one would not. The coatings are different, thus there is a significant amount of UV put out by the blacklights that light up your shirt. Reptile lights are simply painted blue, no special elements. I would personally not use the GE light even if it does not make white objects glow because I'm paranoid like that (also reptile lights are also slightly more geared for heat output rather than light, but this difference is hard to notice).

I got an email from the GE technical service dept. They insist that incandescents do not emit UV, which has been my understanding as well. Short of getting a UV meter and testing it myself, I'll go ahead and use it on that basis, as it's only on when I want to view the gecko at night anyway. To all appearances, this bulb is identical to a "moonlight" bulb I have, it doesn't even cause the glowing effect on white objects. Thanks for your input just the same.

Chris

>>There is a difference between a reptile "blacklight" (or blue light) and a home depot "blacklight". The GE one I would assume would make your white shirt glow when turned on while the reptile one would not. The coatings are different, thus there is a significant amount of UV put out by the blacklights that light up your shirt. Reptile lights are simply painted blue, no special elements. I would personally not use the GE light even if it does not make white objects glow because I'm paranoid like that (also reptile lights are also slightly more geared for heat output rather than light, but this difference is hard to notice).