Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Have any of you guys had succes with these new compact uv lights? I've had three and they only seem to last a very short while. They are rather expensive and before I try them again I'm wondering if you'll may have had better success.
CW

I use Arcadia 7.0's from the bean farm, they seem to be durable. I have not used a UV meter so I dont really know the output. I ordered 3 and when the arrived one was broken from shipping. BeanFarm got a new one to me in like 2 days, great service. I believe that ZooMed has 10.0 compacts now. Big Apple Herp has "mystic" UV bulbs that are supposed to put out close to the same as mercury vapor bulbs (mercury vapors are notorious for breaking and failing prematurely). I have not tried the zoo med or mystic bulbs yet but will when the arcadia's I have are about 6 months old...

I think that compact flourescents are great!

-Ian

After years of frustration with constantly breaking mercury vapor bulbs (T-Rex, Zoo Med and Big Apple) I am now using the Mystic compact fluorescents from Big Apple.
I had been waiting for these to come out and thus have been using them for a couple of months (since Christmas), so far without any problems. Their major advantage compared to other fluorescents is, that they emit usable UVB amounts at higher distance (2-3 feet). As my enclosure is fairly large my light fixtures are mounted higher up for a more natural look.
I don't have a meter to measure the actual UVB output, but my guys / girls (redfoots) definitely do hang out under the lamp every day, are active and have great appetites. I have also found Big Apple very trustworthy until now and believe, that one can rely on their claims (have discussed these lamps quite a bit with their very competent customer service representative Andy, who answers any questions very speedily). So as long as I don't notice anything counterproductive I will stick to these new lamps.
Their price is also a lot lower than any mercury vapor bulb and if they will only last for 6 months each I will have dramatically cut my costs for lightning.

Hope that helps,
Gaby

Can you give us closer pics of that cage you showed in the last post?
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Josh Willard
www.joshsfrogs.com

Hello,
I have used the mystic UV lights from BAH too, but on bearded dragons. I was wondering how long you leave your bulbs on. When I purchased my bulbs they hadn't yet changed their recommended length of use yet. Shortly after I started having problems and reporting them to BAH they changed their recommended length per day down to 2 hours/day. I was experiencing uveitis (eye irritation pretty much) on every animal under the bulbs after about 2 days of their original recommended use. I had 3 bulbs at the time, and experienced these problems with multiple animals and could repeat the results after I allowed the symptoms to subside so it was definately the bulbs doing it. Have you experienced any of these problems?

If anyone decides to use these bulbs, I strongely recommend using them according to their new recommendations to prevent permanent eye damage to your animals. I have not had a chance to proove this yet, but it is my assumption that these bulbs produce large amounts of UVC (the damaging UV light).

The arcadia's work great and last a long time. Much safer to use than the Mystics.

The Mystics can harm bearded dragon's eyes since the dragons stare at those lights. I ended up spending a small fortune when 8 of my dragons all of a sudden would not open their eyes using those bulbs.
I quickly took them off of all my reptiles after that and went back to the arcadias.
What a nightmare that was!

Lori

Lori,- your experience with the Mystic fluorescents sounds scary, but I would be very interested to know, how close your bearded dragons were able to get to the fluorescents. A comparison of lamp / bulb UVB outputs at various distances might be useful.
I am using the Mystics for tortoises (redfoots), who obviously don't climb and thus their minimum distance from the lamps is given when they sit right under it. In the case of my enclosure this minimal distance is 60 cm.
Big Apple tests their Mystic fluorescents individually and guarantees an output of 100 microwatts/cm2 UVB at a distance of 30 cm. As my minimum animal distance from lamp is double that, 60 cm, the output is only a quater of that, so about 25 microwatts/cm2.
This value is similar to what the average mercury vapor bulb would supply too. A new mercury vapor bulb (100W, flood type) will produce about 50 microwatts/cm2 at a distance of 30 cm and a quater of that at a distance of 60 cm. The 160W flood types will produce about double that, so about 25 microwatts/cm2 at a distance of 60 cm (and thus should produce identical results to the Mystics).
Arcadia bulbs have a lot lower UVB outputs than the mercury vapor bulbs. The 5% ones produce about 10 microwatts/cm2 at 30 cm distance and the 2% ones 4 microwatts/cm2.
A new Reptisun 5.0 produces about the same amount as the Arcadia 5%.
To put things in perspective, natural sunlight in the UK will produce about 50-85 microwatts/cm2, in Texas 200 microwatts/cm2 and on the equator 265 microwatts/cm2.
The average lamp outputs have been compiled from various sources, where people were comparing the lamps in question (the sources match well).

As the manufacturers of all these lamps indicate, the animals always have to have the opportunity to get out of the range of the UVB source, by providing proper hiding places and generally sufficient distance from the animal to the lamp (more challenging with climbing reptiles).
I am only in the process of trying these new Mystic lights, but at least with comparing them to the mercury vapor bulbs I have been using so far, there is no evidence, that their output is very different or actually dangerously high.
The topic of how much UVB our animals actually need is one of great controversy,- or better,- there is a lack of knowledge.

Gaby