Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok at petsmart there is a light fixture for 29.99 it already includes a "super UV light" it says its a 7% dessert light. its called ESU Reptile Slimline Light. it is a florecent type bulb.
i was wondering if that would be sufficent for UVB if i get him within 10" of the light.
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1.0.1 Green Anole(tedo, bubbles)
1.0. Tremper Albino Leo gecko (Brut)
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon(AXE)
1.0.0 Toy poodle( Cho lu la)

0.1.0 Girl Friend

The light your looking at is not a bad choice. I am currently using it,as well as reptisun 5.0 and a flukers bulb and can see little difference in the effects on the animals. I believe some uvb is better than none and yes it does nedd to be about 10 inches from the animal to work well. It will start to loose its blueness and then you should replace it. I have used reptisun5.0 for years but have been experimenting with some of thier competition. I use two bulbs on my big enclosures.
As for pelleted diets ...they are no substitute for a balanced diet of natural foods. I am a bit sceptical of how much research actually goes into commercial food. In my opinion companies spend more on marketing than research. I would caution you against using pellets for anything except the occasional additive. I use them once in a while to provide some variety but never depend on then to be the animals mainstay. Just my opinion. Brenda
18 beardies
2 uros
5 snakes
9 turtles and torts
6 guinea pigs
2 parrots
4 cats
2 dogs
1 salamander
12 or more rats
2 leopard geckos
and a partridge in a pair tree.

i got the bulb and within 30 mins of putting it on the cage i can see a noticably better differance in his walking. when i got him at petco the person refused to mention they NEED uvb she gave me a spot lamp with UVA. but i should know better then to lision to petstores. anyway this light seems to be doing just fine and when i replace the bulb im probly gettin a (forget brand name) 8.0
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1.0.1 Green Anole(tedo, bubbles)
1.0. Tremper Albino Leo gecko (Brut)
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon(AXE)
1.0.0 Toy poodle( Cho lu la)

0.1.0 Girl Friend

I have been meeting to post what I know about UV lights on this forum. I rarely see the entire picture being broadcasted, but plenty of misinformation.

In support of another poster, this particular product does not in any way provide ultraviolet light. I would assume that it only supplies vitamin D. It is certainly essential, but not the best way to provide vitamin D. The problem with artificially supplementing captive diets with vitamin D, is that it is very easy to overdose on vitamin D. When you factor in most people's tendency to think that if a little bit is good, then more is better, you can understand why artificial vitamin D is not something to play around with.

First of all, I have to say that anyone who complains about the cost of ultraviolet lighting doesn't have any business keeping a live animal. People complain about a $30 light fixture when a single visit to a veterinarian will easily run more than $100. Let's not forget that ALL animals WILL get sick, most problems with captive amphibians and reptiles are directly the result of improper husbandry, and most of these problems can only be corrected by a veterinarian. No amount of pleading on these forums for home remedies will negate the need to lay down some bills at a veterinarian. Period.

With that out of the way, I am going to get right to the point. Mercury vapor bulbs are the only way to fly nowadays. If the sun puts out about 300 µW of UVB at noon, and these fluorescent light bulbs are at best putting out 15 or 20 µW, I can't think of any good reasons to recommend a fluorescent UV bulb. Zoo med claims in all of its ads that it can support its claims with a study done on their bulbs. I requested this supporting information and to be honest with you, it was a joke by scientific standards.

Mercury vapor bulbs are the best, why? Because they can put out the 300 µW of UVB that the sun puts out. Or is only one problem, almost all of the Mercury vapor bulbs on the market today are also worthless, why? Because they are self ballasted. In short, the ballast of the Mercury vapor bulb is essential to providing the proper voltage to the bulb. If this ballast is contained within the bulb itself, the heat produced by the bulb ultimately cooks the ballast. This problem is compounded with some of the 250 W Mercury vapor bulbs, 500° at the core of the bulb fries the ballast that much quicker! This is why you hear so many bad things about the self ballasted Mercury vapor bulbs only lasting a few months.

What is the solution? ReptileUV.com and their extern only ballasted Mercury vapor bulbs. I have absolutely no affiliation with this company, I only believe strongly in their products and appreciate their customer service. I am formerly a curator of amphibians and reptiles with a collection of 200 plus and had to equip exhibits in a new $23 million building. The externally ballasted bulbs were essential to making these exhibits work, and I would not have been able to provide all of the turtles in these exhibits with the proper UVB without them. The advantage to this system is that the ballast will essentially last for a much longer time and when the bulb burns out, you do not have to replace the ballast. In the long run it will be much cheaper to use this system. Almost all of the systems I installed over a year ago are still running. I recently checked the output of the bulbs with a UVB meter, and they are still putting out at least as much as the natural sun!

You are going to look at about $75 for a ballast and bulb. This still cost less than a trip to the veterinarian.

The Mega-Ray products on this web site are the ONLY UV bulbs I recommend and should be the only ones recommended on these forums, anything else and you are just wasting your money and not providing your pets with the best possible care. I honestly can't believe why this product isn't brought up more often especially on this forum.

Here is a direct link to the products I speak of...
http://www.reptileuv.com/megarayflood.htm

And an in-depth article that should be referenced anytime someone has a question about UVB...
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Articles/guidetolighting.htm
Click here for the link

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If there is a just God, how humanity would writhe in its attempt to justify its treatment of animals. - Isaac Asimov

Human industry has been in full swing for a little over a century, yet it has brought about a decline in almost every ecosystem on the planet. Nature doesn't have a design problem. People do.
William McDonough, architect and designer, Sierra Club magazine

First thanks for sending me those links.

the bulb i got dose put off UVB and UVA. as for the people complaining about a 30$ bulb shouldnt own a reptile? that statement is uncalled for because one Most of us are mislead by petstores and its to late when we fined out about the nessecity of UVB.
2nd people have ben keeping beardies and other reptiles under the florecent UV lights for YEARS so just because MV may be better and eventully become the norm right now its not the only way and people have ben happie with there Repti 10.0's and so on.
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1.0.1 Green Anole(tedo, bubbles)
1.0. Tremper Albino Leo gecko (Brut)
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon(AXE)
1.0.0 Toy poodle( Cho lu la)

0.1.0 Girl Friend

>>the bulb i got dose put off UVB and UVA. as for the people complaining about a 30$ bulb shouldnt own a reptile? that statement is uncalled for because one Most of us are mislead by petstores and its to late when we fined out about the nessecity of UVB.

hey, if you are mislead by petstores, or if other are, then i got some land to sell you. I also believe that if you can't spend the money to get a real UVB producing bulb like a MVB, then don't get a freaking pet! WHy piss away $30 on a crappy fluorescent that you purchased because it produces UVb when in fact it only does for 2 days?

>> 2nd people have ben keeping beardies and other reptiles under the florecent UV lights for YEARS so just because MV may be better and eventully become the norm right now its not the only way and people have ben happie with there Repti 10.0's and so on.

just like advances in medicine, we humans treat ourselves differently now then we did 50 years ago. would you be upset if a doctor proscribed a medicine to you when he knows there is a better one out there? I am sure that there is people out there that are happy with their reptisun 10.0....ALSO, i am sure there are doctors prescribing less affective medicines.

I use MVBs in my cages now. Are you willing to take the next step? It's christmas time....how bout you do your pets a favor and buy them MVBs this year.
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon