Are Self-Ballasted Mercury Vapor bulbs better?

[Amanda S]

Are the mecury vapor bulbs better? I have a basking light and strip light with a repti-sun 5.0 bulb. I bought a 100 watt mercury vapor bulb yesterday for my other cage I am setting up. What are the ups and downs?

 

[Chuck G]

Depends on the species,the age, how big the cage is,how close the cham is to the bulb,etc. I use these for adult panthers or veileds in large cages.

 

[THECHAMMAN]

u used to use one for my crested geckos. they worked very well with them. they are pretty pricey though.

 

[FOREVER ENDEAVOR]

As said above, they are usually pricey, and very powerful..ideal for monitors,beardies,iguanas.. The trick is finding the right distance from the cage to achieve optimal results..like Chuck said they work well with adults in a 2x2x4 or bigger...if you have a small cage i would stick with what you have

 

[Amanda S]

I have a double twin murphy bed that takes up an entire wall. It is full of shelving units and in the middle is one that is probably 4' tall and 16x16 wide. I am going to either put a cage in there or build my own in there, I think. At the top of the space is a light socket and I was looking for a bulb I could screw in there that would do both UV/UVB. The lowest wattage they had was 100.

I could probably size the cage so that it is an appropriate distance from the light bulb but what should that distance be? The space is the height of the whole bed piece so it really is more than 4'. I could take the boards out to make it the height of the whole wall.

Also. I have a very small chameleon. She is a carpet cham. My current cage is 18x18x36 and almost too big for her, she sometimes has a hard time finding food and it takes her a bit of work and energy to hunt in there. I read the mercury lights last longer and can help enhance their natural colors...she could use the help. ha

 

[FOREVER ENDEAVOR]

your going to need a temp gauge..you want to make sure your basking area is around 85-90(panther right?). Bulbs will produce the most benificial uvb at 12 inches distance, and useful uvb up to 20 inches away check out reptileuv.com thats where i did my research..http://reptileuv.com

 

[Dave Weldon]

Are the mecury vapor bulbs better?...

Howdy Amanda,

What brand and model MV did you buy? If it isn't a ZooMed, T-Rex or Mega-Ray then you might have ended-up with one of the Chinese knock-offs that have some real flaws in their output pattern and UVB intensity levels. They could be harmful to a chameleon. Those three products that I mentioned are ok products in general but you will have to understand their output levels and how to set them up for safe operation. As you can see in the charts at: http://www.uvguide.co.uk/spreadchartcombo.htm, there is the potential for excessively high UVB levels if your chameleon is able to get too close. This is why you will so often see the Reptisun 5.0 recommended. It's hard to screw-up to the point of injury . By the way, it doesn't take much of a bump to break the ballast filament in a MV bulb whereas the Reptisun 5.0 will last a year and is almost bullet-proof .

 

[JoshCrane1]

using powersun 100w mercury vapor lamp, also using the 5.0 reptisun as well for comparison sake. so far both lamps are about equivalent in purpose. i love em

 

[FOREVER ENDEAVOR]

Howdy Amanda,

What brand and model MV did you buy? If it isn't a ZooMed, T-Rex or Mega-Ray then you might have ended-up with one of the Chinese knock-offs that have some real flaws in their output pattern and UVB intensity levels. They could be harmful to a chameleon. Those three products that I mentioned are ok products in general but you will have to understand their output levels and how to set them up for safe operation. As you can see in the charts at: http://www.uvguide.co.uk/spreadchartcombo.htm, there is the potential for excessively high UVB levels if your chameleon is able to get too close. This is why you will so often see the Reptisun 5.0 recommended. It's hard to screw-up to the point of injury . By the way, it doesn't take much of a bump to break the ballast filament in a MV bulb whereas the Reptisun 5.0 will last a year and is almost bullet-proof .

word, my vet recomended the mega ray mvb, but after doing a lil research I decided to stick with the reptisun5.0 / 75 watt zoomed basking bulb combo for all of my cages..much easier

 

[Amanda S]

I bought the Zoo Med Powersun 100 watt. (I am currently using the reptisun 5.0 and basking lamp but was looking to compact my lighting)

That chart is very helpful, thank-you. I actually have a Carpet Chameleon - Furcifer lateralis. They are only 7-8" and mine is WC, very active. According to that chart though the powersun bulb seems to have the largest even gradient, the area looks like 2'x2'.

What zone/UBV intensity should I be keeping my chameleon in? (Especially if shes small, though she has tons of foliage and hiding spots)

 

[THECHAMMAN]

By the way, it doesn't take much of a bump to break the ballast filament in a MV bulb whereas the Reptisun 5.0 will last a year and is almost bullet-proof .

true, i used one and the filamen broke while i was screwing it in.

 

[Dave Weldon]

...What zone/UBV intensity should I be keeping my chameleon in? (Especially if shes small, though she has tons of foliage and hiding spots)

Howdy Amanda,

I think a reasonable UVB level to shoot for would be around 15uW-50uW/cm2 which would be roughly 8"-18" away from your chameleons basking spot. Now comes the balancing act... Will that distance range also give you the basking temperature that you want ?