Be aware of people selling mercury vapor bulbs on amazon

djfishygillz

Avid Member
Hello everyone, I think it is important to share my bad experience with a mercury vapor bulb I purchased on Amazon.

I spent about 40 dollars on a repti-powersun 125 watt mercury vapor bulb on amazon and assumed it was new so I didn't check it with my solar-meter.

After about a 2 weeks of one of my boys not eating much and scaring the heck out of me I checked the bulb and sure enough it was literally putting out 0 right next to it. I put a new uvb bulb on and he isn't eating like crazy and doing great again. I don't know if someone was trying to profit from a quick resale on a faulty bulb but just thought I would share my experience.
 
wow that is ridiculous!! im sorry for the bad experience! glad you tested it and your cham didnt get seriously hurt because of it!! i would be so pissed about that
 
i would let the amazon administrators know that you were sold a light that didnt work so that maybe that person will be talked to about selling products that actually work
 
the funny thing is it cost more to make a standard bulb because it needs a uv blocker installed or its too much for humans and plastics to take for 8 hours a day.
 
humans cant handle uv 8 hours a day?? why?

It is similar to being in a tanning bed all day. UVB and UVA rays are what are emitted by the sun (obviously) and are what burn us, and can lead to skin cancer after long exposure. Of course the levels emitted from most lights used in the chameleon enclosure are relatively small. But this is why any type of light that will be used for humans has various filters of some sort to block these rays (if the light is of a type that would put out said rays - metal halide is one type).

An interest story about this: I was at a high school basketball game once, and within hours of the game there were about 50 fans complaining of severe eye pain, burned skin, etc. They later found out that the filter in one of the overhead metal halide lighting fixtures wasn't in place (manufacturing defect) and caused the people in that section to be burned after only a few hours at the game.
 
the funny thing is it cost more to make a standard bulb because it needs a uv blocker installed or its too much for humans and plastics to take for 8 hours a day.

Wouldn't a UVB bulb cost more because the glass used to house it must be the type that doesn't block UVB? (Playing a little devil's advocate here)
 
Wouldn't a UVB bulb cost more because the glass used to house it must be the type that doesn't block UVB? (Playing a little devil's advocate here)

I'm not sure on the answer to that, but I think the larger factor at work is just economies of scale. Much much more non-UVB bulbs are produced, which enables manufacturers to produce and sell at a lower price point due to the higher volume.
 
It is similar to being in a tanning bed all day. UVB and UVA rays are what are emitted by the sun (obviously) and are what burn us, and can lead to skin cancer after long exposure. Of course the levels emitted from most lights used in the chameleon enclosure are relatively small. But this is why any type of light that will be used for humans has various filters of some sort to block these rays (if the light is of a type that would put out said rays - metal halide is one type).

An interest story about this: I was at a high school basketball game once, and within hours of the game there were about 50 fans complaining of severe eye pain, burned skin, etc. They later found out that the filter in one of the overhead metal halide lighting fixtures wasn't in place (manufacturing defect) and caused the people in that section to be burned after only a few hours at the game.

thats why i didnt understnad the levels are so much lower then natural sunlight i didnt see why humans could be affected negatively by it. very interesting!
 
thats why i didnt understnad the levels are so much lower then natural sunlight i didnt see why humans could be affected negatively by it. very interesting!

Well one thing to remember also, is that many times sunlight is filtered by the atmosphere, clouds, dust, etc. etc. If you were to spend several hours near the equator on a crystal clear day, it wouldn't be too long before you started to be burnt by the sun's rays. I think a similar effect happens here with some larger lights (gymnasium lights, tanning beds). But again, the levels we are dealing with in this hobby are minimal in comparison.
 
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