Is coating on heat bulbs necessary?

[dacrazycanadian]

Hey everyone I was searching around, and there are plenty of other lighting threads but I didn't want to bring one back from the grave to ask this.

Basically I now use the zoo med blue day light 60w bulbs and I know a lot of people use their normal house bulbs (incandescent bulb).

My question is: Do you guys use house bulbs with the white outer coating or the clear glass ones? Also what is the purpose of the blue coating on the zoo med bulbs I'm currently using?

 

[Lathis]

I have used both white and clear standard incandescent house lamps for a heat lamp based on what I had available at the time. I prefer the white bulbs - the light quality seems a bit better and not as "harsh" as a clear bulb.

I can't speak definitely for the bulb you are using. UVA is important to reptiles - they can see it, whereas we cannot. I am using a UVA/UVB bulb, so I didn't believe that I needed to provide additional UVA with the basking lamp. (I think the blue color of the glass is only for us - it changes the quality of the light subtly so colors appear to "pop". Take that with a grain of salt, as I am not 100% certain.)

Does your UVB light also output UVA?

 

[dacrazycanadian]

I use the traditional reptisun UVB 5.0 tube

 

[Lathis]

That's what I use. It outputs UVA and UVB both. I think you can stop spending the extra money on the heat bulb and just use a regular light bulb. You might have to play with the wattage to get temps just right. I use a 75 W in the summer and a 100 W in the winter (in a 150 W rated fixture) with about 12" between the basking spot and the bulb.

 

[dacrazycanadian]

Well I work at a pet store so I get discounts on my supplies hehe. But it'll probably still be cheaper at walmart or home depot.

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

Yeah, don't use the one with the blue coating. I was given one by a friend, tried it briefly and didn't like it. I too like the white ican bulbs. That's all you need. You can get a six pack of them for much cheaper than the pet store basking bulbs