Mercury Vapor Bulb?

zjuckett

New Member
I was given the suggestion of getting one of these because I want to free range the Veiled I'm getting soon. What do you guys think?
 
They are nice for large free ranges and adult chameleons but put off to much for cages and young chams.
 
Okay. They also look a lot more expensive that getting the other two bulbs. Or am I mistaken? I have a few days to figure out which bulb to buy so I'll do some research. Does anyone have any pics of their FR with the bulbs?
 
its all ive used for my free ranges for years..(specifically the powersun 100 watt bulbs)..as jannb said, too much for cages, and younger chameleons..:D
 
The key to using a mercury vapor bulb effectively is using them on a cage or in an area with plenty of room for heat dissipation. Allow the chameleon lots of choice in how close and how far away it can stay from the bulb to reach the temperature it desires, and these bulbs work exceptionally well for that application.

They'd work well for a free ranging chameleon, especially - when they got close to the bulb to bask, they'd receive UVB and heat from the same source, much like they'd get outdoors if they sought out sunlight to bask in. You can mimic the effecting using a basking bulb and UVB bulb side by side, but there is no way to have both bulbs pointing straight down at one spot as you would get with just one bulb. The beams would overlap, but to be directly under one bulb, the chameleon would not be under the other, forcing it to choose between heat and UV. In your application, a mercury vapor bulb sounds like it'd work perfectly!

-Jen
 
I know that you have to replace the UVB bulb every six months. Do you have to do the same with a mercury vapor one?
 
That set up is sweet! How much would that run...?

like the whole set up??

i spent about $1800.00

but you can make an excellent freerange for pretty cheap if you go online for most of your stuff, also i have incubators, insectbreeding setups that use fans and heaters, also have a mistking (you can hand mist instead and save 200.00 right there) so mine is a little over the top, hopefully some of the other free rangers on here will chime in on there set ups, ive been on a mission to make what i feel is the "ultimate free range set up" so i still have stuff thats beeing added (like a drainage system, and some "no explore" barriers).. basically you will need a tree, lighting, vines, dripper, hand mister, timer, supplements for cham (calcium, vites and minerals),temp and humidity gauge, and like 2 small cricket keepers for feeder insects..thats your basic list..

im sure i forgot somthing:D

good luck!!!
 
HAHAH! I have most of those things, but I was just wondering. I cannot afford to do something like that now. I was just going to get some nice safe plants and put some lights over them. I do need to figure out how to make a home made dripper...what do I do?
 
HAHAH! I have most of those things, but I was just wondering. I cannot afford to do something like that now. I was just going to get some nice safe plants and put some lights over them. I do need to figure out how to make a home made dripper...what do I do?

well 2 ways to make a homade jobby

1. a small plastic cup (the kind we all use for beer pong) and use a sewing needle and make a single small hole on the bottom, done!

2. go to a fish store (pet fish, not the eating kind lol) and get "airline tubing" and an "airline valve" stick a small peice of tubing onto the valve poke a hole slightly smaller than the tubing into a gatorade bottle or somthing similar, make sure that when the valve is off...no drip, adjust the valve to "on" and slowly adjust to allow a slow 1 drip per every 2 seconds...done!!

i just bought the "little dripper" online for 10 bucks...im lazy when it comes to making things these days..lol
 
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