Recomended Mercury Vapor bulbs

[lonomac]

I'm thinking of getting 1 or 2 of these down the road as Ive never used them. Ive done a little research and didn't see anything too terrible in using them. Any reason I shouldn't get one? If so, any good places to go get them? Oh, and what wattage would I need?

 

[BigTex]

i have a powersun UV 100w for my guy and he seems to love basking underneath it. just Google powersun uv if you are interested and a bunch of sites will come up

 

[LaserGecko]

I think the best ones on the market are the MegaRays.

http://www.reptileuv.com/

Great warranty, too.

 

[NickBoudin]

I use a MegaRay for my turtles, and a strip 5.0 uvb light.

My turtles constantly bask under the MegaRay.

 

[arosstyler]

Careful with the Megaray make sure to order the LOW UV externally ballasted kit. FYI even the low kit needs to be 8 to 12" from the top of a screen cage. I had used these exclusively for several years. Even with the low kit 8" away from the surface of the top screen I was pulling like 50 to 65 microwatts of UVB directly under the buld 6" away from the inside top of the screen. You will need a lot of "cover" foilage running one of these.

Good thing with these bulbs is almost no heat. Plants do really well under them too. I am currently using dual Reptisun 5.0 bulbs with aluminum reflectors and getting as good if not better results. PM me if you want info on why I switched.

 

[davider]

i use a trex 100 watt u can find it on lllreptile.com my adult female veiled loves it always basks and temps stay around 90s no complains
-David

 

[Dean Pulcini]

I use 100 watt T-Rex also they last a long time and I have no problems with them.

 

[BIGGUN]

Careful with the Megaray make sure to order the LOW UV externally ballasted kit. FYI even the low kit needs to be 8 to 12" from the top of a screen cage. I had used these exclusively for several years. Even with the low kit 8" away from the surface of the top screen I was pulling like 50 to 65 microwatts of UVB directly under the buld 6" away from the inside top of the screen. You will need a lot of "cover" foilage running one of these.

Good thing with these bulbs is almost no heat. Plants do really well under them too. I am currently using dual Reptisun 5.0 bulbs with aluminum reflectors and getting as good if not better results. PM me if you want info on why I switched.

Why run the external ballast? What are the problems with internal ballasts?

What were your reasons for switching? I don't think talking about it in a thread specifically started for questioning MV bulbs would be frowned upon.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[arosstyler]

Why run the external ballast? What are the problems with internal ballasts?

What were your reasons for switching? I don't think talking about it in a thread specifically started for questioning MV bulbs would be frowned upon.

Thanks,
Kevin

Well the internal balast is what causes the extreme heat in a MV bulb. So if you run the external ballast then it is no hotter than a household 60 watt bulb. This is excellent for chameleons because you can use the MegaaRay low UV external ballast for UVB but another bulb for heat. This way you do not over heat the cage and the cham.

If you setup is big enough and room cool enough then a internally ballasted MVB may work just be careful of the amount of UVB you are getting down to the cham.

One reason for the switch is the UV Index (sunburn factor) and amount of UVB was overkill in my setup. I finally bought a meter for UVA , one for UVB and one for UVI (uv index). What I learned was that even the Low UVB serise of Megaray bulbs was producing way more UV then needed for a cham based on several respected books and breeders (shooting for that 33 microwatts in the basking goal is what I mean).

The other reason has to do with a defective bulb, mixed up return and me being out a 100 bucks and unhappy. I do not want to slam a vendor on the board so detials would be PM only.

Later
Ross

 

[BIGGUN]

In the wild the chameleon would be exposed to much greater than 33 microwatts and regulate it by seeking shade wouldn't it?

So if you had a UV basking spot that was in the proper temp range and a gradient in the cage at say 90 degrees out of the direct light wouldn't it work the same way?

I'm not trying to be arguementative just trying to understand the differences.

That's cool about the vendor problem. I'm more concerned about learning the details of UV and basking.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[arosstyler]

In the wild the chameleon would be exposed to much greater than 33 microwatts and regulate it by seeking shade wouldn't it?

So if you had a UV basking spot that was in the proper temp range and a gradient in the cage at say 90 degrees out of the direct light wouldn't it work the same way?

I'm not trying to be arguementative just trying to understand the differences.

That's cool about the vendor problem. I'm more concerned about learning the details of UV and basking.

Thanks,
Kevin

If you check out the UVB meter group on yahoo you will learn a ton also the uvguide page is amazing. Specifically check http://www.uvguide.co.uk/whatreptilesneed.htm scroll down and you will see "authors suggest that a low level of UVB (a gradient between 15-33uW/cm² as measured with a Solarmeter 6.2) supplied for 12 hours a day is optimal. High levels are seen to be harmful.14,19 Our experiences are similar to these findings; one of the current authors maintains gradients of up to 30uW/cm² in all his chameleon vivaria."

One study that is highly regarded as accurate is by Dr. Ferguson G.W. many many articles by Ferguson document his (at least I think Ferguson is a dude haha) long term studies on captive chameleons.

To your point it is totally possible that a chameleon is exposed to much higher levels of UVB than 33 microwatts and to your point because of shade and cover get into and out of it but... one thing is in a captive environments lamps do not increase and decrease there UV through the day like the sun rising and setting. UVB lamps put out a conjstant UVB amount the entire time they are on so based on the studies limiting the peak amount to below 50 microwatts (again 33 seems to be the magic number in the studies) is ideal. It makes up for the fact the lamp is on 10-12 hours with a constant UVB push.

Also worth noting is the UV index. Natural sun puts out high levels of UVB without extreme UVI levels. But UVB lamps basically are geared so the more UVB the more UVI.

For example the sun here on a Nashville TN afternoon at 2:00pm in June might put out like 200 UVB in the direct sun no clouds or cover with a UVI of 2.5 but a UVB lamp that is putting out 200 UVB will most likley be in the 6.0 or more UVI. This can lead to thermal burns or worse on a chameleon.

That is just scratching the surface. Check the uvguide link above then check the links page there. You will be reading for days haha. Have fun learning I know I did.

Bottom line for me is MVB bulbs can work great for chameleons if setupo right and monitored well. OVerall too much of a hassle for me and the tried and true breeders still use the Reptisun 5.0 bulbs. Browse these forums and you'll see.

Hope that helps you on your quest for answers.

Later
Ross

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy Ross,

That sums it up pretty well. Part of the problem with any of our artificial UVB sources is that they don't do that good of a job matching the exact UVB portion of the spectral content of the sun. There are parts of the overall UVB band that are sort of the "Ying" and "Yang" of that part of the spectrum. Too much of one and/or not enough of the other causes the chameleon's body to not regulate the production of vitamin D3 as it would be with sunlight. On top of that, their is the UV Index issue that Ross mentioned. I've seen results of some tubes that had a UVI of somewhere around 14-16 which will cause a sunburn in about 7 minutes with human skin . The good MV lamps are ok but you'll want a meter to position them properly. Their best application is for desert reptiles that thrive on big doses of UVB.

 

[BIGGUN]

I looked at one set of charts but haven't looked at that link yet.

Thanks for the info I'll have to do some rading later today.

Kevin

 

[KevinA]

FWIW, I bought the new exoterra bulb an d was not impressed with it. It makes the buzzing sound many HID lights do. I returned it for the zoomed which is silent. I couldn't put somehting that made that vibrating noise that close to one of my animals.

 

[LaserGecko]

FWIW, Bob MacCargar recommends against using his mercvap lamps with chameleons. I had a lengthy discussion with him about it back when I got my veiled. He's adamant about having the correct distance between the lamp and the reptile and with a screen enclosure it's more difficult to setup correctly than a heat lamp and standard UV-B tube.

He really is one of the few folks in the pet industry who would rather you buy the right product than the one he sells.

You certainly can get too much of a good thing in this case.