"Sunseeker" mercury vapor? Yeah or neah...

[Kilgorollo]

Hi to everyone out there,

I'm a virgin poster here and just registered a few min. ago. So again hi all. Just got my first cham about a month and a half ago. His name is Carl, he is a veiled.
He's splendiferous. I bought Carl knowing I had the bare minimums for cage setup, with upgrades to be coming in the future. I feel that i need to get his light situation worked out first. I like the idea of the merc. vap. and have found a bulb called the "sunseeker" for about $12 for 90w. Has anyone heard of this bulb and the effectiveness of this product? Should this thing be called the "carcinomadealer" or maybe the "irradiator2000"? I'm worried if this bulb is safe and the possibity to much UVB exposure.

Thanks peeps for the help---I really like this site--It gives me the fuzzies.

 

[kianna2118]

9O watt is to hot for him. the uvb in a tube repti sun 5.O will b perfect for ur cham.And a basking light of 65 watt is fine too.

 

[xanthoman]

way too hot, and way too bright, at any distance, and could cause some major problems if it breaks , which isnt all that unlikely considering how hot they get and its bound to get water on it at least occasionally, my guess is most respondents are going to recomend a reptisun 5.0 linear , and there is a reason for that , and some of those people had to learn that, the hard way

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy,

That vote would be a "neah" . I believe that was the one that my local reptile store got a couple of samples for testing last year. I ran some tests and found that it had a + pattern to its UVB output. Within the "+" pattern area, it had very high levels of UVB while the outlying area was normal to low UVB levels. Using it would not be advised due to this characteristic pattern.

If you feel that you want to use an MV bulb, get some consulting time with Bob at www.reptileuv.com to understand the ins and outs of MVs and then buy one from him . Other MV bulbs will often require a Solarmeter 6.2 UVB meter to check that the UVB levels are safe.

Also: http://www.uvguide.co.uk/mercuryvapourlamps.htm

Otherwise, stick with Zoomed Reptisun 5.0 linear tubes (not compact!).

 

[Kilgorollo]

Thanks for advice

 

[hemiram04]

I have used mercury vapor bulbs in the past and they seem to work great. I have had them on chams for about 2 years and they were in perfectly good health. I dont use them anymore because I built a greenhouse and almost all of my chams are located in it. Hope this helps. I wouldnt have any issues using them again.

 

[Kilgorollo]

Little slow to the response. The "+" pattern means what?. Would you mind explaining a bit more?

 

[Pure]

I'm pretty sure he means the UVB is strongest in the shape of a + kinda like cross hairs in a scope. Meaning the Cham would have to be in just the right spot to get the full benefit of the UVB.

AS stated, MV bulbs can be very dangerous. If you plan on using one, don't skimp. Get a good one from the source linked by Dave. Even then it would be best to not use one without a meter, to make sure you have it set at the right distance.

As a new cham keeper your better off being safe than sorry. Go with the reptisun linear tube UVB bulb. They can be purchase from LLL reptile (site sponsor) for less than 20 bucks. You can get a cheap fixture for it from WalMart. They have 18 inch fixtures for 7 dollars.

Hemiram, I have questions and doubts about the whole green house thing, but this is not the place for such questions. I'll make a thread about it in the Enclosures forum.

 

[Dave Weldon]

Little slow to the response. The "+" pattern means what?. Would you mind explaining a bit more?

Howdy,

As Pure reiterated in his post, there is "+" pattern in the Sunseeker bulb which is an abnormal cross-like area in the middle of the light beam coming out of it that has a much higher level of UVB relative to the rest of the illuminated area. Ideally, there should not be UVB "Hot Spots" created by a UVB source. The UVB levels should be somewhat evenly distributed over some portion of the central area and then taper-off as you move sideways and/or down from that area.

For example, in fig. 5a on http://www.uvguide.co.uk/mercvapourfloods.htm shows that the MV under test at 12 inches away has a ~12" x ~12" area that somewhat evenly produces ~30-40 uW/cm2 over it. Compare that with fig. 14 in http://www.uvguide.co.uk/mercvapournarrowfloods.htm which has a 20uW/cm2 area of around 6"x6" at 30" away with the possibility of super-hot-spots if you are closer than 12" (maybe 1500uW/cm2 at 3" .)