Uva

JackRipper

Avid Member
Has anyone measured UVa? The kid at the serpentarium says that uva is visible light... if you can measure UVA with a specialized solar meter what is the min/max uva allowances for a chameleon and does it coincide with lumens?
 
UVA, as far as I know, is still not directly visually detectable by most human eyes. In my limited knowledge, the human visual apparatus is sensitive to no light below 400nm. But, again, I don’t actually know.
 
Further,

Lumens, if I recall correctly, are a measure of visible (by us) light. By definition, no light energy that is undetectable by us should make a difference to lumens.
 
That’s no correct, at the very top end of the UV-A wavelength (400 nm) is were the visible wavelength (light spectrum) begins. So UV-A is between 315nm to 400nm and the visible light spectrum is from 400nm to 700nm. In the end really what all this means is the depth of penetration that the rays of light go into the skin. So UV-B doesn’t penetrate the skin as much as UV-A does. UV-B goes just far enough to promote the formation of vitamin D, UV-A goes a little further which promotes sun burn and cell damage. Solarmeter offers a UV-A meter but honestly most of the more reputable bulb manufacturers add “reflectants” to thier lamps to filter out most of the UV-A rays. I wouldn’t worry too much about it unless you are using bargain bin cheap UV-B lamps.
 
Great replies im on the same "wave length" as far as my recent research goes. My main question is which bulb LED, fluorescent or incandescent produces adequate uva penetration or saturation for a Veiled, I'll have to shop eBay for a uva meter.
 
Last edited:
They say that uva promotes natural behavior and stimulates appetite all while enhancing colors and helping with the reproductive cycle wich are All very important.
 
@dshuld - any insight on UVA?

I'll read through the rest of the comments later but, easiest answer on can we see uv-a. Our eyes can not see uva and below without "assistance".

Screenshot_20191206-160108(1).png
 
Great replies im on the same "wave length" as far as my recent research goes. My main question is which bulb LED, fluorescent or incandescent produces adequate uva penetration or saturation for a Veiled, I'll have to shop eBay for a uva meter.

To elaborate a little more now that I'm over what ever was going on, you really have to look at the spectral distrobution of each lamp (flourescent) or led to know what it is producing. Most artificial lighting spd charts are going to show maxing out at "1" for the top of the chart for said bulb/ led. Incandescent bulbs, with exception of possibly the zoo med daylight bulb and the philips agro bulbs (no spd chart for them that I've been able to find.) , typically are going to be around .025ish uva, not much at all. Led lights are not going to have uv at all unless the manufacturer (or diyer) added uv diodes into the mix. I've watched some in one of the fb grps that have been "experimenting" with the zoo med daylight bulb and everyone has noted positive results in behavior changes. So if you're wanting to "up" the amount you offer, maybe give that one a try. This company does produce blue glass that does what zoo med claims with the bulb so....

http://www.koppglass.com/custom-solutions/glass-portfolio/colored-filter-glass

That being said, the sun produces around .4 to .5 on the spd chart for the uva region. The zoo med reptisun t5ho bulbs are close to this on the lower end of the uva spectrum but no where close on the upper end of it. So you can compare, suns spd vs 5.0 and 10.0 t5ho reptisun bulbs.

Screenshot_20191209-120258(1).png
Screenshot_20191209-113404.png
Screenshot_20191206-215911.png Screenshot_20191206-215940.png
 
I remember when people where first getting corneas replaced, they did not use UV blocking material. And low and behold we had people who could "see" UVA. I guess it was kind of trippy because while the back of the eye could pick up the UV, the lens still could not focus it, so everything just kind of "glowed".
 
Back
Top Bottom