Exo Terra UVA, UVB and heat mercury vapor lamps

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REDFOOT WRANGLER
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These lamps are touted as being "All in one".
They are sold in several wattage strengths and I purchased a few of these recently for my new Chameleons cages.
To my horror, someone over on the Chameleonforums.com (that has a UV meter) tested some..
At 6" one had a reading as low as 1. Another exact same bulb was an astonishing 43!!!
They are also not long lived and aside from the UVB levels fluctuating so wildly, I can not recommend these for any reason.
Use a simple incandescent bulb for heat in the daytime. A CHE for night. And get a strip florescent light for UVB.
A T8 is acceptable if your tortoise is normally within 10" away from the light and a T5 HO if your animal is more than a foot away.
A 5.0 tube is probably sufficient if you have no screen between the light and your animal. But if there is a screen, it will filter out 50% of the UV. So you should step up to a 10.0 for the same result.
Do not WASTE YOUR MONEY on these EXO TERRA bulbs.
 

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Toddrickfl1

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Yikes, I've been using these for my water turtles for a few years. Might be time to switch. Thanks for the info Ed.
 

Tom

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No argument here. I stopped recommending MVBs a while ago...

A 5.0 T8 makes almost no UV even close to the bulb. Even a 10.0 T8 makes very little. I get a reading of 1.1 from a new 10.0 bulb 10 inches away. HO bulbs are much better.
 

ZEROPILOT

REDFOOT WRANGLER
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No argument here. I stopped recommending MVBs a while ago...

A 5.0 T8 makes almost no UV even close to the bulb. Even a 10.0 T8 makes very little. I get a reading of 1.1 from a new 10.0 bulb 10 inches away. HO bulbs are much better.
I'll have my meter by the weekend and I'll be doing some real time readings. At distance and with screen. Both t8 and t5. 5.0 and 10.0.
I'll post the readings.
 

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