Uva bulb holder broke

Tom

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I’ve attached a photo of the bulb, the fixture and what the inside of the fixture now looks like. Thanks
As I said before, there was recently a bad batch of bulbs, and I bet that is the problem. Your reptile shop should replace it free of charge. You can bring the bulb and fixture to them for testing if you like. Did you check the fixture with a different bulb, like an LED?

Also, you don't want to use a "spot" bulb. Spot bulbs concentrate too much desiccating IRA into too small an area and contribute to pyramiding. Please read the link that I left for you in post #13. It will explain a lot of this. At the end is a complete breakdown of the four elements tortoise lighting and heating.
 

Markw84

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Thank you Mark. What about LED strips or screw-in type bulbs? Do they produce UVA?
Only bulbs made specifically to produce UV. LEDs produce very specific wavelengths. To get a natural looking light they have to mix several different diodes to create the overlap that looks to us as a fuller spectrum. They have to add very special and more expensive diodes made to produce UV.

I personally have stopped using the UVB LEDs. There is enough evidence to now conclude that they are too specific in the wavelength the produce and without the longer UV wavelengths the suppression mechanism that protects overproduction of D3 will not work in the reptile's skin. Current thinking is 297nm UV is the bioactive wavelength that stimulates the D3 process. However, about 330nm UV is the trigger to stop conversion. The LEDs currently produced (as far as I know now) do not have that wavelength.
 

Markw84

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I’ve attached a photo of the bulb, the fixture and what the inside of the fixture now looks like. Thanks
Although I am a big Arcadia fan, the amount of UVA these incandescent bulbs produce is miniscule. Just barely some 390nm wavelenghts and above. The UV tortoise see and benefit from extends well below that level.

Additionally, I would not recommend using the spot bulb. Arcadia also makes a flood version that is an excellent basking bulb. I still do not use it for UVA. I use my long fluorescent UVB bulb for that as all the UVB fluorescent bulbs you get are also producing UVA. In fact they normally produce about 3x-5x the UVA along with the UVB

Incandescent bulbs are very susceptible to jarring and to heat. So if your bulb placement is such as the bulb is building up too much heat around it, that could cause the early failure. The pro fixture you are using is a good fixture. You may also want to check the connections where you wired the fixture to ensure they are not loose and creating inconsistent connection.
 

Paschendale52

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Only bulbs made specifically to produce UV. LEDs produce very specific wavelengths. To get a natural looking light they have to mix several different diodes to create the overlap that looks to us as a fuller spectrum. They have to add very special and more expensive diodes made to produce UV.

I personally have stopped using the UVB LEDs. There is enough evidence to now conclude that they are too specific in the wavelength the produce and without the longer UV wavelengths the suppression mechanism that protects overproduction of D3 will not work in the reptile's skin. Current thinking is 297nm UV is the bioactive wavelength that stimulates the D3 process. However, about 330nm UV is the trigger to stop conversion. The LEDs currently produced (as far as I know now) do not have that wavelength.


Mark, does that mean you don't use these anymore?


I remember we had talked about them a year ago or so as a potential option for UV.
 

Markw84

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Mark, does that mean you don't use these anymore?


I remember we had talked about them a year ago or so as a potential option for UV.
Correct. I am currently holding off on using them until I see more addressing this issue by the manufacturers.
 

Tom

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Correct. I am currently holding off on using them until I see more addressing this issue by the manufacturers.
Is this also the case with the ZooMed LED UV bars that have the array of different colored diodes?
 

Markw84

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Is this also the case with the ZooMed LED UV bars that have the array of different colored diodes?
unfortunately, Yes. It appears there is no LED UV bulb on the market that has figured this out yet. The guy at VivaTek told me he was aware and they are working on it - and that was about 6 mos ago. Have not heard anything from ZooMed.

I doubt we are going to do much harm with these bulbs, especially limiting hours to midday. Have not heard of one case of Vit D overdose. But I thing we have more to learn about providing so narrow a band of UV and not a balance.
 
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