Lighting Question

[BlackIce]

I had a question concerning whether buying an incandescent light from a hardware store or an actual reptile version matters. I have a 40 gallon tank that is 18.5 inches from top to bottom. I was hoping someone would have a suggestion on what type of watts/bulb it would take to get a basketing rock 8-10 inches from the ceiling up to 105 degrees.

I have a flukers light fixture now and I'm looking to increase the output before introducing a dragon.

 

[Mark and Aimee]

The "reptile bulb" seen at pet stores is just an overpriced light bulb. Save yourself a few bucks and go to a hardware store (or Wal-Mart).

It is just about impossible to make a wattage recommendation. It is dependant on your cage design, ventilation, ambient room temperature, and more. Buy a few different sizes, and monitor your temps for a few days.

 

[sheffy22]

they are right

dont always fall for the pet store version of "anything" some things excluded. but for bulbs just make sure that the right amount of uv is getting through for whatever reptile you have, i think you have a beardy but not sue.

 

[CheriS]

You need a heat source (that can be a plain household bulb) and a UVB source for a bearded dragon (and that needs to be a special one made for reptiles)

Not all UVB lights are the same, some have little UVB output, some are very good.

Reptisun 5.0 and Eco-terra 8.0 are both good UVB lights.

There are the all in one lights that have both UVB and Heat, like PowerSun, T-Rex Active UV and Mega Ray.

 

[gfisher2002]

Powersuns are awsome. The have been tested to emit suitable UVB at up to 6 feet away. Reptisun 5.0 are also great. However the exo-terra and "desertsun 8.0" bulbs are garbage. They are half the price of reptisun because they are made of glass. Reptisun and Powersuns are made of Quarts glass. Quarts allows up to 10 times as much UVB to pass through. And as we all know, glass filters UVB. A reptisun's effective UVB range is 12" or less. At 16" a Brand New Reptisun 5.0 emits little over 1.1 UVB and 4.6 UVB at 6". A "Desert Sun 8.0" Emits 2.1 UVB at 6" and 0.2 at 16".

If you search online, there are plenty of people with access to spectroradiometers and broadband meter instrumentation who have tested the claims of UVB output of some reptile lights. If it's 10 buck and a reptisun is 30 or 40. You can bet the 10 dollar bulb isn't made with Quarts Glass.

 

[CheriS]

Garrett,

I do have a UVB meter and have been testing several companies lights for over a year now.

The Exo-terra 8.0 tubes has one of the best UVB outputs and least degrading over time than all the others expcept for the ReptiSun 5.0. (this is just the tubes)

Here is a link to some of the studies by others of distance and time burning
http://home.comcast.net/~holachapulin/Researchmain.html

there is also a Yahoo group of Meter owners that has much data on ithttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/UVB_Meter_Owners/

PowerSun, has a decent UVB output for 6 months average, but is testing out much less than the t-rex or MegaRay's(westron/mac industries) and PowerSun has the fastest degrading time of the MVB tested.

Granted, they all seem to vary a lot even when the same light/company is used... there is not a lot of consistants so its a guessing game for people that do not have meters to check what your individual light is doing. We have found the MegaRays to be better at this than the others.

MegaRay is: http://www.reptileuv.com and they also seem to better retain UVB output and durability over time.

The have been tested to emit suitable UVB at up to 6 feet away[/url]
Over 18 inches, from our testing, even the 160 watt dropped dramatically to very low or nothing.... where have you seen this?

There are Zoo series that some company makes, like MegaRay, but not the regular ones that are available to the public. IF you know something else than what I have above, can you direct me to it?