Mercury Vapor Bulbs

[Murkve]

At the pet store, getting a good deal on a 75g Tank for my tegu-to-be, when I ask an innocent question about MVBs and lighting rigs. The response I get is a 20 minute long rant on MVBs, and his experience with them 2-3 years ago - cooking Bearded Dragons, very low mW UVB, damages eyes.

This all got me quite worried, as I jumped on LLLReptile yesterday to take advantage of their Buy 2 Get One PowerSun special. I ordered 2 100W PowerSuns, spending just over $100, and was initially excited due to what I thought was an excellent deal.

Now I'm not so sure. Almost wishing I had gone with the ReptiSun 10.0.

After cruising the forums for a bit, I've had some inkling that as of late MVBs have gotten better in terms of their UVB output, power consumption, and safety. Could someone please reassure me that I made a good decision for my future hatchling?

Or at the very least, could someone tell me how to get the most out of my PowerSuns? For example: How to mount them, distance, is moving them detrimental (When On, Off, or Both?), etc.

Alternatively, should I just go for the ReptiSun 10.0 fluorescent tubes, and a basking light instead? This option would put my MVBs to waste, essentially.

I am fearful of the fact that I may have just spent a good amount of money on something that at best may be ineffective, and at worst may harm my Tegu.

Thank you for your help!

 

[got10]

westronlighting.

 

[james.w]

The power suns will work just fine as long as you can get proper temps with them in the aquarium you got. Check the box for recommended distances.

 

[chelvis]

It really depends on how far the bulbs will be from the tegu. I have used Powersun for growing tegus with no problem. As with any bulb that produced UVB it all depends on how you mount it. For powersuns I mount mine at about 14" from the animal, this can be easily done in most aquariums. As for the florescent, this have to be closer to the animal (within 8" for most manufacturing) that can be hard with young tegus who may jump a lot. With any MVB you want to mount them flat not at any angle and try not to move them when the are on or during cool down (the 10 mins after you turn it off) this will help expand their life time.

As for brands it really depends. Some people love powersun, me being on I never have had an issue and they are easy to get a hold of. Some like the exto-terra brand but I have had personally bad luck with the bulbs burning out. Some like UV Reptiles/ Westronlighting, great bulb but the price and the lag time can be annoying; have to admit for the new cage I am looking into a few of these.

For a hatchling cage I would stick with the powersun. If you are really concern you can contact lllreptile and switch before the ship things out.

 

[Murkve]

Okay. Thank you very much. As I suspected, moving them seems to cause issues. I'm glad that I decided to build a 2 parted screen cover for my initial tank. This will make keeping the lamp in one place much easier, saves some dough, plus gets me some carpentry practice for the big 8'x4'.

I suppose the presence of a screen would reduce the mW output?

 

[laurarfl]

I use Power Suns and have had good luck with them over the years. I have found that my beardies are not very tolerant of them. I think this is why: MVB can be rather potent. Beardies stand on their back legs and glass dance or climb branches and bask. This reduces the distance from lizard to light, plus they can be looking straight out with the benefit of natural eye ridges.

I also place them 14-24" away from the top of the substrate for a 100watt, 24" up to 4 ft for a 160 watt. Screen will absorb some UVB, a larger mesh will be better (1/4" and up). But the output of the MVB is usually such that a bit of screen will be OK.

This has some good info, but the newer reports need to be updated:
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/