zoo meds Power sun

[RobK.]

sucks IMO .
I got my new solar meter and got a 23 MW reading from it at 12'' after running all day . At 3'' the powersun gave me over 250 MW , but at at distance you could cook a egg . When the bulb is cold it only gave me 18 mw . This bulb has very fews hours on it too .The zoo-med 10.0 and 5.0 coil bulbs gave me 56 mw and 62 mw at 12'' . the best bulbs i have are the two zoo-med 48'' 10.0 tubes , they gave me 135 mw at 12'' and 167 +/- at 10'' . so from now on , i am not going to mess with the MVB's . Either they don't work or don't last . '' IF'' reptile uv sends me a new Mega ray i wil be glad to sell it cheap . I am now using the two 48'' 10.0 12'' above my rhino basking area and two 50 watt halogen spot lights on each side, for heat . I get 55-60 MW of UV at the floor ( 22'' below ) the two 48'' tubes . Thats more UV than any other bulb i have at 12 '' . Here in N. Utah we live at 5,000 feet and at 11 am i got a reading of 238 MV of uv .

IMO the MVB's are too much $$$ and a wate of time .

 

[Strange_Evil]

That's a shocker! Did you test the bulb over a 3day period? I think the power suns have like a two day burn in period.

 

[adam1120]

are those reptisun tubes?i laways loved the reptisun i still do i recentyl switched to powersun did you give it those two days? thanks i been wondering this forever lol

 

[Joshjack90]

sucks IMO .
I got my new solar meter and got a 23 MW reading from it at 12'' after running all day . At 3'' the powersun gave me over 250 MW , but at at distance you could cook a egg . When the bulb is cold it only gave me 18 mw . This bulb has very fews hours on it too .The zoo-med 10.0 and 5.0 coil bulbs gave me 56 mw and 62 mw at 12'' . the best bulbs i have are the two zoo-med 48'' 10.0 tubes , they gave me 135 mw at 12'' and 167 +/- at 10'' . so from now on , i am not going to mess with the MVB's . Either they don't work or don't last . '' IF'' reptile uv sends me a new Mega ray i wil be glad to sell it cheap . I am now using the two 48'' 10.0 12'' above my rhino basking area and two 50 watt halogen spot lights on each side, for heat . I get 55-60 MW of UV at the floor ( 22'' below ) the two 48'' tubes . Thats more UV than any other bulb i have at 12 '' . Here in N. Utah we live at 5,000 feet and at 11 am i got a reading of 238 MV of uv .

IMO the MVB's are too much $$$ and a wate of time .

if you get that mega ray ill buy it!! haha

 

[jtpowers]

Thank you for sharing some hard data results with us! I realize there are a lot of variables (burn in time, warm up time, age of bulb, yada yada) but I've been operating under the assumption that the coil bulbs were next to worthless when in fact, at least in your experiment, they are far outperforming the expensive and highly "recommended" Powersuns.[/i]

 

[spidersandmonsters]

It isn't that coil bulbs are worthless; they do their job.. They are just notorious for doing some pretty extensive eye damage.

 

[jtpowers]

I had read about that, something comes to mind about there being overly strong output of UVC, IIRC. I thought that issue had been resolved, and the current reluctance to use them was now based on a supposed lack of UVB output.

[:squote='spidersandmonsters' pid='92605' dateline='1313439822']
It isn't that coil bulbs are worthless; they do their job.. They are just notorious for doing some pretty extensive eye damage.
[/quote]

 

[james.w]

This goes back to what I have been saying, we don't know how much UVB is required. I have used solarglo and powersun and have had no MBD problems. Therefore maybe our reptiles only need 20MW of UVB to grow.

 

[Neeko]

Someone needs to study the basking of a tegu in the wild for a year, measures how much uvb they are getting then average it throught th year. Then we'll know. Also uvb is radiation right? Does it go through leaves? So even in the natural in shade they still get the effects of uvb as long as the sun is out?

 

[tora]

UVB rays can't even go through glass or water, and have a hard time going through mesh, so I don't think they'd get any in the shade..

 

[Neeko]

Good point, im not an expert on radiation so I wouldn't know. I know light is cut in half or maybe more by mesh. I know there is a misconception that uvb is light bit its a wave length. I maybe completely misinformed. Glass absorbs the uvb wave making it useless through a window. They should just make a material that gives off the correct uvb wave length and not make a lightbulb that's crazy high priced that may or may not work.

 

[tora]

Yeah neither am I. Is the glass on uvb bulbs special or something?

 

[Neeko]

Lol yeah, what a good point. Uvb bulbs are made of glass. Maybe its bc its so close it still emits out. Not sure. There needs to be a eps of how its made about uvb lights and how they work.

 

[RobK.]

I was using the Zoo med powersun for the last two week striaght and it was on for over 12 hours the last time i tested it . I kept testing it on and off all sunday . It had about two months of use before i got the mega ray .Not sure how much UV they need , BUT i bet they need more than that bulb was putting out, and they should have enough available .

Like i posted before , MegaRay/reptileuv still owes me over 80.00 bucks from a old order placed in june , i have called and e-mailed over and over and OVER with NO luck . I will stick with bulbs i can buy local and take back my self . I was for-warned about their bad C. Service but though i would try anyway , being they may (??) have the best bulbs . mine lasted less than three months . When you do a search on the net , you will see that all the MVB's have had problems and i am not so sure they have improved THAT MUCH ?? I am glad that i have the S.meter so i can see for my self . best 160.00 spent on my Rhino IMO .

sorry for venting , just tired of messing with bad bulbs .

---

are those reptisun tubes?i laways loved the reptisun i still do i recentyl switched to powersun did you give it those two days? thanks i been wondering this forever lol

yes , they are the zoo-med repisuns 48'' 10.0 . I have had them sitting in the corner for a month still in the box , i wish i has tried them before .

 

[Strange_Evil]

Rob can you send me the link to where you purchased your solar meter please. Thank you!

 

[jtpowers]

Hey Rob, just curious if your solar meter distinguishes by wavelength...UVA/UVB/UVC... Since we are mostly shooting for UVB, getting UVA is easier, and mostly attempting to minimize UVC. (UVC is what light sterilizers put out and can cause some problems.)

It just struck me that the coil bulbs show more UV in your experiment, but if it's high on the UVC they aren't really helpful after all. Regardless, great info about the MVB's...four all the marketing that goes into the various bulbs and their significant price tag, the manufacturers seem to be low on quality control as well as independent laboratory certification or publication of the relevant test data. Since there's really only one reason we buy these expensive things, one would think that the sole purpose for their existence would be made more readily available to the end consumer.

Can you imagine buying an ecpensive multivitamin, without being told or being able to easily discern which vitamins it actually contains, how much of each, and whether it has potentially harmful doses of some micronutrients? Additionally, though I echo james.w's sentiment that we don't know how much tegus need, I'm not willing to rely on anecdotal evidence that some individual consumers haven't experienced problems related to MBD while using the product, even though it may be the only data we have. It's lousy population size with little validity or reliability, and it's a shame that's almost all we have. Like trying to assess cancer risk by having to rely on looking at a few friends' suntanning habits and whether they got melanoma - and meanwhile being sold sunscreen that has misleading, nonstandard "measurements" of efficacy when in fact some of it is worthless and some outright dangerous.

I think the purveyors of these products bear some responsibility to do the research that end users can rely on in discerning what the needs of at least the more common individual species may be and what EXACTLY their products provide, including rates of decay over time and distance. I am aware of some third party independent sites that try to keep up with publishing some of this information, but even that is confounded by the fact that it's such a moving target with quality control issues, suppliers changing bulb specs to the manufacturers, manufacturers who use the misleading "5.0/10.0" designations without them meaning much, and no way to tell the ONLY things you really need to know about the product.

Sorry for the rant, but anyone who spends some time trying to do their due diligence on UV has seen just how frustrating it can be. Little wonder that inexperienced reptile owners might make poor decisions when it seems to require a Ph.D., independent testing equipment, and a lot of time and money for even an experienced keeper to get the info they need...and all because it isn't being provided by those who market their wares.

 

[RobK.]

Hey Rob, just curious if your solar meter distinguishes by wavelength...UVA/UVB/UVC... Since we are mostly shooting for UVB, getting UVA is easier, and mostly attempting to minimize UVC. (UVC is what light sterilizers put out and can cause some problems.)


Sorry for the rant, but anyone who spends some time trying to do their due diligence on UV has seen just how frustrating it can be. Little wonder that inexperienced reptile owners might make poor decisions when it seems to require a Ph.D., independent testing equipment, and a lot of time and money for even an experienced keeper to get the info they need...and all because it isn't being provided by those who market their wares.

no rank at all , good info !!

here is what i have .



quote

''Solartech's Solarmeter model 6.2 is the most accurate hand held ultraviolet radiometer (UVB meter) on the market. And although it's a 'broad band' meter, meaning it is measuring the complete UVB range (280 nanometers to 320 nanometers) it's peak sensitivity is at 295nm. This is the prime wavelength of UVB needed to induce Vitamin D3 synthesis, making the 6.2 meter the perfect instrument to use to check your UVB reptile lamps.''

 

[james.w]

Your quote confused me.. it states the measurement in nanometers, but you state the measurement in milliwatts in the first post.

 

[jtpowers]

Two different things being measured, james.w...the nanometers reference is to the varying wavelengths of the different types of UV light. (UVA, UVB, or UVC). This is a fixed measurement; in other words the nanometers tells you which TYPE of UV you arw measuring. The milliwatt measurement describes the intensity, or HOW MUCH you have.

In this case, Rob knows from the wavelength (nanometers) that he's measuring primarily UVB, and from the intensity (milliwatts) how much he has at the measurement site.

Hope this helps.

Your quote confused me.. it states the measurement in nanometers, but you state the measurement in milliwatts in the first post.

 

[RobK.]

11:30 am in my back yard .

today at 2:30 pm in my back yard .