General Care Discussion :: Screen top

[crock1120]

I have a normal screen top on my tank, does the UVB make it through the screen? I was told it does at the pet store but I'm not sure about them.

Please let me know.

Thanks, Chris

[industrial_girl_2000]

How wide are the holes on the screen? If the holes are smaller than 1 inch, then the UVB will be filtered out (unfortunately).

[crock1120]

They are fairly small, so I'll make the necessary change in order for the UVB to filter through.

Also, random question, I tried getting a pic of my turtles for my avatar image but I could not figure out how to do it, can anyone help?

Thanks

[Starchick]

What part are you having trouble with? Use photobucket to host the image, and make sure it's set to public. Many of the other image hosting sites won't let you display the image on another site.

[marisa]

Holes that are about 3/8 of an inch are supposed to filter out about 30% of the UVB rays, so if this is the size of the holes in the screen you have, your turtle would be getting some UVB rays. Smaller holes obviously filter out more, larger holes less. You don't want holes that are really small---1/16 or 1/8th of an inch (too much is filtered out). Since UVB lights aren't exactly cheap, I'd want to maximize the rays my turtle gets by using a screen (or making one) with larger holes, 1/2 inch or more.