General Care Discussion :: Direct lighting (effectiveness of UVB lights)

[WyredHardware]

Hey,
I read somewhere on the forum that for compact fluorescent lights should be right above the basking platform. Angles reduce or cancel out the UVB from reaching the turtle. Is this correct? Do halogen uva/uvb lights share the same... flaw?

[octpusgirl8]

I'm not sure if it reduces/cancels out the UVB rays, but i've been told that having them at an angle rather than directly above the basking platorm makes it more likely that the turtle will look into the light, causing eye damage. I would imagine that this would be true for any kind of UVB light. I have a T-Rex MVB and it says several times in the directions that it must be operated in an upright position.

[marisa]

I have a 10.0 Reptisun compact flourescent that's in a fixture that holds the bulb horizontally and it's over the basking area next to a heat light (a lightbulb). I don't think placing it horizontally cancels out the UVB rays, but rather dispurses them over a greater area over the basking area (as a tube flourescent would do). I've also placed them in clamp lamps over the basking area next to heat lights.

Placing a barrier (like glass) between a UVB light will keep the UVB rays from reaching the turtle. Increasing the distance between the UVB light and the turtle will dramatically affect the amount of UVB rays a turtle gets (for a conventional UVB light, depending on the strength, more than 12 inches away and the turtle doesn't really benefit at all).

I don't know about halogen UVB/UVA lights....All the halogen bulbs I see are for heat, not UVB. Do you mean combination UVB/UVA mercury vapor lights? They should be positioned vertically over the basking area. They're big, very bright, and give off a lot of heat.

[DavidY]

The compact flourescent bulbs can be positioned at any angle while the mercury vapor bulbs are designed to be mounted vertically with the screw base pointing up. It has to do with the proper ignition and burning of the internal gas envelope (or something like that). It's also a good idea to try to place the UVB bulb as directly over the basking platform as possible so they turtles aren't as likely to look directly into the light, like Octpusgirl mentioned.

[WyredHardware]

No my light is a Halogen UVA/UVB light... well that is what it says on the package anyway. 50w. I have never seen a Mercury vapor light in my life.. I will hit up the google and see what i can find. I have decided that in 6 months I am going to compact fluorescent anyway... I might actually buy a few when I go home for Christmas and bring them back to Japan with me.

Edit: Nope it is not a Mercury Vap bulb. I did find something interesting on UVB light that I thought I should share http://www.anapsid.org/uvtable.html

[DavidY]

I never heard of a halogen UVA/UVB light before. I know they have them for UVA but I would be suspicious of how much UVB they actually generate.

Melissa Kaplan's website is one of the best that I've seen for all around info on reptiles and pet care. I haven't read through the whole site but I've found alot of very useful information there whenever I do research.

[SpotsMama]

I think Steve is using a halogen.

[grey goose]

I use halogen bulbs, but only for heat.

[steve]

Same here, it's a great basking light. The color is very warm and bright.