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Hello everyone,

I am a little confused with the safest distance to have a UVB light from my basking turtle. I was advised that the safest distance to have it is anything over 8inches away from my turtle as any closer and the UVB can damage his eyes. I am using Reptisun 5.0. However, when I'm browsing through the gallery photos of other set ups, it seems quite a lot of people have the UVB light closer that the 8 inches minimum. I've checked the Zoomed Reptisun packaging, and there are no instructions/warnings on a safe distance. Can someone please advise. Thank you for your help.

Mine is between six and twelve depending on the level of the water and if I have added any lately.

Between 6-8 inches would be OK for the 5.0. If you're worried, you could compromise and make it 7.

Do you think that the reason why there is no warning on the Reptisun package is because the UVB tube doesnt pose any danger no matter how close it is to the turtle? I'm thinking that reptile specialists like Zoomed would definitely print a warning if putting it too close to a turtle would endanger it.

Zoo-Med does have a warning on their compact flourescent UVB light packages.

Hi Marisa,

I'm positive the packaging does not have any warnings on the safest distance. All it says regarding distance is that Zoomed Reptisun's UVb tube emits UVB as far as 12inches away, compared to others where the UVb is only projected down to a max of 4inches. But it does not specifically advise how far away from the reptile the UVB light should be placed. I've checked the packaging everywhere. Please tell me what yours says. Does it say something like "place light tube no closer than 8 inches from basking reptile"? Thank you for your help.