Hi, I'm new to the forum. I've been thinking of buying a mercury vapor flood lamp for my iggy ziggy. I need some feedback from anyone using them for UVB. Are they as good as advertised?
yea they are pretty good as long as they are kept less than 12" away from the basking spot. if its more than 12" it has no effect
Actually MVB's have usuable UVB up to somewhere around 3 feet depending on the wattage, but they do produce a ton of heat, not sure how hot an iguana needs its basking area, but these make it pretty hot. UVB tubes only produce UVB up to 12 inches.
Yeah, you don't want to put a MVB 12" away from the reptile, it'll probably shrivel up and dry out. Mercury vapours do produce a lot of heat, and they're designed for a further distance from the animal, and for much larger enclosures than flourescents.
Thank's, I've always used the reptisun 5.0 flourescents for UVB and halogen spot lamps for heat. My ig cage is 6ft. x 6ft. x 4ft. so maybe these MVB lamps would be better.
Oh yeah, the mercury vapour bulbs were designed for big enclosures like that. We'd be using them with our iguanas too if we didn't house them outside. We've got three 6 footers, so they have BIG outdoor enclosures... one's 10'x5'x7', one's 8'x4'x8' and one's 10'x8'x6' (one of the advantages of living in Florida). They get all the UVB they need from the sun.
I live in North Carolina so it's a little cooler here than Florida, but I did buy the large reptarium so I can bring ziggy outside on nice days.
That's good, he'll definitely appreciate the sunshine Just be careful though once he gets really big that he can't tear the screen and get out. As he gets bigger, you might want to think about building something a little more substantial using a wooden frame and vinyl-coated wire mesh. He isn't going to tear through metal mesh, and the vinyl covering on the mesh will help to prevent any problems with nose-rubbing.
so what would be a good wattage for a cage 3ft by 3ft by 2ft? or how far away should i have it from the basking spot? ( it is for a beardie but i thought i would ask in here, sorry if i did something wrong)
From the research i've been doing on them, and from what axe said, i'd place it no closer than 2ft. from the basking site. There are two kinds, flood lamp, which disperses heat and UVB to a wider area, and the spot lamp, which concentrates it's heat and UVB to a specific area.
They actually make a 60Watt external ballast bulb now that can be used on smaller enclosures. We use these with 10, 15 and 20 gallon tanks for babies & hospital tanks with great success. For the enclosure you're talking about Floyd, it depends on several factors, such as the airflow of the enclosure, the ambient temperature of the room, etc. If we forget UVB for a moment, what wattage do you need in regular household bulbs just to heat the enclosure? A spot is going to concentrate the heat & UVB in a more specific area of the enclosure, providing more UVB to that spot - which can be great if your dragon has a basking spot that they love to hang out in. If you have several dragons, and they're sharing several basking spots, go with a flood, and you may even need to use a regular household bulb in addition to make sure all basking spots have the adequate temperatures. Many of our enclosures that use 100 and 160 Watt MV bulbs also have extra heat from regular 40 & 60 watt household bulbs for the other basking areas.
I take it your using another light or heat source for your basking area, so I'd use an MVB flood lamp which will spread the UVB ray's throughout your cage.
Floyd is my only dragon and he loves his one basking spot on his log, he goes up high enough to get warm and he moves back down when he feels he is warm enough and needs to cool off alittle. He spends most of his time basking for about 9 hours of the day. With the enclosure i am building now it is going to be 3FT(L) by 3FT(W) by 2FT(H) that is just the cage. At the moment the air in his cage which is not his new one is about 72*F but it could go up during the Summer time. So how far away should i have the MV bulb from Floyd? And would it be better to have a flood or spot? Also could it be possible the reason why he is not roaming his cage is because the other areas are too cold for him and he is happy under the light all day? So what happens when i build his new cage and he starts roaming more because it is warmer? Would it be better to have a flood? or get a spot and have a normal house hold bulb at the other end of his cage so it gets warmer down there, aswell?
What kind of light are you using for your basking spot? What's the ambient temperature in his cage? Are you using anything now so he can get the UVB he needs?
a sunglo 100 watt basking spot lamp. 72*F yes i have a stripe light that produces UVB. this is for the cage he is in now, and i am building him a new one and i want to use the MV bulb in the new cage that i am building him.
