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Thread: How often should u change Reptisun 10.0?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
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    144

    Default How often should u change Reptisun 10.0?

    I know after a while it wont produce the UVB correct? So should it be replaced every 4 months or so?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
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    Denver, CO
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    I have heard 6-8 months it should be replaced - Simply what I've heard - Any others opinions are welcome :wink:
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
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    Portsmouth N.H.
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    Default UVB

    I replace all my UVB lights every 6 months! Definitely necessary!

  4. #4
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    Jul 2005
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    Default

    Thank You Both. I will do it every 6 months for sure!! Shannon

  5. #5

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    My reptisun 10.0 doesnt even last me 6 months. I had 2 of those light in a 3 month period. I leave them on for 10 hrs a day. For some reason, it burn out of me. Does anyone have the same problem with them lights?

  6. #6
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    Sep 2005
    Location
    Bakersfield
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    65

    Default

    The light itself shouldn't burn out, if it does.. you're getting some crappy tubes.
    It's the UV production that goes out over time, not the light production.
    Speaking with David Blair (Cyclura.com) during a light explanation at one of the shows.. he says they start to degrade significantly at 3 months or so however you shouldn't "need" to replace them till about 6-8 months.. they are pricey little things.
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  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
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    Earth
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    However, there are a number of things when it comes to UVB and reptiles that remains unclear.

    First, there is NO evidence to suggest that more or stronger UVB is better for reptiles. In fact, what is known is prolonged exposure to sufficient UVB, or overly strong UVB, will cause cellular damage, most particularly DNA dimerization, to animal tissues, including reptiles. This is not to say reptiles should not be exposed to UVB, just that it hasn't been worked out what are safe levels. Unfortunately, it is just common misconception that when a little bit of something is good for you, a lot must be even better. Take oxygen for example. All animals need it, including you and I. However, our atmosphere typically only has around 21% content of oxygen. Is more better? Not really, and in fact, constant exposure to 100% oxygen would kill you.

    Second, when it comes to which light bulbs are best, there is a lot of misconception there as well. Reptisun 5 or less (or equivalent in other reptile brand bulbs) provides no better UVB than your average hardware store full spectrum or plant grow bulbs. Why pay more when you don't have to? The highest UVB production in a fluorescent bulb is not from any of the Reptisun, Powersun, etc. bulbs, it's from the Philips Blacklight Fluorescent bulbs. To get stronger UVB output, you need to go with the mercury vapor bulbs, and there's some serious debate over whether these are possibly too strong. Furthermore, as many people have discovered, the heat production from those bulbs can be problematic for smaller set-ups.

    Third, whereas it is certainly true that UVB production in bulbs reduces with age of the bulb, as I said above it is uncertain what minimum level is necessary for promoting health in reptiles. I've "recovered" tegus suffering from muscle tremors with bulbs that were at least 5 years old in usage, let alone under 3 months. Prolonged exposure to weaker UVB strengths will ultimately have the same net effect in pro-VitD3 production that short-term exposure to high UVB strength would, WITHOUT the increased probability of cellular damage.

    There's a lot of marketing ploys used out there, beware of the actual facts. Any bulb can claim to have UVB strengths of whatever strength they wish, but the necessary wavelength of importance for pro-VitD3 production is 295nm. If the spectrograph of the bulb's output doesn't show a peak at 295nm, there's little point in buying it. Be careful when looking at the "studies" showing UVB strengths of various bulbs - most are done with handheld spectrometers which have been shown to be highly unreliable and inaccurate (they basically only give "ballpark" figures). Also, many show data that, quite frankly, is impossible to be true. Take the T-Rex data from the table available from the Helpful Info section of this site - outside of the concept of coherent light, anyone familiar with basic physics should recognize that the intensity of EM radiation can only decrease with increasing distance from the source. That chart simply cannot be true (sorry Rick , either the data was erroneously reported or was copied incorrectly), it is IMPOSSIBLE for UVB irradiance to increase with distance, even over 3". Plus the fact that for a reflective spot bulb to be stronger at an angle as opposed to straight on really either says their data is WAY off, or the glass in their bulbs have some bizarre polarizing properties.

    If you've got the means to replace your bulbs routinely, I'd say go for it. Personally, though, I don't think you need to pay inflated prices for bulbs that are really no better than something cheaper that's available. I personally do think tegus need UVB, but considering how much (or more accurately, how little) time they actually spend in direct sun in the wild, I'm not sure they need high intensity UVB.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    UK
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    105

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    Tupinambis

    I'm not a real expert on the technical aspects of this, but I think I agree with you! To my mind most of the 'experiment's done to justify the inclusion of UV-producing lights do not control for lighting intensity itself (or other things).

    For example, I set up a pair of fire skinks in an ecnlosure with only a basking bulb, and no light tube. They were fine. A few months later I added a Reptisun 5.0 and they started mating and producing eggs, and have done ever since. Evidence of the benefits of a UV tube? Might be, but might be evidence of the benefits of brighter lighting, or could be that it took them a few months to fatten up and come into condition, or to settle, or whatever.

    One question, you say that tegus don't spend much time in direct sun in the wild, but mine spend much of the day basking directly under basking lights. How so?

    Mark.

  9. #9
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    Dec 2004
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    Let me reiterate - I personally do think most reptiles should have UVB exposure, no ifs ands or buts about it. The benefits far outweigh the costs. However, as I said, most of these reptile bulbs are in essence no better for your tegu than a regular full spectrum plant grow bulb (these have UVB as well). I think only the later 10s or greater finally exceed the irradiance of a simple full spectrum (for fluorescents, that is).

    As for my statement for wild tegus not spending a lot of time under the sun, yet you observe that yours spend a lot of time basking, there are several answers. First, the sun from the lattitudes where these guys are typically from is INTENSE. Unless you have some seriously powerful bulbs, you're certainly no where near the irradiance of natural sunlight. At any time between 8am and 4pm during summer at those lattitudes, any reptile smaller than a large caiman stuck out in direct sun for more than an hour will be dead. And yes, I've seen this happen. I also took a dead adult tegu, stuck a temperature data logger in its body, and then left it out in the sun for a day to see what the temperature profile of a constantly exposed tegu mass would look like, and the carcass of that tegu got up to 70 degrees celcius. Anything above 40 is pretty much lethal.
    Second, your temperatures are potentially too low. Any tegus without access to sufficient temperature will spend more time basking. This may not be an entirely bad thing as a tegu that surpasses that threshold is then usually highly active and tends to destroy its enclosure searching for a way out. In our indoor rearing pens, we found if we put too high of a wattage of light bulb for them to bask under, it would take them maybe an hour to warm up, and then they were tearing things up trying to escape, fight with each other, etc. We'd switch to a lower wattage bulb and they'd spend the entire day just basking peacefully.
    Third, UVB exposure. Under the intense sun, 10-20 minutes exposure daily is probably more than all they need to produce their daily pro-VitD3 requirements. Under artificial lighting, they would need to spend more time to get the same level of exposure.

  10. #10

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    Hey your smart, you defintiely seem to know your stuff! Are you a herpetologist or just a very loving tegu guy ! nice

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