Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozric Jonathan
Hi Andy/ John. Sorry for butting in but I've had a bit of a go with these without keeping an accurate record of it. Like Andy I have a 6.2 solarmeter. I found the 100 watt was not powerful enough on the heat aspect. I believe this lamp must have been made to fit inside vivs or similar and it might be a bit tough on this lamp to expect it to perform over an open table.
The Arcadia 160 Watt I used several of and found this to be more stable and longer lasting than any 160 watt combis which I'd used previously. Having tried a few different ones the arcadia was better, but the others might have improved since.
I have basically switched to the T5 system with additional halogen lamps for heat as like you I find the T5 to be a very good product.
If your tortoises are getting over 200 uW/cm2 this might be too much especially if it is 12hours a day. What I do is to lower the tubes a bit after the uv has dropped off a bit.
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Hi Jonathan,
I bought these just to experiment with them, on other forums so many new tortoise keepers are buying the 100w combi bulbs and I have explained that they are no use as I don't rate them at all especially as a heat bulb, the only one I have recommended is the 160w, but because of the ones I have had In the past the UV drops dramatically over a few weeks, hopefully this problem has been sorted and proves me wrong!!
As for my T5s they have never let me down.
I also have in my outside enclosures the mega ray Zoo combi and this is by far the best combi I have had so far, when new the UV at 24' inches was over 600uvb and I have found that my adult females would only bask under these when they had a choice of basking spots.
Yesterday I swapped one for a new arcadia 160w and they have not went near it choosing to go under the lamp that is reading 350uvb. That's 350uvb after 6 months of use.