12% UVB

[a_fisher]

Hi all,

When I first bought a tube for my tort table I bought a 12% UVB, but before I picked my tort up i read somewhere on xxxxxxxxxxxx that anything above 8% can damage the torts eyes so I went out and bought a 5%

Just wondering what percentage UVB tubes people are using?

[joanna]

Hi

What tort have you got? I personally think 5% is too low even for tropical species, I use 8% for my redfoot and I think most on here use 10% for med species etc

[nina]

Can you tell us what brand the 12% UV bulb was? Was it a tube or a combined light? I use the 10% UVB tube, and I've never heard of a higher percentage in the fluorescent tubes.

[a_fisher]

I have a T.hermanni.boettgeri that is 8 months old.

They don't have a picture but this is the one I originally bought: http://www.petzoo.co.uk/product_info...roducts_id=163
So its an Arcadia 12% UVB 30% UVA tube - says for desert reptile species, which I'm guessing greece and bulgaria etc are not

This is the one am using now but after reading the description I realise its wrong http://www.petzoo.co.uk/product_info...roducts_id=183


So do I have to go and buy an 8%? (i.e. 12 too strong and 5 too weak?)

Cheers

[a_fisher]

I found the article:
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/lighting.html

Tubes are available offering from 2% UVB to 8% UVB. The most popular tubes offer 3% or 5% UVB. In the vast majority of cases the 3% tubes are perfectly adequate, provided they are correctly sited, changed regularly, and a sufficient number of hours exposure permitted. For a 3-5% tube, 10-12 hours daily has proved a satisfactory level of exposure for most species. Concerns have been expressed about the safety of tubes with outputs greater than 5% - in particular, there may be a possibility of eye damage occurring with some tubes in some situations.

[Dazza]

Lighting is a huge subject - the lamp you brought was for dessert species, and without looking in depth at the lamp should have a different Lux/colour temperature - to the requirements for your temperate tortoise spieces, ideal tube for your tortoise will be something along the lines of a repti sun 10.0..

Loads of research has gone into reptile lighting over recent years and most of the big brand lights are perfectly safe, providing you use the correct lamp for the corrrect animal your suppiler should know whats what


Dazza

[a_fisher]

Cheers dazza, looks like i'll be buying a 10.0 soon. Third time lucky eh


Just found the original I bought (any feed back on this one would be good:
http://www.arcadia-uk.info/product.p...n=en&sub=&id=4

The colour temperature of 7,500K approximates the mix of direct and indirect light from a bright, cloud free sky.

[nina]

The 12% tube is relatively new (I hadn't known about it before), but the UVB Meter Owners forum have been getting some good test results from it:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/U...s/message/5712
I've just posted a question on that forum asking about the merits of the 12% tube vs the 10% tubes (ReptiSun and Reptiglo), and will let you know what they say.

[a_fisher]

Originally Posted by nina

The 12% tube is relatively new (I hadn't known about it before), but the UVB Meter Owners forum have been getting some good test results from it:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/U...s/message/5712
I've just posted a question on that forum asking about the merits of the 12% tube vs the 10% tubes (ReptiSun and Reptiglo), and will let you know what they say.

Thanks nina, appreciate it!

[nina]

I've had an answer to my questions to the UVB Meter Owners forum. Basically I asked about the quality of the new Arcadia 12% tube and if it would be beneficial to get it, and I also asked if the ReptiGlo 10.0 was any better or worse than the ReptiSun 10.0. Here is the link to the answer on the forum:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/U...s/message/5837
But here is a cut and paste of the main part of the answer for those who aren't members of the forum (my question was answered by Frances Baines who is one of the people that run the UV Guide UK, which is an excellent website: http://www.uvguide.co.uk/ :

Yes, extra UVB would be beneficial for your Horsfields tortoise - in
fact as soon as the weather is suitable, (depending on where you
live) a secure outdoor enclosure with areas of full, unfiltered
natural sunlight where he can bask would be SO much better than
anything indoors! Horsfields are not a tropical species and will
benefit from an outdoor life in most temperate climates through the
warmer seasons...

Having said that, if your indoor enclosure is such that you can't use
a high-UVB mercury vapour lamp to give a "patch of artificial
sunlight", then the new Arcadia D3+ tube has a good spectrum in the
UVB range (approximating sunlight) and so does the ZooMed Reptisun
10.0 tube. Both also have a good UVB output for fluorescent tubes.
From a practical point of view I don't think there is a huge
difference between them, they both seem good, well-made lamps and
although the Arcadia D3+ is new, the original Arcadia D3 lamp has
proved a reliable product, just as both the ZooMed 5.0 and 10.0 tubes
have done.

At reasonable basking distances (minimum distance I'd personally
suggest would be 6 inches above the tortoise's back and absolute
maximum distance of 12 inches) both the Arcadia D3+ and Reptisun 10.0
tubes provide the UVB equivalent of daylight in the shade on a sunny
day in the UK.
As with ALL fluorescent tubes, they should also be hung above the
tortoise, not sideways to him - but this isn't because the UVB is
necessarily dangerous, it is because the glare of the light shining
straight in his eyes is stressful (like driving a car into the sunset)
and over time, bright light shining in the eyes, especially in the
visible blue wavelengths, can be harmful to the retina (in humans at
least). They should also be placed right over the warm basking spot
since the synthesis of vitamin D3 takes place in warm skin of the
tortoise's exposed legs, neck and head when he's basking... the UVB
doesn't go through his shell!

The ExoTerra ReptiGlo 10.0 has a rather different spectrum from these
two. It produces an apparently similar total UVB but a higher UV
Index - but the higher UV Index is because the spectrum is not so
similar to sunlight. The UVB includes some very-low-wavelength, more
biologically-active UVB, below that normally found in natural
sunlight. There have been occasional reports of eye problems with
this tube when the reptile has been able to get close to the tube -
this low wavelength light is more hazardous to living cells than the
higher wavelengths found in sunlight. So if you choose to use these
tubes, be particularly aware of this and be especially careful to
keep the tube at least six inches above, maybe 8 - 10 inches.... I
don't use these tubes myself because the long-term effects of small
amounts of very low wavelength light are not known. However, it has
to be said that many people have used these tubes with no apparent
ill effects.

Here are some figures for newly-burned-in tubes (105hrs burn).

Arcadia D3+ 12% Reptile 15watt 18-inch T8 tube :
8ins: total UVB 62µW/cm² UVI 1.9
12ins: total UVB 35µW/cm² UVI 1.0

ZooMed Reptisun 10.0 20watt 24-inch T12 tube:
8ins: total UVB 47µW/cm² UVI 1.5
12ins: total UVB 28µW/cm² UVI 0.8

ExoTerra ReptiGlo 10.0 20watt 24-inch T8 tube:
8ins: total UVB 42µW/cm² UVI 2.6
12ins: total UVB 25µW/cm² UVI 1.6

I'm sorry that I haven't updated the UV Guide website.
It's on my list of things to do, of course... but people keep sending
me more and more new lamps to test!... and there just aren't enough
hours in a day...

Frances