UVA UVB 5.0s and Actives

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Posted by IC on July 28, 2001 at 12:44:08:

In Reply to: Re: Yet another ActiveUV Heat bulb question... posted by amy on July 27, 2001 at 19:49:29:

Okay, this is going to be long so if you're not really interested in UV lighting and the pros and cons of the bulbs available, don't read this. Do know this though -all UVB bulbs ALSO produce UVA. ActiveUV bulbs have a 1 year waranty so Amy if your bulb died after 4 months, call them and they will replace it. If you don't bother contacting them over this, it's your fault not theirs. Also, what proof can you offer that the 10 microwatts of UVB that the Zoo Med produces is sufficient for an iguana?

Up until this past June we used ZooMed 5.0s in every iguana enclosure we have. At the time I think that was 8 enclosures. So let's start there with this .... 5.0 bulbs can cost anywhere from $20.00 to $35.00 a piece depending on where you buy them (I know there is one place a few $ cheaper if you buy them in bulk but you still need to pay shipping so let's start with $20.00 as the low figure). We pay about $22.00 per light when we get them from our supplier but since sometimes I need one in an emergency and have to pay the $35.00 and most other people do not hunt for a good price and they pay about $30.00 I'm going to use $30.00 as the price here for an example,$30.00 per light times 8 enclosures, they need to replaced every six months. So per year, minus electricity, a basking source and a heat source, we're talking about $480.00 worth of bulbs. That's a lot of money!!

For the past year or so, friends of ours kept telling us about ActiveUV bubls. They have been using them on their adult iguana and their juvenile bearded dragon. I, like many of you sitting here reading this, was extremely hesitant to switch to this new bulb. The bulbs are $54.99 a piece and to us $54.99 is a good amount of cash to be putting out for one "light bulb". I had every excuse lined up as to why we weren't ready to try these bulbs. I was concerned about the heat they threw. I was concerned about the UV production. As far as I thought I knew they were new to the market. All these reasons and more, we didn't buy an Active.

Well, June rolled around and so did Mr D's birthday. We had wanted to read David Krughoff's book for a while now, we just had never gotten around to buying it. So, I ordered both the Anna book and the Reptile Lighting book as gifts for him. When I got them, I opened them that day and was so shocked by what I read that I didn't wait until his actual b-day to give the books to him!

Everything I thought we knew about UV turned out to be literally nothing as our educational process began! I never realized until I began to get into the meat and bones of the subject just how much we didn't know. I began to think more practically about UV and natural sunlight -when I opened myself up to independent thought on this subject it was really mind blowing!!

First of all, we as iguana keepers are told to expose our iguanas to natural, unfiltered sunlight as often as possible. This makes sense because iguanas are wild animals! I know that here in New England there is no way that taking my igunas outside for the roughly 5 months it is warm enough for them is going to equal the sun exposure they would receive in the tropics so I know that I need to do something to try to emulate their natural habitat more closely. (The following is from David Krughoff's book "Reptile Lighting 2000" which you can buy at www.myiguana.com) David Krughoff did a test with his photodiode radiometer in June of 2000 in Hoyleton, Illinois. What he found is that the lowest amount of UVB that the sun produces there is 12 microwatts between the hours of 7 and 8am. By noon the sun is producing 256 microwatts, by 5pm the sun is producing 131. In the cool shade at 1:00 in the afternoon he got a reading of 54 and at 5:00pm (still in the shade) he got a reading of 22). I then looked at the Boston University study on UV lights -ZooMed's 5.0 and Ig Light (same bulb different packages) came in at producing only 10 microwatts of UVB with 23 of UVA. This really caused me to sit down and take a good look at our enclosures. I thought to myself that for most of the year our iguanas were getting LESS UVB than even the sun provided here in America and how much less that was than their natural habitat.

So, the next thing we did was look at the Active bulbs. It's true that the Wild Inside presented the numbers but David Krughoff also did his own test with his photodiode radiometer. Currently the lowest wattage of Active is a 100 watt bulb. The 100 watt bulb at a distance of 1 foot produces 50 microwatts of UVB with the UVA comming in at 400. These numbers floored me! Still I was not convinced that these bulbs would work for us. But then we had an emergency, the local animal shelter called us because they needed us to take in another iguana, the 2nd from them in less than 3 weeks. This time it was a 4 foot plus adult and we just didn't have an enclosure open that was large enough. They are not set up for any type of reptile and were going to have to put her in one of the dog kennels. I knew that ZooMed's bubls need to be no farther away than a maximum 12 inches to supply any real UV and since the dog kennels are 9 feet tall with no way for the ig to climb up higher a 5.0 would be a waste of money. So, we called Wild Inside and ordered a bulb, choosing a 160 watt flood with their help. Before the bulb could get here, the iguana as usual had to come to home with us .... so, when the bulb arrived the shelter told us to keep it. The bulb was huge!! We weren't really sure what we were going to do with it but now we had an extra iguana and not enough UV sources to go around -we had no choice but to use the bulb.

The 160 watt needs to be a minimum of 18 inches away from the animal. The only enclosure we felt that we had that a 160 watt might work in was Jimmie's (she is the one who is missing an eye). So, we put the bulb in with her. We placed it in a ceramic dome fixture that sits on a hole cut in the top of the enclosure. The first thing we nervously checked was how much heat the bulb threw -while it was very hot at the source, like most bulbs are, the farther we got away from it, the more gentle the heat. It provided a beautiful basking spot on one side of the enclosure and on the other side there was a large shady area for her to go to when she wanted or needed to. As a reference you should know that Jimmie's house is 2.5 feet wide by 3 feet tall by 4 feet long with 3 solid walls and the doors made from hardware cloth. NOT a regular enclsure but due to her special needs, it works just fine for her. We watched her all day and she did nothing but sit on her basking log under the light. Her appetite had not been fantastic lately, she was going through a really rough shed, her first since arriving her in November and due to the treatment she received, didn't receive was more like it, in her old home she was having many other medical difficulties as well. Her urination was in such large volume and so forceful that it would leak out of the bottom of the wood cage and pool on the kitchen floor. It was nerve racking to have this new light on her that day. The next day we put the light on again and like the day before she sat on her log and basked all day only to get up to eat. Instead of 1 plate of food, she ate 2!! The next day she ate 3 plates of food! After the past month or so we have noticed her improved appetite, improved color and improved attitude/disposition. Her urination became less forceful. The big test came when Doc came to us -he needed a UV light and so we had to steal Jimmie's Active and put her back on the 5.0 -Her appetite decreased and she became easily aggitated and highly irratable. Scientific proof? No. Good enough for me? Yes.

We now have 3 Active bulbs in use and one more due to arrive here any day. We're using them on 1 iguana with severe MBD who has seizures, one iguana with MBD who has not had UV or natural sunlight atleast for the past year and raised on trout food and Jimmie. I could sit here and give you story after story regarding how the lights are working for us. I know from experience that no matter how much I like the lights, it won't change the minds of many of you. What I will say is this, after you have given other opinions a listen take the time to read Krughoff's books, the Boston University Study and what Wild Inside has to say. Also, I ask that each of you remember this, Melissa Kaplan seems to be very vocal regarding how bad these lights supposedly are HOWEVER she has NEVER so much as held one of these bulbs let alone used one, independently researched them or tested them. On her website she is giving her uneducated OPINION on these bulbs. If you want a real educated opinion I have a list of 36 zoological parks using these bulbs, including Disney's Animal Kingdom along with museums, zooz and aquaiums from the larger cities in America. Call them and get their educated opinions on these lights.

On a final note I would like to share this with you, I have no problem with the Zoo Med lights being used. Especially by people who really care for their animals, take them out for real unfiltered sunlight, provide a good well rounded diet and replace the bulbs every six months. The sad reality of the situation is, people like this are far and few between. I would very much like to see these bulbs be common in the market, especially since they only need to be replace every 12-18 months. It is my feeling that the use of these bulbs will be of extreme benefit to those animals whose humans aren't on top of their care. It will atleast give them a fighting chance when they have to deal with Nutri Grow iguana food and less than perfect living quarters. This one bulb will give them heat, UVB, UVA and a nice basking spot. This one bulb will replace the 2 or 3 heat and light sources we tell people to buy. We all know that most people balk at having to buy 2 or 3 heat and light sources along with the 2 or 3 fixtures to run them. IMHO, this light is the best thing to come along for reptiles in a long time.

8 active bulbs are going to cost me $439.92 for a year

I don't have to buy any basking lights -no money spent

I don't have to buy any heat sources -no money spent

I am now running one electrical unit per enclosure vs. 3 -cheaper electric bill

My igs look better

My igs eat better -ok, so I spend more on food to me that's a wonderful thing

My igs feel better and have more energy to play and climb!!

Look into the bulbs for yourself, don't take my word for it and don't take the word of someone who has never tried the bubls either! Really educate yourselves on the natural habitat of the iguana and then look at the numbers all the bulbs produce -I think you will be as shocked as I was!!

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: Okay, this is going to be long so if you're not really interested in UV lighting and the pros and cons of the bulbs available, don't read this. Do know this though -all UVB bulbs ALSO produce UVA. ActiveUV bulbs have a 1 year waranty so Amy if your bulb died after 4 months, call them and they will replace it. If you don't bother contacting them over this, it's your fault not theirs. Also, what proof can you offer that the 10 microwatts of UVB that the Zoo Med produces is sufficient for an iguana? : Up until this past June we used ZooMed 5.0s in every iguana enclosure we have. At the time I think that was 8 enclosures. So let's start there with this .... 5.0 bulbs can cost anywhere from $20.00 to $35.00 a piece depending on where you buy them (I know there is one place a few $ cheaper if you buy them in bulk but you still need to pay shipping so let's start with $20.00 as the low figure). We pay about $22.00 per light when we get them from our supplier but since sometimes I need one in an emergency and have to pay the $35.00 and most other people do not hunt for a good price and they pay about $30.00 I'm going to use $30.00 as the price here for an example,$30.00 per light times 8 enclosures, they need to replaced every six months. So per year, minus electricity, a basking source and a heat source, we're talking about $480.00 worth of bulbs. That's a lot of money!! : For the past year or so, friends of ours kept telling us about ActiveUV bubls. They have been using them on their adult iguana and their juvenile bearded dragon. I, like many of you sitting here reading this, was extremely hesitant to switch to this new bulb. The bulbs are $54.99 a piece and to us $54.99 is a good amount of cash to be putting out for one "light bulb". I had every excuse lined up as to why we weren't ready to try these bulbs. I was concerned about the heat they threw. I was concerned about the UV production. As far as I thought I knew they were new to the market. All these reasons and more, we didn't buy an Active. : Well, June rolled around and so did Mr D's birthday. We had wanted to read David Krughoff's book for a while now, we just had never gotten around to buying it. So, I ordered both the Anna book and the Reptile Lighting book as gifts for him. When I got them, I opened them that day and was so shocked by what I read that I didn't wait until his actual b-day to give the books to him! : Everything I thought we knew about UV turned out to be literally nothing as our educational process began! I never realized until I began to get into the meat and bones of the subject just how much we didn't know. I began to think more practically about UV and natural sunlight -when I opened myself up to independent thought on this subject it was really mind blowing!! : First of all, we as iguana keepers are told to expose our iguanas to natural, unfiltered sunlight as often as possible. This makes sense because iguanas are wild animals! I know that here in New England there is no way that taking my igunas outside for the roughly 5 months it is warm enough for them is going to equal the sun exposure they would receive in the tropics so I know that I need to do something to try to emulate their natural habitat more closely. (The following is from David Krughoff's book "Reptile Lighting 2000" which you can buy at www.myiguana.com) David Krughoff did a test with his photodiode radiometer in June of 2000 in Hoyleton, Illinois. What he found is that the lowest amount of UVB that the sun produces there is 12 microwatts between the hours of 7 and 8am. By noon the sun is producing 256 microwatts, by 5pm the sun is producing 131. In the cool shade at 1:00 in the afternoon he got a reading of 54 and at 5:00pm (still in the shade) he got a reading of 22). I then looked at the Boston University study on UV lights -ZooMed's 5.0 and Ig Light (same bulb different packages) came in at producing only 10 microwatts of UVB with 23 of UVA. This really caused me to sit down and take a good look at our enclosures. I thought to myself that for most of the year our iguanas were getting LESS UVB than even the sun provided here in America and how much less that was than their natural habitat. : So, the next thing we did was look at the Active bulbs. It's true that the Wild Inside presented the numbers but David Krughoff also did his own test with his photodiode radiometer. Currently the lowest wattage of Active is a 100 watt bulb. The 100 watt bulb at a distance of 1 foot produces 50 microwatts of UVB with the UVA comming in at 400. These numbers floored me! Still I was not convinced that these bulbs would work for us. But then we had an emergency, the local animal shelter called us because they needed us to take in another iguana, the 2nd from them in less than 3 weeks. This time it was a 4 foot plus adult and we just didn't have an enclosure open that was large enough. They are not set up for any type of reptile and were going to have to put her in one of the dog kennels. I knew that ZooMed's bubls need to be no farther away than a maximum 12 inches to supply any real UV and since the dog kennels are 9 feet tall with no way for the ig to climb up higher a 5.0 would be a waste of money. So, we called Wild Inside and ordered a bulb, choosing a 160 watt flood with their help. Before the bulb could get here, the iguana as usual had to come to home with us .... so, when the bulb arrived the shelter told us to keep it. The bulb was huge!! We weren't really sure what we were going to do with it but now we had an extra iguana and not enough UV sources to go around -we had no choice but to use the bulb. : The 160 watt needs to be a minimum of 18 inches away from the animal. The only enclosure we felt that we had that a 160 watt might work in was Jimmie's (she is the one who is missing an eye). So, we put the bulb in with her. We placed it in a ceramic dome fixture that sits on a hole cut in the top of the enclosure. The first thing we nervously checked was how much heat the bulb threw -while it was very hot at the source, like most bulbs are, the farther we got away from it, the more gentle the heat. It provided a beautiful basking spot on one side of the enclosure and on the other side there was a large shady area for her to go to when she wanted or needed to. As a reference you should know that Jimmie's house is 2.5 feet wide by 3 feet tall by 4 feet long with 3 solid walls and the doors made from hardware cloth. NOT a regular enclsure but due to her special needs, it works just fine for her. We watched her all day and she did nothing but sit on her basking log under the light. Her appetite had not been fantastic lately, she was going through a really rough shed, her first since arriving her in November and due to the treatment she received, didn't receive was more like it, in her old home she was having many other medical difficulties as well. Her urination was in such large volume and so forceful that it would leak out of the bottom of the wood cage and pool on the kitchen floor. It was nerve racking to have this new light on her that day. The next day we put the light on again and like the day before she sat on her log and basked all day only to get up to eat. Instead of 1 plate of food, she ate 2!! The next day she ate 3 plates of food! After the past month or so we have noticed her improved appetite, improved color and improved attitude/disposition. Her urination became less forceful. The big test came when Doc came to us -he needed a UV light and so we had to steal Jimmie's Active and put her back on the 5.0 -Her appetite decreased and she became easily aggitated and highly irratable. Scientific proof? No. Good enough for me? Yes. : We now have 3 Active bulbs in use and one more due to arrive here any day. We're using them on 1 iguana with severe MBD who has seizures, one iguana with MBD who has not had UV or natural sunlight atleast for the past year and raised on trout food and Jimmie. I could sit here and give you story after story regarding how the lights are working for us. I know from experience that no matter how much I like the lights, it won't change the minds of many of you. What I will say is this, after you have given other opinions a listen take the time to read Krughoff's books, the Boston University Study and what Wild Inside has to say. Also, I ask that each of you remember this, Melissa Kaplan seems to be very vocal regarding how bad these lights supposedly are HOWEVER she has NEVER so much as held one of these bulbs let alone used one, independently researched them or tested them. On her website she is giving her uneducated OPINION on these bulbs. If you want a real educated opinion I have a list of 36 zoological parks using these bulbs, including Disney's Animal Kingdom along with museums, zooz and aquaiums from the larger cities in America. Call them and get their educated opinions on these lights. : On a final note I would like to share this with you, I have no problem with the Zoo Med lights being used. Especially by people who really care for their animals, take them out for real unfiltered sunlight, provide a good well rounded diet and replace the bulbs every six months. The sad reality of the situation is, people like this are far and few between. I would very much like to see these bulbs be common in the market, especially since they only need to be replace every 12-18 months. It is my feeling that the use of these bulbs will be of extreme benefit to those animals whose humans aren't on top of their care. It will atleast give them a fighting chance when they have to deal with Nutri Grow iguana food and less than perfect living quarters. This one bulb will give them heat, UVB, UVA and a nice basking spot. This one bulb will replace the 2 or 3 heat and light sources we tell people to buy. We all know that most people balk at having to buy 2 or 3 heat and light sources along with the 2 or 3 fixtures to run them. IMHO, this light is the best thing to come along for reptiles in a long time. : 8 active bulbs are going to cost me $439.92 for a year : I don't have to buy any basking lights -no money spent : I don't have to buy any heat sources -no money spent : I am now running one electrical unit per enclosure vs. 3 -cheaper electric bill : My igs look better : My igs eat better -ok, so I spend more on food to me that's a wonderful thing : My igs feel better and have more energy to play and climb!! : Look into the bulbs for yourself, don't take my word for it and don't take the word of someone who has never tried the bubls either! Really educate yourselves on the natural habitat of the iguana and then look at the numbers all the bulbs produce -I think you will be as shocked as I was!!

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