cheaper uvb fluorescent tubes???

[K1LOS]

Hey, i found this guy in ottawa who is some sort of lighting genious! He runs a store called Buchanan Lighting (613-728-3551) and sells any kind of lighting imaginable. There was actually a framed newspaper cutout on the wall about NASA having him design some lightbulbs for something in space!

Anyways, i told him i needed some uvb fluorescent tubes for my reptiles. He siad he had many different options, i'd need to be more specific. The problem was i didn't know the specs for a reptisun 5.0 or 8.0 . So i haven't gotten any bulbs from him YET.

The tube he recommended to me (and has sold to reptile keepers in the past) was $20 for the 4' tube. If i wanted the 18" tube it was like $85 or something like that.

If somebody knows the technical specs for a reptisun 5.0 or 8.0 i think i may have found a cheaper alternative to the petstores.

Can anybody help?

Geoff

p.s: he would likely have something comparible to the Mercury Vapour Bulbs as well...

[K1LOS]

nobody?

[Edwin]

Here are some links:
http://www.anapsid.org/uvbanne.html
http://www.anapsid.org/uvtable.html#UVB%20list
http://www.anapsid.org/jamesball.html
http://www.portcreditpets.com/fluorescent.html

[Double J]

IT's all about the Zoo-med Repti-Sun and Iguana light 5.0 bulbs.....I have seen some charts and graphs kicking around, plus anecdotal evidence from working for a reptile dealer in the past, and the Zoo-med Repti-sun 5.0 and iguana light 5.0, outperform all other fluorescent reptile bulbs. I cut corners, and find good cheaper alternatives for many things, but the UVB bulbs, and rep-cal vitamins are two things I do not find a cheaper alternative for.

I have taken an excerpt from one of the links thsat Edwin posted, and I think it says it all:

"How strong is a reptile light? A Vita-Lite at 12 inches produces about 1.1 µW/cm2 [21], which would produce 20 mJ/cm2 over any exposed skin in 5 hours. That should be sufficient to begin vitamin D3 production. Gehrmann [22], gives the Zoo Med Iguana light 5.0 at 10 µW/cm2. This would produce 20 mJ/cm2 in less than an hour. (A reptile D-light 8% produces about 9 µW/cm2, and a Reptile D-light 3% produces 4 µW/cm2.) Winter sunlight in Boston is a non-vitamin-D-producing 5mJ/cm2 over three hours; the Zoo Med 5.0 would beat this figure in just a few minutes and go on to vitamin D3 producing levels, sustaining them for the rest of the day. Although this looks very strong on paper, I have personally found no problems with iguanas living about 12 inches away from Zoo Med tubes for 6-10 hours per day over the past two years."


Here is the link to the article anyway:

http://www.anapsid.org/uvbanne.html