UVA/UVB HID upgrade complete

[infernalis]

Re did the lighting to include Mercury Vapour and Metal Halide lamps, the cage interior is insanely bright. The lizards are already more active, as if that was even possible considering how hyper they already were before.

The ballasts had to be wired, took me about 15 minutes each.


The Metal halide was plain boxed...


For comparison, the light output of 4 different lamp types.

[Mikoh4792]

Looking good. lol at the cat

[wareagleA5]

How do they compare to the halogen as far as basking spot temps and area?

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by wareagleA5

How do they compare to the halogen as far as basking spot temps and area?

Almost impossible to compare.

The output of the metal halide lamp is 5 times brighter, rich in UVA/UVB but a little lacking un the IR (InfraRed) that makes the basking stone heat up.

http://www.exo-terra.com/download/sa...unRay_Bulb.pdf

^^^^ I did this at about 1/3 the cost by wiring it myself.

[nepoez]

How does it compare with the MVB?

[TheFrogman]

Awesome, looks great ! My cat watches my Brooks King like that too...LOL

[Rob_H]

Brilliant! As well as brighter, the spectra is usually much closer to sunlight with these bulbs. The lizards see the world in the way they've evolved to see it (they have better and very different colour vision compared to us), which probably explains the much higher activity levels you'll probably notice for a while. I observe it in all the lizards that I swap the HID bulbs with.... I guess I'd also want to walk around checking out my garden and house again if someone bathed it in white light after I'd spent my life seeing it only in one particular colour!

[Skits]

Nice job

I was wondering what the metal halide and mercury vapor does exactly and what do they give the monitor specifically? Is it something good for all monitors?

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by Skits

Nice job

I was wondering what the metal halide and mercury vapor does exactly and what do they give the monitor specifically? Is it something good for all monitors?

First off, the brighter light is more natural. Think about it for a minute.. a sunny day outside your pupils constrict, you need sunglasses.

Mercury vapour and metal halide flood the whole cage with rich UVB & UVA bolstering white blood cell count and boosting immunities.

[Skits]

Originally Posted by infernalis

First off, the brighter light is more natural. Think about it for a minute.. a sunny day outside your pupils constrict, you need sunglasses.

Mercury vapour and metal halide flood the whole cage with rich UVB & UVA bolstering white blood cell count and boosting immunities.

Awesome. Yes it seems logical! Is it possible to give them too much UVB? I have a reptisun 10.0 (100) in my tank, I thought it was enough but noticed you aded the extra bulbs for more of them, and I see you use the 10.0 as well.

[murrindindi]

Originally Posted by infernalis

First off, the brighter light is more natural. Think about it for a minute.. a sunny day outside your pupils constrict, you need sunglasses.

Mercury vapour and metal halide flood the whole cage with rich UVB & UVA bolstering white blood cell count and boosting immunities.

Hi Wayne, as mentioned previously, your monitors have NOT had access to any artificial UVB exposure for a considerable amount of time if the tube was almost 2 years old (many need replacing every 6 months or so).
Also, unless you use a solar meter you have no idea how much UVB the current MVB is emitting, nor will it necessarily "outdo" a fluorescent tube (the T5 HO`s for instance), in terms of total amount of UVB or effective distance. Fitting a reflector will double the amount and distance of any UVB tube (not to say they are all particularly good).
A single MVB will not "flood" the whole enclosure with UVB/A, it will depend on enclosure size and bulb wattage to a large extent.
Which brand of MVB are you using at the moment, as they can be somewhat different in effectiveness?

[Pirarucu]

Can you post some pictures of how you set up the wiring? Do you have the ballast on top of the cage?

[Pirarucu]

Why not leave it just for the lighting?

[Sublimeballs]

Originally Posted by Pirarucu

Why not leave it just for the lighting?

That's what I was thinking

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by Pirarucu

Why not leave it just for the lighting?

good point, and their is nice 6500K (very bright) tubes I could pick one up today.

The tube that's in there has gotten dimmer, I can tell by looking at it.