Habitat - Indoor :: uvb lighting concerns

[Starchick]

Hi guys,

I joined a bearded dragon forum, and it seems to be a pretty active and friendly community similar to this one. Many people on the board are stringently opposed to using compact fluorescents for uvb. Here is a thread discussing it, I don't know if any of this applies to turtles, but I wanted to bring it up for discussion and see what the more knowledgeable people on this board have to say about it.

http://www.beardeddragon.org/bjive/view ... t=coil+uvb

[steve]

We actually participated in the study that is linked in that first post. Two of us are in the case histories and we also supplied some of the bulbs for testing.

I have to agree that compact fluorescents are generally weak and would not be suitable for BD. For many turt keepers here, it's probably the best they can do in addition to a D3 fortified pellet.

[Starchick]

Would you advise switching to a tube bulb for turtle lighting if possible?

[steve]

If possible, then I would say yes. From what I've read, they're generally considered to be more reliable -- and more proven -- but I've never used one nor independently measured the UV output.

[Starchick]

Thanks, Steve. It's about that time, when all the bulbs are due to be changed out, so now's the time to make the switch if I'm going to!