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i had a neighbor who lived near us before we moved last year who has an 11 yr old female ig (spayed when she was 3-4 yrs old). i keep up w/her periodically, and recently asked if she had ever replaced her old mega ray EB bulb. nope, right where she hung it, in her bathroom, several years ago. i can't say for sure, but i think she got it at least 4 yrs ago, maybe 5 or more. it's the heavy old black ballast box with the wheel that turns it off & on. she has it stuck in an 8 in black dome fixture. it hangs from the wall over the bathtub where iggy has happily lived for at least the past 8-9 yrs. the bulb is so old, it's shorter than the newer ones made now. every day, she turns that wheel in the morning & at nite to turn it off & on. it hangs in a bathroom that stays fairly humid. she's never taken the bulb out, never cleaned anything on it. never even unplugged it from the socket. ms iggy sits there, day after day, making sure her green butt is rite under the sweet spot. i gently suggested that it was prolly time to replace it & happen to have a spare one on hand. i offered to deliver it to her, but mentioned that i would love to see what the old one was still putting out before removing it.

well! i was amazed, even retested several times to make sure i hadn't inadvertently moved the meter closer. at 12 inches, it was STILL putting out 40 microwatts. after 4+ yrs, in a steamy bathroom, in a small fixture, it was still emitting more UVB than i ever got from my 2 brand new zoo med 5.0 tubes put together in a wide-hood shop lite at 12 inches.

we usually manage to somehow bang up bulbs, or drop them, or otherwise abuse them, so this is the oldest living mega ray i've ever tested that has constantly been used. pretty sure the SB's wouldn't last this long, but i figured the EB would have gone out by now, too. i did get the new bulb put in for her, & at 12 inches is was giving off a bit over 120. iggy is positioned @ 15 inches from it, so she was getting @ 100 from her basking spot. she got cranky when we were ditzing around her stuff, but as soon as i got it hung back up, she immediately positioned herself rite under it & didn't move for the rest of the day. her mom says she's quite please with her new rays & spends more than usual time in the sweet spot.

just had to share this. and bobmac, if you wanna use part of that as a testimonial on your site, feel free, but plz correct my spelling & grammar & make me look literate. LOL.

This is Ryan, Amy's husband, and am responding on her email since we use her email for almost all of our important stuff. I wanted to thank you for spending almost 20 minutes on the phone with me covering the UVB issue. I know my time is very precious and the fact that you were able to give me this much time reflects directly, in my opionion, towards what your customer service must be.

I decided to buy two of your 60 EB low kits, two heat emitters, and a 6.2 UVB meter. Based on your conversation, I chose to be a customer of yours and look forward to using your product in the future.

Thanks again for devoting the time to help me understand this better.

Hello,

I just want to share my new beardie experience with anyone who is interested.

I live in western Canada in the rainforest in a house without much natural daylight.

I have Frida and Diego. I have had them for about 3 years and was using a regular 100 watt household bulb and the proper UV tube. They did OK, weren't very enthusiastic about eating and went into brumation in mid-September and stayed there until I woke them up by force usually in late Feb. or Mar. I always felt bad waking them up to a cool canadian semi-spring. They were always not very active, but I was doing what I had learned was the correct kind of care.

This year I decided this wasn't a good way for them to live thiws way and went about figuring how to make their little lives better. I got a 150 watt Mercury Vapour bulb from Bob Mac, a 150 watt halogen bulb and an 85 watt lamp called a SADS light giving off 10,000 lumens(kelvins) of light.(These are for people in northern countries who suffer from winter depression due to lack of natural light.)

Well after a couple of days of this bright, warm environment, they were wide awake for the full 9 hours the lights were on. They weren't too hungry at first, just a few supers daily, but after 10 days of temps at about 110+ in the hot area and really bright light, today they ate 6 worms each and then salad as dessert. Unheard of!! They don't eat salad. That is for other beardies, but not them. I was so excited to see this behaviour, I had to call my partner at work and tell all!

So if you have sluggish beardies, you may want to try this. I originally got the suggestions from Bob Mac and he really seems to know what he is talking about. I am very pleased!!


P.S. I now have the equivalent of the Australian Nullabar Plain in my living room. It is one of the hottest deserts in the world!

I have a Tribolonotus gracilis (Red Eye Crocodile Skink), trib for short, under one of Bob Macs 60 watt EB mercury vapor lamps and he loves it. I keep it about 18 in. away, it keeps his hot spot between 85-90 deg. with around 150 uw/cm2 of uvb. I have my little guys setup where he doesn't have to come out completely under the lamp to get some uvb exposure although he does sometimes. My skink has had no eye problems at all in fact he perked up a lot after I replaced his flor. tubes with the MV lamp,