Verticle UVB Mount

[beardielover17]

Someone just asked me this question and honestly I can't give them a definite answer so I was wondering if the wonderful and knowledgeable group here can help me and this person out. They asked if it was ok to vertically mount a UVB tube in an enclosure? Will it allow the dragon to still absorb the UV as they should or will it not because it is mounted vertically?

 

[renich]

Hmm...that's a good question. My first reaction is, would the mount be away from the dragon so that he doesn't get burnt by the bulb?

I'm leaning towards no, it shouldn't be hung vertically. I know that compact bulbs can be hung vertically or horizontally. So, a linear bulb will be more functional when hung horizontally. I don't have concrete evidence to support this, just my rationalize about it.

 

[beardielover17]

Well he managed to hang it where the dragon can get no closer than 4 inches from the bulb but my thing is if it will still be as effective being hung vertically ??? I pointed him in the direction of the yahoo UV Meter Group to see if they can help but I figured I would ask here too

 

[beardielover17]

Figured I would follow up about any info I found out on this guy's question. He posted on the Yahoo UVB group and this is the response he got which makes a lot of sense to me and I think can be applied to all reptiles.

Re: Vertical Mount

Hi, James.
Welcome to the group.

What a beautiful young Frilled Dragon.

I think you're right to be concerned.
Although ZooMed Reptisun 10.0 lamps have very good spectra with no UVB below
295nm (which means they rarely cause photo-kerato-conjunctivitis) the way your
tube is positioned makes it impossible for the little guy to use his tree perch
without having the tube in his direct line of sight.

As you can see from your photo, he has no option but to look right into the very
bright light at extremely close range.
Not only is this extreme glare very hard on his vision (try it yourself.. no
wait...please don't...!!) it is potentially damaging his retina. Not from the
UVB - that doesn't penetrate deep into his eye - but from the UVA and blue light
which does reach the back of the eye, and can over time cause serious damage to
the visual cells of the retina and lead to blindness... It's believed to be the
main cause of macular degeneration in humans.

Your dragon has upper eyelids and a head shape designed to shade the iris and
pupil of his eye from overhead sunlight, so it is very safe to mount the lamp
directly over his head, next to the basking lamp. That would be definitely what
I would suggest...
Frillies almost always perch vertically, so the top of his head will be nearest
the tube. That's not a problem. Because the gradient from a Reptisun 10.0 tube
is very gentle and it has a broad beam, as long as the top of his head is not
closer than 5 or 6 inches you should still have a reasonable UVB output over the
rest of his body at maybe 8-10 inches below. If he can't get up as close as
that, then you may want to consider using an aluminium strip reflector to throw
the light further into the vivarium below.

Best wishes,

Frances

 

[Red Ink AUS]

From my cumulative knowledge of UVB and frilled dragons (as this seems to be the specific specimen in this case from Frances' letter) the answer is YES it can be done. Some tweaking in furnishing is all that is needed.

First I will go about trying to explain the nature of natural UVB (UVC is minimal in natural sunlight is the ozone layer filters that, but hey look what we're doing to that, sorry i digress). Most people are really concerned when their specimens get too close to "safe" reptile lighting. By safe I mean your known brands like reptisun which have no adverse effect like photo-kerato conjunctivitis.

Now to the point, sunlight in it's output of UVB is more than any man made lighting system out there, this we know. What gets neglected in the "fear" of getting too close is the fact that sunlight's output of infrared radiation as well as ultraviolet radiation is the same whether it is 10 inches from the ground or 100 metres in the air. Now given that and the known fact that sunlight has a stronger UVB output than any lighting system, would you not think that the specimens eyes are naturally adapted to handle higher amounts of ultraviolet radiation in the mid- spectrum than we give them credit for. Agamids are not walking around blind out there are they?? This obviously does not apply to "unsafe" lighting systems.

Also the luminosity output does not come close to sunlight in it's lux intensity and colour temperature (kelvins) hence you can look at a fluoro or even an MVB directly for a longer period than you would at the giver of life, that big giant fireball, almighty reptile God in the sky.

my thought on the matter.

Now to tweak the furniture for side mounted lighting system. It's simple really orientate the basking platform away from the light source. This way the light source is always behind the specimen when basking.

Cheers,

 

[beardielover17]

Thanks Francis as always your information is treasured

 

[Red Ink AUS]

Did you get a resolution on this Q from others Candice?

 

[beardielover17]

The person on that yahoo group for the UV meters wound up saying it's not really possible or wise so the person chose to mount it horizontally.