# What's your UVA UVB lighting



## kingofnobbys (Oct 15, 2015)

My skinks have UVB150 compacts , the beardies have UVB200 compacts.

Been using these for nearly 3 years , seem to be doing the job and are very reliable .

What do you use ?


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## Sdaji (Oct 15, 2015)

I never found UV to make any difference. I kept skinks, monitors and dragons with and without it (never bothered with geckoes/pygopods or snakes) and it didn't change a thing even after many years or multiple generations. Eventually I completely stopped using it.


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## BredliFreak (Oct 17, 2015)

My bluey has a UV light from about 7am to about 8pm, but she is right next to a huge window which gives her heaps of natural light, which she loves. Out of curiosity Sdaji, do you just use vitamin supplements instead of UVB?

Bredli


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## mad_at_arms (Oct 17, 2015)

BredliFreak said:


> My bluey has a UV light from about 7am to about 8pm, but she is right next to a huge window which gives her heaps of natural light, which she loves. Out of curiosity Sdaji, do you just use vitamin supplements instead of UVB?
> 
> Bredli



Glass cuts out almost all viable UVB.


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## kingofnobbys (Oct 17, 2015)

mad_at_arms said:


> Glass cuts out almost all viable UVB.



He probably knows that, my beardies and bluetongues all love basking in the warm sunlight that streams in through our westfacing entry window. They get lots of bright natural light and the warmth that radiates in through the glass.

My timers are set to come on at 6am and off at 9:30pm (the UV globes and p38 spots all on the one timer). .


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## BredliFreak (Oct 18, 2015)

My bluey doesn't have timers (can't be bothered to figure it out), and I know glass cuts UV out but both of the reps still like basking because it is warm, and it feels natural. We take them outside to bask properly but despite the fact they were both quarantined our backyard has HEAPS of mites :evil: so we generally have to hold them, or take them to another spot.

Bredli


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## Wally (Oct 18, 2015)

BredliFreak said:


> We take them outside to bask properly but despite the fact they were both quarantined our backyard has HEAPS of mites :evil:



Unlikely to be reptile mites. Mites require hosts to survive, if you've got a bunch of them then you'd need a bunch of reptiles for them to survive.


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## Bushfire (Oct 18, 2015)

Im using solar raptor metal halides for my UV. Much better output than MVBs


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## BredliFreak (Oct 19, 2015)

[MENTION=23869]Wally[/MENTION] We have a local garden skink population but it is weird because the mites still manage to infest my herps, maybe it is another kind of mite? We also have a few marbled geckos around the place, maybe thats why but I'm still confused as to how they got here.

Bredli


*Mods you may delete this if this is too off-topic*


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## Sdaji (Oct 21, 2015)

BredliFreak said:


> My bluey has a UV light from about 7am to about 8pm, but she is right next to a huge window which gives her heaps of natural light, which she loves. Out of curiosity Sdaji, do you just use vitamin supplements instead of UVB?
> 
> Bredli



Absolutely. Back around 15-25 years ago when information was limited (there's a heap of it around now although sometimes I almost wonder if a lot of BS is better than nothing at all!) I was experimenting to see what would work. With skinks and dragons, UV made no difference but the supplements made the difference between terrible results and thriving, perfect lizards. UV just made no difference. 

I've kept plenty of small monitors with and without UV long term, and again, it just made no difference at all, they absolutely thrive without it. With the monitors I've been able to have good results without supplements as long as the diet is highly varied and nutritious, but it's much easier just to give them crickets/woodies with supplements, which for me always worked just as well as anything else. For a while I kept some on a diet of wild caught small fish, stick insects, beetles and other wild insects, eggs, occasional turkey mince, a few captive bred insects and all sorts of other stuff. The lizards thrived but there was no benefit over the much easier diet.

I have actually never, even once, seen anything empirical to convince me that UV is worth bothering with, for any herp. Perhaps in some cases it is beneficial or necessary, but I'm yet to see it. There are plenty of claims and articles about the benefits or necessity of UV, but all the real world experience I have tells a very different story.

Most of the people who say UV is necessary because they use it and get great results have never tried keeping without UV, so they don't know. "My lizard gets UV and is healthy so they need UV" is a common story, but it's like saying "I wear a tinfoil hat and have not been abducted by aliens".


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## mad_at_arms (Oct 21, 2015)

Sdaji said:


> "My lizard gets UV and is healthy so they need UV" is a common story, but it's like saying "I wear a tinfoil hat and have not been abducted by aliens".



Thanks for the new signature addition.


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## HiramAbiff (Oct 24, 2015)

Sdaji said:


> Absolutely. Back around 15-25 years ago when information was limited (there's a heap of it around now although sometimes I almost wonder if a lot of BS is better than nothing at all!) I was experimenting to see what would work. With skinks and dragons, UV made no difference but the supplements made the difference between terrible results and thriving, perfect lizards. UV just made no difference.
> 
> I've kept plenty of small monitors with and without UV long term, and again, it just made no difference at all, they absolutely thrive without it. With the monitors I've been able to have good results without supplements as long as the diet is highly varied and nutritious, but it's much easier just to give them crickets/woodies with supplements, which for me always worked just as well as anything else. For a while I kept some on a diet of wild caught small fish, stick insects, beetles and other wild insects, eggs, occasional turkey mince, a few captive bred insects and all sorts of other stuff. The lizards thrived but there was no benefit over the much easier diet.
> 
> ...



I agree with your point of view. I think it's just a great way to sell UV globes honestly. 
When you actually think about what ANY UV globe provides in comparison with the sun it's unbelievably minuscule.


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## Sdaji (Oct 24, 2015)

HiramAbiff said:


> I agree with your point of view. I think it's just a great way to sell UV globes honestly.
> When you actually think about what ANY UV globe provides in comparison with the sun it's unbelievably minuscule.



Yeah, that's one of the theoretical aspects of why I consider UV and captive reptiles to be a myth, but the main reason is that after many years and multiple generations with dragons, skinks and monitors, I could never produce any difference in the results. Real world experiments trump theory in my book.

You're definitely right about about people trying to sell things often being willing to say they're necessary, sometimes even when they know full well that they're useless.

What may be true (I've never tested it) is that with full natural UV, in reptiles kept outdoors, the supplements may be unnecessary. It would be difficult to test because lizards kept outdoors with access to open air will be eating at least a few wild insects, which would mean success is not necessarily due to the UV.


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