The 6.2 is calibrated to measure wavelengths of 250-320 nm. It can not measure a specific wavelength, it measures all that fall into that range to give you a µW/cm² reading. So as the bulb decays, that reading will get lower and lower as the bulbs output drops.
The 6.5 can be used to measure decay
However, the 6.5 is better suited for determining basking spot/lamp placement as it is specific for measuring the wavelengths that are more apt to produce vit d3 synthesis in the skin. That is why most professionals now are using the UVI scale as opposed to µW/cm² when it comes to herps.
Dr Francis baines has a good example of it. Her exact quote is on my thread I linked to above, but the jist of it is this: They had been measuring µW/cm² of the sun and getting measurements of around 400 and everything was fine. No sunburns, no skin or eye issues. But, one of their test lamps was exposing things to only 50µW/cm² (8x less µW/cm²) and there were reports of serious eye issues, skin damage, shock and even death in some cases. It wasn't until they did further studies where they realized that even though that lamp was only outputting 50 µW/cm², the amount of super short wavelengths that made up that 50 was extremely high. That's the problem with not having a device that can differentiate between the short harmful wavelengths, and the non-damaging ones.
So, if you were using that lamp, and you went off the suggestion of 200µW/cm² at the basking site, you'd be exposing your dragon to a UVI level of 20! A far cry above what is actually recommend. anything over a 7 is considered to be getting into the danger zone (for beardies or humans).
If that still is confusing, just let me know and I will try to explain it better. But at this point I think we better continue the discussion on the thread I linked above, as we are drifting into slightly offtopic territory
-Brandon
The 6.2 can be used to measure decayGormagon":1wxisez7 said:Y'all need to put this stuff in layman's terms for those of us who are not geeky can understand it.
The 6.5 can be used to measure decay
However, the 6.5 is better suited for determining basking spot/lamp placement as it is specific for measuring the wavelengths that are more apt to produce vit d3 synthesis in the skin. That is why most professionals now are using the UVI scale as opposed to µW/cm² when it comes to herps.
Dr Francis baines has a good example of it. Her exact quote is on my thread I linked to above, but the jist of it is this: They had been measuring µW/cm² of the sun and getting measurements of around 400 and everything was fine. No sunburns, no skin or eye issues. But, one of their test lamps was exposing things to only 50µW/cm² (8x less µW/cm²) and there were reports of serious eye issues, skin damage, shock and even death in some cases. It wasn't until they did further studies where they realized that even though that lamp was only outputting 50 µW/cm², the amount of super short wavelengths that made up that 50 was extremely high. That's the problem with not having a device that can differentiate between the short harmful wavelengths, and the non-damaging ones.
So, if you were using that lamp, and you went off the suggestion of 200µW/cm² at the basking site, you'd be exposing your dragon to a UVI level of 20! A far cry above what is actually recommend. anything over a 7 is considered to be getting into the danger zone (for beardies or humans).
If that still is confusing, just let me know and I will try to explain it better. But at this point I think we better continue the discussion on the thread I linked above, as we are drifting into slightly offtopic territory
-Brandon