Mega Ray MVB Issue

[gulfbrzdawn]

firstbeardie... I have a question for you. What did the people at ReptileUV tell you was the problem with the bulb you had?

 

[firstbeardie]

firstbeardie... I have a question for you. What did the people at ReptileUV tell you was the problem with the bulb you had?

They are shipping a new bulb and when it gets here i'll return the old one. So they havn't seen it yet,but i'm sure it was giving off toxic levels of UV as stated by this post.http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=118290&p=943511&hilit=mega+toxic#p943511
Spike has returned to normal today after removing the MEGARAY completly. I have a 75watt household for now and he is basking away with both eyes open. I'm still getting the reptisun 10.0 for now.

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Glad to hear your beardies eyes are doing better

 

[Delshara]

Hi,

I just wanted to report that the same thing has happened to me. I received a new 100W SB Megaray last week, burned the bulb in away from the viv, then put it in Nero's deep dome lamp. The bulb did come with the frosting over it, but I assumed this was normal. During burning in, the frosting flaked completely off and I noticed that the light was extremely intense and very bright, brighter than his T Rex ever was. Nero had the new bulb in for a day and he developed stress marks, but he still basked.

I emailed ReptileUV this morning and they advised me not to use the new bulb and that I would get a replacement right away. Luckily I'd taken out the bulb last night so he only had one day of exposure to the bad bulb. I have a regular basking bulb in his lamp right now while the new one gets here.

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Delshara... that is too bad about your Megaray. I'm glad you turned it off.
I have actually been trying to get ahold of Bob at ReptileUV myself to inquire about the problems with the mvb's at the moment. I believe there is a bad batch of them out there. I have not been able to get through to them. I guess I need to email them.

Firstbeardie... how are your beardies eyes now?

 

[sbattisti]

Hrm. Well, I'll jump into this thread, although I don't have much to add. I have a 3-month old beardie under a MegaRay 100W right now. I haven't seen any evidence that he's having eye problems, and temps seem fine, but as I mentioned in another thread, it's hard to say if he keeps his eyes closed a lot. I mean, I've only had him for 10 days now? When I barge in on him uninvited, he's often on his basking spot with his eyes closed, but when he hears me he opens them up and keeps a sharp eye on me.

It's so hard to tell if he's behaving "normally" or not, because:

a) I've never had a beardie before.
b) I've never had THIS beardie before.
c) I haven't had this beardie long enough to get a sense of what's "normal" for him.

It took him a good 5 days to start eating when I brought him home, and he has stress marks, but who the heck knows? I guess I'll just try to keep an eye on him...

So much to worry about, so little time!

Steve

 

[LaszlosLens]

...hmmm. This is happening a lot now. When I talked to Bob Mac, he stressed that he thinks he is getting bad glass. My bulb was replaced, with a 60w EB kit. No problems since, but I am super concerned about how many bad bulbs could be out there. My beardie had eye damage, and I am certain it is permanent. He closes his eyes more than they are open. But he eats and poops, and acts fine... :|

- at this point, Reptile UV needs to recall their bulbs. Too many people with the same exact symptoms. I would deem them unsafe until we figure out what is going on!

Just some input...

 

[firstbeardie]

Delshara... that is too bad about your Megaray. I'm glad you turned it off.
I have actually been trying to get ahold of Bob at ReptileUV myself to inquire about the problems with the mvb's at the moment. I believe there is a bad batch of them out there. I have not been able to get through to them. I guess I need to email them.

Firstbeardie... how are your beardies eyes now?

My beardies eyes are better since taking the megaray out. He is back to normal. I recieved the replacement bulb and I'm burning it in.
I did notice that the new bulb was not giving of a burning smell like the other one. It was most likely the frost burning off. So far so good.

 

[BadCon]

I recieved two new Megarays a few days ago, and they both had heavy frosting on the lenses. I have have used megarays in the past, and they have never come with any sort of caked on frosting. What I mean is the lenses have always had a soft thin frosted appearence, but these new bulbs look like they have been dipped in starch.
I have had two megarays and a T-Rex Active UV heat (same mfg as MegaRay), and none of them have looked like this.

I burned the new bulbs in for 20 hours (two cycles of 10), and they have been operating for the last 2 days on a 12hr cycle in my beardie vivs, and the frosting remains. The bulb with the heaviest caking has barely burned any off. When I rub it with my finger, it flakes off....which motivated me to take a soft towel to the bulb. Still, heavy caking remains.
The heat output from these bulbs is nowhere near the units they replaced. I assumed it was this darn coating, but I am not totally sure. In my female beardies tank, her old MegaRay (9mo old) would keep a 105* basking spot at 15". The new one barely breaks 95 at 12".

As for health, my female dragon is definately darker, though I attributed that to the drop in temp at her basking spot. My male seems to like the new bulb, but thats because his old one was in dire need of replacement (12mo). I will be keeping a close eye on my dragons for the next few days, to see if any eye issues develop. I will need to do some cage tweaking in the mean time to fix my female dragons basking spot.


I wonder why they started coating their bulbs with whatever that stuff is? The old bulbs never had it, so why now? Is it to protect the animals during burn in? A cheaper way to lower the uv output? I am very concerned with these bulbs, and my trust in the brand is a bit shaken. I have always purchased MegaRays because they are the "best"....now, I don't know.

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Hello... I just wanted to respond about the Mega Ray problems. I emailed ReptileUV about the problem this morning and have posted the reply here [ Invalid URL Removed / p= t=121878 f=45 ]

 

[acwood04]

Mine had the same coating on the bulb. I got mine about two months ago. I didnt burn it for a month or so. I am now using it in my new home built viv. http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=121799&hilit= My beardie (Crupi) had been acting okay since she got into her now home. Its much bigger than the 20 long from before. I havent noticed much eye problems, she doesnt bask as much, but I think thats due to relocation stress. Anyway, does the light coming from the bulb have a greenish tint? mine does and I'm just wondering if this is normal. thanks!

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

acwood... you mention not noticing "much" eye problems. Is your beardie closing her eyes and if so, how much?
As far as a greenish tint, that I am unsure of. Mine have never had a greenish tint(that I recall). Someone else may chime in on that one. If it is worrisome to you, it would not hurt to call ReptileUV and ask them about it.
As far as your beardie not basking... could you fill us in on your temps and what you are measuring them with. What watt megaray are you using and how far do you have it from your beardie?

 

[acwood04]

acwood... you mention not noticing "much" eye problems. Is your beardie closing her eyes and if so, how much?
As far as a greenish tint, that I am unsure of. Mine have never had a greenish tint(that I recall). Someone else may chime in on that one. If it is worrisome to you, it would not hurt to call ReptileUV and ask them about it.
As far as your beardie not basking... could you fill us in on your temps and what you are measuring them with. What watt megaray are you using and how far do you have it from your beardie?

She isnt actually closing her eyes at all. Only when sleeping. I have a 60 watt CHE on the right that is on at night. I am using a 100 watt SB Mega-ray which is like 18 inches or so from the floor. I have a 4x2x2 viv but the fixture is above the ceiling so the bulb sits up a couple inches higher than if I just attached the fixture to the ceiling.
I'm using that bulb and next to it I have a 35 watt incandescent bulb. This helps the color of the spot look a little warmer. My hand under the megaray has a much colder, greenish look, and under the incandescent much warmer. I have a accurite digital therm(not a probe) on the hot side for the air, at 85. I have a digital probe and a temp gun(from reptile uv) the basking spot measures 104.5 with the temp gun, and ar ound the basking site, the probe says 98.3 about 5 inches from the slab thats her spot. On the cold side its a little warmer than I'd like. Its 85 taken with the probe and the temp gun. The main basking spot which is a 6x8 at least flat rock is 104.5-105 and is 18inches from the megaray face of the bulb. other spots surrounding the hottest basking spot are as close as 14inches from the bulb but they are not directly below so they are not as hot. around 98. The rest of the warm side not elevated is around 85. I hope that answers your questions.

 

[BadCon]

The greenish tint is completely normal. I have seen countless photos on this forum, as well as those taken myself, that show a slight greenish hue when the animal is under the bulb.

 

[acwood04]

Awesome glad to hear I'm not the only one. I'm pretty sure that my MVB was NOT one of those faulty ones. Although mine had the frosting on it, some of it came off while burning it in (away from animal). Sounds good. thanks for chiming in about that!