MVB?

[michigan101]

Is there an MVB out there that is safe to use? I have a Reptisun 10.0 but its 12 inches away from the basking site. I was thinking of building up the basking site, but it just looks tacky. Im hoping to find an MVB to use

 

[BadCon]

Put a reflector on the tube fixture, and it will increase the penetration of the UVB. The 6-8" figures you see floating around are for a single bulb without reflector. When I say reflector, I mean a real parabolic style reflector; for a T8 size bulb, the reflector should be at least 5-6" across. The tiny reflectors built into aquarium hood fixtures are usually worthless. You can buy clip on batwing or parabolic style reflectors online...or you can make your own. You can make one out of anything reflective, even aluminum foil. A good reflector will direct much of the light and UVB in a single direction...this will increase the overall values of both in that direction, which will allow you to keep the basking spot roughly 12" away.

On the bottom of that page is a nice graph. A single tube (of similar output to yours) with a reflector is outputting roughly the same amount of UVB at 12" that a single tube without a reflector does at roughly 8". Food for thought.
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/fluorescenttubereflectortests.htm