UVB, T8 or T5

[tinkerpuppet]

Ok, so with Spike coming to us a bit last minute, I feel like I'm scrambling trying to get her enclosure set up. She has never had UVB light, so I ran out and bought a fixture from Walmart, and ran out and bought a bulb from my local independent pet store. Well, turns out I bought a T5 fixture from Walmart (all they had, thought it was a T8) and a Reptiglo 10.0 T8 bulb. So the petstore does have a Reptisun 10.0 T5, so should I keep the fixture I got and get this bulb? Is there a difference between the T5 and T8 bulbs? I don't want to have to redo everything a few months down the road. And with the Reptisun bulbs being about $50 here, I want to make sure I'm getting the right one. Thanks

 

[Taterbug]

I'd stick with the T5 and get the reptisun for it as it is a higher output bulb/fixture and I believe they last longer. The bulb itself is also smaller.

Amazon has good prices on bulbs and I've never had a problem with shipping.

 

[lauraj1055]

definitely stick with the T5 bulb. The UVB output on them is about 5x what the T8's give off.

 

[tinkerpuppet]

Amazon in Canada is much different then Amazon in the States!

So another pet store has the Reptisun 10.0 T8. Is the T5 still the better bulb? I'm sure I could find a T8 fixture at Home Depot or something.

How often do these bulbs need replacing?

 

[lauraj1055]

Amazon in Canada is much different then Amazon in the States!

So another pet store has the Reptisun 10.0 T8. Is the T5 still the better bulb? I'm sure I could find a T8 fixture at Home Depot or something.

How often do these bulbs need replacing?

Yes, the T5 is better than the T8. If you can get the T5 bulb, get that. Plus the Reptiglo T8 is not a good UVB light, the Reptisun is tons better.

The Reptisuns last 6 - 9 months.. However I have a UVB tester and I have 1 reptisun going on 13 months that is still giving out very good UVB.

 

[tinkerpuppet]

So I took back the Reptiglo, and they only had the Reptisun 5.0. So I went to another pet store and picked out the Reptisun 10.0 T5. Got to checkout and asked the clerk if I could take the bulb out to make sure it fit in my fixture (I brought it with me). She very nicely pointed out that it didn't matter, my fixture was a T5, but the bulb was a T5HO, so still not compatible. Gah! Anyways, I ended up just buying the Reptisun 10.0 T8 and will return the fixture and get a T8 one tomorrow. I will get Spike her UVB!! (it is just apparently taking a few kajillion trips)

 

[Esther19]

it's too bad you didn't try it out. I believe that the "HO" refers to "high output." It should have fit, and it is the better bulb.

 

[CooperDragon]

That is strange that it didn't fit. I have a ReptiSun 10.0 T8 HO and it fits in the standard T8 fixture without a problem.

 

[tinkerpuppet]

The issue wasn't with fit, it would have fit just fine. It was that the fixture was NO (normal output) and the bulb was HO (high output). From my less then amazing googling, it would seem that if I had used the two together, the output of the bulb would be weaker because of the fixture and because the outputs were different, the bulb wouldn't last as long.

I did notice that with the T8's, but I only found info about the T5HO's. Again, I'm terrible at using Google, so I could be very wrong!

 

[CooperDragon]

Ah, OK. That sounds like it has more to do with the ballasts. A NO bulb in a HO fixture would be read as an NO bulb and produce NO output (or slightly higher and burn out more quickly) and the HO bulb in an NO fixture would run at NO output. For an HO bulb you will need to find a fixture and ballast that can drive the HO bulb.

 

[tinkerpuppet]

Exactly!!

 

[Esther19]

Okay. Now I get it. Thanks!