Thinking of "upgrading" to long UV fluoro tubes in my skink and dragon enclosures.

[kingofnobbys]

Used MVBs for the beardies as hatchies and juveniles , were not very reliable so changed over to good quality compact spiral globes (UVB200 for the beardies and UVB150 for the bluetongues water skink - not bad, seem very reliable but don't give coverage in the entire enclosures - 4' x 2' for the beardies and bluetongues, 3' x 2' for the water skink).
Changed to P38 spot globes for my overhead sunlike light / heat source for all enclosures.

Now thinking of converting to T5 HO or T8 UVB tubes ( I think 34" long in the 4' long enclosures and 22" long in the 3' long enclosure). Do I need a special light fitting and ballast to run Repti Sun or Zoomed tubes ? can these be used in standard household fluoro tube light fitting with a standard ballast/starter ?

Is it worth installing a polished metal reflector behind the UV fluoro tube (T5HO or T8 ) ?

What is the difference in size (diameter) for T5 , T5HO , T8 and T12 fluoro tubes ?

Can someone recommend a good quality full spectrum + UVA and UVB fluoro tube ?

 

[Amazing Amazon]

Not sure sure what MVB's you have tried but the quality ones like Exo Terra and Megaray are both excellent. Go Ebay/China and you are just asking for trouble! The ZooMed T5 10.0 are the best we could recoommmend as results from them over the last 12 months for Bearded Dragons and turtles have beeen excellent. Once again go Ebay/China and you are just asking for trouble. T8 and T10 are basically the same thing with T10 being slightly larger diameter but no good quality UVB globes are now done in T10. T5 are just a smaller diameter globe with higher output. With T5 ZooMed they recommend a higher minimum distance which is usually more suitable than a T8 recommended distance. You will pay a bit more but stick to the good quality ones and your Beardies will thrive.