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I now find myself in need of a new bulb and I just got off the phone with Alan Botterman, President & CEO of T-Rex. He informed me that due to all the problems lately, they are discontinuing the ActiveUV MVB. And it may be some time before they have an alternative. So no luck there. I then pulled up the MegaRay website, http://www.reptileuv.com, to order one of them and found they too, are back-ordered and read the notice about all the problems they are having as well. When I phoned them, they told me they do not have an estimated date when bulbs will be available again.

From this page: http://www.beardeddragon.org/bjive/view ... ?p=1217442

steve wrote:

I now find myself in need of a new bulb and I just got off the phone with Alan Botterman, President & CEO of T-Rex. He informed me that due to all the problems lately, they are discontinuing the ActiveUV MVB. And it may be some time before they have an alternative. So no luck there. I then pulled up the MegaRay website, http://www.reptileuv.com, to order one of them and found they too, are back-ordered and read the notice about all the problems they are having as well. When I phoned them, they told me they do not have an estimated date when bulbs will be available again.

From this page: http://www.beardeddragon.org/bjive/view ... ?p=1217442

Thanks for posting this Steve.

I've been having the same problem as everyone elese. The Fluker Son Spot is garbage and the ZooMed Power Sun is only marginally better. My Power Sun frequently over-heats and turns off and currently it is shining less bright than normal. I am on my second Power Sun in 8 months; I can't wait for the T-Rex to come back. If anyone finds a reliable bulb please let us know!

There's the Exo Terra bulb too. It was an OK bulb but I swear it didn't put out UVB for more than 3 months. I don't have a meter to measure and confirm, but this seems to be the complaint on many of the forums. My turtle stopped basking after 3-4 months with that bulb.

I just replaced my bulb this month and went with the 100w Power Sun. Seems to be the best of the available bulbs right now.
I totally agree with your comment about the Fluker Sun Spot being garbage. I tried one of those bulbs (attracted by price) and it didn't last more than 2 weeks.

VeipaCray wrote:There's the Exo Terra bulb too. It was an OK bulb but I swear it didn't put out UVB for more than 3 months. I don't have a meter to measure and confirm, but this seems to be the complaint on many of the forums. My turtle stopped basking after 3-4 months with that bulb.

I just replaced my bulb this month and went with the 100w Power Sun. Seems to be the best of the available bulbs right now.
I totally agree with your comment about the Fluker Sun Spot being garbage. I tried one of those bulbs (attracted by price) and it didn't last more than 2 weeks.

Let me know how your turtles respond to it and how long your Power Sun lasts, please.

My turtle is basking much more with the new bulb now and seems to like the powersun. I'm planning on replacing this bulb in about 6 months as I do not have a UVB meter to actually measure the useful output of this lamp. Hopefully this bulb will make it 6 months. The bulb does come with a year warranty from the manufacturer so there is a bit of safety net there.

I haven't found a quality MVB yet since Mega-rays fell into back order. My turtle hated the PowerSun bulb I got her, so she basked considerably less compared to her old Mega-ray. The bulb also blew after roughly a month of daily use.

It may have been this bulb in particular that was bad. But, I don't care to go through the return process. I really want the externally ballasted Mega-rays to return. My first one gave me 18 months of quality light!

It's back to CFLs in the mean time...

FYI That PowerSun has a year warranty.

http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/Entry ... E6IjAiO30=

Chris, did you measure the UVB output? Like CFLs, the MVB will still give off light when it no longer emits UVB. Powersun seems to be the only reliable MVB right now, though many have switched to the Reptisun tubes.

VeipaCray wrote:FYI That PowerSun has a year warranty.

http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/Entry ... E6IjAiO30=

Thanks, but I'm slightly discouraged from going through the process of reporting a faulty bulb. The facts that my turtle didn't like it, and that quality control is low enough that it blew out so quickly, are enough to possibly keep me from dealing with PowerSun again. I may give it a second shot, because I still have everything I need for the return.

steve wrote:Chris, did you measure the UVB output? Like CFLs, the MVB will still give off light when it no longer emits UVB. Powersun seems to be the only reliable MVB right now, though many have switched to the Reptisun tubes.

Yes, I use an UV Meter from Fisher Scientific. Reptisun would do the trick, but until my setup changes a little, CFLs are more convenient for placement. I haven't purchased the CFL yet, so if you advise against it my ears are open.

Worst case use your warranty, get yourself a new bulb and sell it on fleabay / craigslist etc. You could get some of your $ back if you don't want the bulb.

So, what bulb do you guys recommend the most now? I don't have any way to test output so kind of go by word of mouth.

My last bulb was a 100w Reptile UV bulb that I ordered in early November 2009. I didn't use it right away. It had the white coating on the outside that started to flake off. I showed it to my dad when he came to visit (he's an EE) and he said that bulbs like that sometimes have a coating during shipping and so he washed it off (obviously, he was thinking of spotlights, etc.) So, yeah. Oops! But it really was flaking off already. Turtle got to be outside for sunlight over the summer but my bulb burned out right before summer and now I'm needing a new bulb. I didn't know that a) these bulbs were no longer available b) my bulb was likely from a batch that was recalled. They never sent an email out and I feel like I visited their site a few times just to read their information and never saw a post about it.

I guess the bulb lived its life, my turtle didn't seem to come to harm from it, and they're in bad enough financial trouble already I should just leave it be. But that is a bit annoying that I never even knew.

You don't have much of a choice when it comes to MVB right now. It's basically ZooMed PowerSun or Exo Terra Solar Glo. The ZooMed runs circles around the Exo Terra and even comes with a warranty. The zoomed isn't the best bulb ever but the Exo Terra could quite possibly be the worst.

Are Mega Ray and T-Rex considered the best when it comes to MVB's?

They were and both supposedly had their bulbs made at the same factory. Mega Ray has practically imploded with a bad batch of bulbs and have been unable to reliably replace bulbs or fill orders. Many people were charged and never received their orders and T-Rex has discontinued their product (please see what's written in this entire thread).