Hello Everyone,
My name is John Wolff, and I am the shipping and sales manager at Reptile UV. As I am sure you have noticed, there has been a lot of talk recently about animals having an adverse reaction to our bulb, and I would like to take the opportunity to address it directly.
Very recently we discovered that the company that manufactures our bulbs received a shipment of an extremely clean and clear quality glass. While normally this would be a good thing, for our purposes it is not. With this exceptionally clear glass we started seeing UV levels that were too high and potentially harmful. We immediately took steps to correct the issue for existing product, modifying bulbs with an etching spray that would diffuse the UV levels and make them safe to use. We have actually been doing this for years for our "Low UV" 100 Watt and 60 Watt bulbs.
Unfortunately, it appears that the modification quite literally did not stick. Some of the bulbs began to burn or peel, causing the higher levels of UV to get through.
This has caused us a great deal of concern, as this company was founded with the sole intent of increasing the quality of life and health of captive reptiles, and that is still our main concern to this day. We will soon be posting an official response and recall on certain bulbs that we believe to have been affected. We will also be posting this response on the forum here, as well as on the UV guide UK and on our home page on the website.
We refuse to hide from the issue, but instead will address it head on, making every effort possible to correct the error, and retain the trust of our loyal customers. Our bulb has been the best on the market for many years now, and it will remain so, as we never allow our standards to drop.
For right now, if any of you have received a bulb from us that is peeling from the face of the bulb, or if your animal is showing any signs of sensitivity in their eyes, we are asking that you
immediately contact us so that we can correct the matter as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Your pet's health and care is and always will be our main concern. While we do stand by our products, we strive for perfection knowing it can never be attained. Thank you for your understanding and continued support while we get this situation rectified.
A few key things to take away from this are listed below.
- DO NOT under any circumstances remove the frosting from your bulb.
- If you notice any peeling from the face of your bulb, immediately remove the bulb and contact us.
- Watch for any signs of eye sensitivity in your pet, and immediately remove the bulb and contact us if this is observed.
- The glass we got in that caused this issue is not "bad glass" but is actually too clean a quality and we are addressing this as aggressively as we can to get the situation taken care of and ensure your animals continued health.
- The company that manufactures these high quality bulbs for us has been testing with UVB and UVC meters for years, and has now agreed to begin testing the bulbs at their location with a UVI meter that we supplied for them before the bulbs ever reach us. We will continue to test the bulbs here, to provide added protection from this ever happening again.
- I would like to extend a special thanks to Dawn Cesar, who was kind enough to contact me and post an abbreviated response yesterday morning in reference to this matter. Thank you Dawn, your care and concern are right in line with the principles we hold so dear here at ReptileUV.
John M. Wolff
Shipping Manager
Realizing that this "process" can be complicated, we are in the process of adding a full line of products that will help the average keeper, as well as the professional zoologist/herpetologist, to reach their goals in duplicating the reptile's natural habitat (as regards lighting and heating) as closely as possible in captivity.
The importance of bright light (lux) and a good lighting spectrum
(full spectrum

,
high visual color rendition index, VCRI) for the animal's overall health is becoming more widely understood.
Naturally, large outside habitats are the best solution if you location allows. This is seldom a possibility for most keepers. We have personally let the sun do our work for us, supplying the bright natural spectrum of visible light through large windows. We only concern ourselves with the need for indoor UVR (since it won't come through windows) and heat.
The use of bright, large windows is not always possible, either, for many keepers. So ReptileUV has worked very hard studying the ability of different types of light bulb to duplicate the sun's spectrum (CRI) and intensity (lux). Looking at the spectrograms and lux readings, we have gathered a diverse collection of bulbs to help you produce exceptional lighting for your various species of reptiles.
All of our lighting products have the approximate CRI

(color rendering index), lux (light intensity) and (if they are UV

lamps) the amount of UVB

and UVA

(microwatts per square centimeter) they produce included in their description.
As we grow, we hope to add new product lines including lighting fixtures, electronic thermostats, light meters, halogen bulbs, metal halide bulbs, 5000K fluorescent tubes and compacts, adjustable fixture stands, UV fluorescent tubes, and reflectors. We never stop working on the new possibilities for the future Mega-Ray® designs.
If you consider yourself the exceptional keeper or just want to be, ReptileUV is the place to be. Let us share our 40 years of reptile keeping, rehabilitation, and research with you. As our site grows we will be posting the latest information concerning lighting and your animal's health.
Besides the addition of many new products we will enlarge this site to have a collection of information articles and facts that will help you understand how to create a mini ecosystem. We will answer questions such as "how hot will your bulb get?" "How much UV does my reptile require?" "Why can't I just use ordinary commercial mercury vapor bulbs from the store"?
- and a host of questions our customers have asked us.
We will help expose false advertising, correct the fallacies about mercury vapor bulbs posted on various websites, debunk poorly written studies, and report new vitamin D3 studies.
Our customers keep a wide range of lizards, tortoises, turtles.. and avian species too. We plan to build a gallery and database on the many ways in which Mega-Ray® lamps are used in the most successful reptile husbandry.
For the world's largest collection of test results on reptile UV lighting please see
uvguide.co.uk.
Also visit the new
Reptile UV Info for more in-depth research on ultraviolet, lighting, and health.