Zoo Med PowerSun MVB

Originally Posted by DragonsKeepers

Wow, nice, Matt. I haven't even seen a response besides the generic thank you for contacting us canned email. Will you message me her email address and I'll follow up as well with my results. I'm curious why their box pushes healthy levels (which would be actual outdoor UVB levels), but they claim that is too high for animals.

By the way, right now, it's 93 here in Colorado at 1:30 pm. UVB meter says 340 uW/cm2.

Call it protecting the integrity of their product. I can't for the life of me figure out what makes Zoo Med think that anything less than 100 uW/cm2 for any basking reptile is sufficient. I'll provide you with her email address as soon as I get a response to my last email.

Originally Posted by SpidaFly

Haha - nice, Vers.

Does the rep think they're subjected to that level of UV *EVERYWHERE* the reptile goes? No hides? No UV gradient?

Silly rep. Probably given a "playbook" issued by some suit on the board or something :P

Exactly. There is such a thing as too much UVB, but the levels I'm providing in correlation with my enclosure setups ensures this cannot happen.

Originally Posted by justor

I like how she used the abbreviation for milliwatts instead of microwatts lol.

13 mW/cm2 is equal to 13,000 uW/cm2!

haha, I noticed that as well but figured I'd leave it alone--there are more important things at hand here

Good luck getting a refund, though. :/ I had one that never worked, they informed me I could pay $8 to ship it to them via UPS (they would not take USPS), then they would send me a check in 2-3 weeks... It took 8 days for them to respond after the tracking said it had arrived, then they claimed it was past 30 days. I did eventually get the refund, after they repeatedly offered me a replacement bulb for only the cost of shipping! I was not going to give them another $8 to wait 20 days for a bulb... Again...

This was a long time ago, so hopefully it's not quite such a ridiculous mess, but good luck nonetheless.

Originally Posted by Vers

Exactly. There is such a thing as too much UVB, but the levels I'm providing in correlation with my enclosure setups ensures this cannot happen.

Indeed. I don't have the money right now to experiment with new bulbs, but I will come September when I set up a new cage for a new water dragon. Now that I know that they really live up to the marketing I'll probably get Arcadias. For now though my AWD seems to be doing exceptionally well under a gradient from ~110uW/cm^2 down to zero (hides/flood). No evidence of MBD and she certainly performs some very impressive acrobatics. :P

In think the Arcadia are good for my Bearded Dragons with the acrobatic abilities. Chaos, my four month old Bearded Dragon did a flip around a branch with a half twist. Maybe I should see if he can enter the London Games...

My water dragon loves jumping, flying, sliding, and climbing all over as well.

Originally Posted by DragonsKeepers

My water dragon loves jumping, flying, sliding, and climbing all over as well.

My foster dragon has decided her incandescent lamp is either food or a toy more than once. She actually managed to hit it once (I think with her tail, because it didn't move enough to have been hit by 3.5lbs of lizard). I lowered her closest branch a bit after that (last thing I need is a shattered bulb in an enclosure).

Just received this...

Dear Matt,

I have forwarded your email and comments to our R&D department to look into this. If you could please fax or email a copy of your receipt I will see to it that a refund is issued from our office.

Should you have further questions or comments please let me know.



Kind regards,


Rita Zarate

Dir. Customer Service

I'm hoping for smooth sailing.

This thread brings back a distant memory of having a conversation with my vet regarding a study that was intended to compare compact fluorescent, tube fluorescent, and MVB bulbs.

In the study, different reptiles of similar species/size/mass were forced to bask under said bulbs for set periods of time. After those basking sessions, the reptiles' blood was tested for D3 concentrations. According to what the vet said, the paper reported that MVB bulbs were almost ineffective.

At the time (before owning a UVB meter and actually understanding this stuff) I had assumed that he had just juggled "MVB" and "compact" in the course of conversation.

Given what you're saying, Vers, perhaps he didn't mix them up after all.

Originally Posted by SpidaFly

Given what you're saying, Vers, perhaps he didn't mix them up after all.

I supposed it depends on which MVB's he tested and when. From my understanding, having spoken to a few people who have tested these bulbs in the past, ZooMed had once produced MVB lamps with decent UVB output. For some reason, however, they decided to redesign the bulbs in order to produce what they consider "safe amounts". Whether or not this is an excuse for something else I don't know. In addition, Westron and Mega Ray both produced MVBs that were very effective at one point and Arcadia, who is currently making 220v MVBs in Europe, is apparently producing similar bulbs to those of Westron/Mega Ray's of the past. We'll see what they come up with in 110v soon, hopefully.

Hey guys and gals--just a quick update. Last week I received my new t5 HO fixtures and Arcadia bulbs and got around to mounting them within the top enclosures a few days ago, oddly enough I received my refund from Zoo Med the same day (no return labels, though). After swapping lighting I've noticed, even after this very short time, that my male ornate is more active, specifically when it comes to basking for longer periods, than with the MVB. I also noticed a large difference in coloration and pattern contrast. So far so good.

Wish I would have read this a few days ago... Very dissapointing. Is megaray back on its feet yet?