# Megaray lighting Any good?



## mrsshaky0 (Jun 15, 2011)

hi 

i have been looking for a new viv for my bearded dragon, and come across a 4X2X2 with a megaray lighting system from The Reptile Centre Cardiff. i checked the megaray website and it sounds really good, and praised it, as i expected. Apart from that there isn't much information online. 

Wanted to know if anyone has experience with this lighting or can find something i may have missed.

Thank you


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## Pendragon (Dec 8, 2008)

Hi mate, Mega Rays are fine, the new ones are made by a company called Solar Raptor, I think these are better than the old Westron bulbs. The metal halide ones are alot smaller too.

This is the newer 70watt (EB) mega ray (Solar Raptor) metal halide lamp in my new Beardie viv...



















Note how bright it is comaped to the 60watt incandescent next to it, the lux level of the 60watt spot lamp is around 8,000, where as the metal halide is around 120,000 lux, (the sun at midday in the desert is about 140,000 lux.)

This is the older mega ray in my crestie viv, this is the same bulb but made by Westron...










I have found that the three main differences between the Westron and the Solar Raptor is that the Solar Raptor is smaller has a better balast box, (it all comes pre wired) and has a slightly higher uvb output.

The heat output from a 70watt externaly balasted metal halide is about the same as 60watt incandescent spotlight.

As for the M.V.Bs (mercury vapour bulbs) the same is true in so far as the Solar Raptor bulbs are more powerfull in the uvb they give off, (I had an older 160watt westron in my Scaloporus viv you can see on the right of my Crestie viv, but when I got the same bulb for my Ribbon Snake I found the uvb to be 50% higher again at the same distance for the Solar Raptor bulb) but the light intensity (about 16,000 lux) and the size and look of the bulb is the same whether you get the older Westron bulb or the newer Solar Raptor.

So what you have to look at is whether you are going for the M.V.B or the M.H. and whether it is internaly or externaly balasted, the externaly balasted bulbs tend to last longer and give less heat, you have to keep in mind the you can not control the heat these lamps give off with a stat. I don't have any of my M.V.Bs or M.Hs on stats. So this means the viv has to be big enough to handle two bulbs like in my Beardie viv.

Why two bulbs? Well as I have already mentioned you can't control the heat with a stat, but what you also can't do is let the animal get closer than 12" to the bulb as the uvb levels get too high, but at 12" the bulb doesn't give off enough heat to get the right basking temps...!

If you look at my Beardie viv, you can see that the Metal Halide is right up as high as I can get it, to keep a distance of 15" to the rock below it, (thought he rock is about 8" off the floor) and this is in a two and a half foot high viv.

If you do decide to go with M.V.Bs or M.Hs, you MUST get a uvb meter (solar meter 6.2 you can see me using one here) so you know for sure what level of uvb your animal is getting.











Hope this helps.: victory:

Jay


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