Beardie Mercury Vapor

Question
Hi Diane,I hope all is good with you,I finally bought my beardie a 40 gallon breeder today and she is loving it. I have a question with the UVB light,her basking spot where she lays shes right under the heat lamp,but the UVB light is about two inches over from that,so shes not directly under it,but is close to it,will she still get the rays from the bulb?

Also I will eventually be getting a Mercury Vapor light,I know the Mega rays are the best,but the stores dont have them in stock,they dont even carry them and im not to fond on ordering things online so im looking at the Zoo Med PowerSun 100 Watt, I have heard good results from that bulb and was just wondering what your idea was on that bulb?

Thank you so much

Answer
Hi Taylor,
Glad she is loving the bigger tank!!
The rays from the tubes do spread out a bit so 2 inches is probably ok. Its really hard to know for sure without a uvb meter, but... if you go to the link http://www.uvguide.co.uk you can check the rays of the light you have and there is also info on the recommended amt of uvb for beardies. The Zoo Med MV bulbs are not great..there was a problem that was found with the glass that was being used in the manufacture of some MV lights and the manufacturer didn't care to fix it.  Some stores are starting to carry the Mega Ray MV bulbs..you can check with them to see if there are any stores near you.   I will not use any MV bulbs other than the MEGARAY...which are now called Raptor/Mega-Ray
You can feel safe ordering from them also. You can actually call them to order instead of doing so on line if you feel better about doing that.