From my understanding, there are no CHE’s or DHP’s that are affected, Radiant Heat Panels are fully ok, UVB bulbs are still fine, and all this really affects is light emitting heaters. I know that light emitting bulbs can offer some of the best heating in terms of muscle penetration and uva, but how does this change really impact the animals? If UVB is still available, then animals who depend on that to live are going to be okay. But i don’t know of any species that would be at a similar health risk with a DHP vs. a Halogen.
So if this change happens, will everyone eventually have to switch to non-light emitting overhead heaters? What’s actual impact of that?
A lot of people are making it sound like all bulbs are on the chopping block, but from this list here, i don’t see one che or dhp or uvb strip. If I’m right, it certainly does impact keeping, but it’s maybe not as dire as it’s being made out to be?
As far as providing an animal with a light cycle goes, maybe it will push more keepers to start providing UVB in their enclosures as a better source of light than simple LED’s, which might actually be a net positive.
For me personally, i have RHP’s and DHP’s and UVB already so maybe it’s just because it doesn’t directly impact my collection. How does this potential change impact your animals?
I don’t really understand how this would change people’s minds … Unless you mean that they’re using LED because they heard about this?
The Reptisun line is all UV. So that is a MAJOR hit. The splash proof halogen is a pretty nasty hit too because it really kept heat/light going for turtle basking spots without burning out or shattering bulbs.
As far as the law goes … I feel like we’re in a grey area ATM and waiting for clarification. Iirc Kevin even says that Zoomed is looking at a meeting with the Dept. Of Energy. So we may not know which other product lines are continuing until after that.
I’ve seen a lot of the concerns so far being for higher wattage UV and heating bulbs taking the hit because of the new guidelines. So large animal keepers or just large enclosures in general may be affected more by this than a keeper with smaller animals and habitats.
I honestly don’t think this is going to even create an issue. With the amount of zoos that keep reptiles and rely on this type of lighting, it will most likely be taken care of long before it becomes an issue. And then things like USARK and other animal organizations will relatively easily be able to take care of it if it isn’t. It seems to be a bit blown out of proportion to me on how serious of an issue this is. And worst comes to worst, change your heat lights out for a $5 CHE of Amazon. The only things that can’t be replaced with something similar is mercury vapor bulbs and coil UVB witch considering a single MVB is around $70 and needs changed out 2-4 times a year and coil bulbs aren’t super effective, isn’t that big of a loss.
And not to mention how many other animals have lighting used for, livestock and poultry are a good example, I am certain that it will be changed to include animal specific lighting.
I don’t know, maybe I am down playing the issue it could cause but given the amount of backlash and problems it would cause I am not going to worry about it until I need to.
Here is another video explaining it that I find to explain the situation better https://youtu.be/XdSc9e3DL3w?si=D3TLy2FBNvCGAq0V
I feel NERDs video is trying to cause more panic to keepers than is needed. No need to cause a repeat of the gruesome toilet paper wars of 2020.
Obviously, there are going to be major changes everywhere. Zoomed discontinuing one of their most popular product lines is proof of it. They might make exceptions for zoos but for hobbyists and breeders it may be a bit tougher
The main problem I feel is this is leaving distributors to scramble to rebrand or find alternatives seeing as this went into effect last year and Zoomed was only told what products are to be discontinued a month ago. Also… think about people who have always purchased their zoomed Reptisuns only from places like Petsmart… Not everyone knows how to easily find replacements.
I still think that the amount of push back that this will receive is going to result in the ban or whatever you want to call it being altered to include animal lights. livestock keepers alone could most likely be able to resolve the issue. But with livestock, reptile, exotic bird, etc keepers all combined there is very little chance that it won’t get changed.
Plant lights are included as an exception. Plant lights don’t need to produce heat. Assuming the people passing this have combination of more than 8 brain cells then chances are it will be a relatively quick fix. Am I putting too much faith into the brains (well lack of so far) behind this? Maybe. But I plan on staying positive about this.
But genuine question, from what I can find on this it is saying that it stops the manufacturing of “inefficient” bulbs. Since the US can’t ban the making of them in other countries, does this mean that you physically can’t buy them? Is there something in place stopping a random Chinese company on amazon from selling them?
It doesn’t stop the manufacturing of appliance lighting which commonly produce a decent amount of heat. I used a random 40 watt microwave bulb I found in my basement and it worked perfectly. Plus they are cheap. Even if the absolute worst thing ends up happening the hobby as a whole will get around it.
You can post as many videos as you want Logar, but I’m not ruining my youtube algorithm for this. lol
I’m honestly not affected by this at all. I’m just looking at this realistically as a former big box pet shop employee and knowing what was sold and what won’t be as soon as the backstock is gone.
Unless they specifically ban imports, no. You can still buy them outside the US. It’s how I managed to still buy fish medicine for my old tank in California. Amoxicillin otc is banned here.
It went live in August last year. It’s not ‘going to receive’. It’s already done and in place. They’re just following up and pointing out violations, which honestly should have been done either before it went live or just after, not 6 months after the fact. Yes, they may decide to extend the grace period with pushback…but this isn’t something that hasn’t been done yet and still need to be voted on.
Hence why I said they may need to “rebrand”. Which would be reptile UV bulbs as grow lights.
Edit: also it looks like none of the zoomed aquarium lights were bothered because of the ‘marine’ or ‘grow’ parts of things. So if it was the ‘grow’, they can just rebrand as being used for bioactive/planted enclosures maybe.
The smaller heat bulbs are not affected by this as they are under the restrictions. That’s why the nano bulbs aren’t on the list. Which is pretty much a 40watt bulb.
I’ve seen a fair amount of alarmist rhetoric flying around about this legislation. Which has kind of had me going . Mainly because I raise my eyebrow at alarmist rhetoric in general, but also because I think some people are blowing it a little out of proportion.
Is this going to mean that some people are going to have to make adjustments to how they keep some of their animals? Yes, most likely. And I understand that’s upsetting. But is it OMG THE END OF REPTILE KEEPING AND ALL OUR REPTILES ARE GOING TO DIE?!?!?! No, definitely not. We have other ways to provide heat, light, and UVB. Though I’m sure that my feelings are coloured by the fact that I don’t use light emitting heat sources.
@caron same, but I don’t get that excited over it. lol. Although don’t you do have a beardie now and need UVB lighting? The reptisun line is basically UVB and not heat, the strip light is a common type of UVB lighting. I hope it stays warm enough outside where you are for UVB if you aren’t using bulbs. UVB doesn’t effectively penetrate glass enough and there’s always the draft concerns.
@jawramik Yeah. The knee jerk reaction is frustrating. I’m a pessimist by nature and having worked petshop retail I know some of these discontinued items are really going to muck it up from some.
I don’t use overhead lights for heat or UVB, but I have sympathy for people who may get hit with restrictions.
@armiyana I am in the Midwest so it’s going to be rough during the winter months and yes sun through windows won’t work. And I also have a gargoyle gecko and a false chameleon too so I guess I lied!!! But I prefer to call it a “senior” moment thank you very much!
Oof. Yeah. Outdoor sunning is great when you can. I should do it more myself, lol. But winter is rough there. That’s one of the things I don’t miss much moving from NY to soCal.
So, forgive me it seems i misunderstood. UVB is affected? I use arcadia brand uvb lighting. I’m not familiar with zoo med products. Does that mean that arcadia uvb is going to dissappear too?
UVB is affected. Reptisun is ZooMed’s fluorescent tube UVB line.
I don’t really know much about Arcadia’s products but IIRC, Arcadia isn’t based in the US. So you’ll probably just have to buy from oversea at worst?
When I brought this issue up in my own thread several months ago, everyone was in pretty solid agreement that there really wouldn’t be an issue. Sucks to see that several trusted brands are already being hit and its really unsure how things will unfold from here.
So I was looking through the thingy ( click me! ) and on pages 83-85 it goes through the exceptions and such.
Here are something from it that I am a bit confused by-
"(IV) any other lamps that the Secretary determines are used to satisfy lighting applications traditionally served by general service incandescent lamps.”
Because of this, it pretty much means that it would be an ‘easy’ fix right? Or am I not understanding what that means?
It also says incandescent reflector lamps are considered an exception. And when I looked up what that meant, that is what basking bulbs are. So i confused on why zoomed is stopping production of them if they are in the exceptions. Does that mean that their bulbs somehow don’t count as reflector lamps or is it some other reason? Am I missing something?
Try to clear up my confusion about this is just confusing me more.
So I went over this in a post last year, and much like @logar has found, there are plenty of exceptions and labeling could be a loophole.
What I’m finding rather odd is that Zoo Med is the only company that has come out and said anything really, despite the fact that this ban supposedly includes imports that don’t meet the 45 lumens per watt rule. According to the GSL enforcement policy, enforcement flexibilities have already ended for manufacturers, importers, and private labelers as of January 1st. Distributors and retailers are currently in the progressive enforcement stage, with flexibilities set to end on August 1st. So either the foreign companies don’t care about their US market, or they know something we don’t.
Ugh, I actually didn’t realize that fluorescent UVB bulbs were affected. I don’t use them, so I’m not familiar with the product names on the ZooMed list. I thought it was mainly incandescent bulbs that were targeted. The UVB thing is definitely a bigger deal, though it sounds like grow lights marketed for plants are going to be the solution.
So I admit that this is more of a bummer than I initially thought. But at least there’s still a viable workaround.
It finally occurred to me to look on the USARK website to see if they had any info on this topic…lo and behold, they did! Here’s a link to their article that explains where things are at right now. It sounds like the issue is still yet to be fully resolved one way or the other, but the article seems cautiously optimistic about the final outcome. It also encourages people to email the DoE (respectfully and civilly) to explain the importance of these bulbs in animal care, and provides an example letter you can copy and paste if you don’t want to write your own.
. Mainly because I raise my eyebrow at alarmist rhetoric in general, but also because I think some people are blowing it a little out of proportion.
