You have my personal guarantee that these truly are the world's best reptile UV lamps. I am constantly researching to improve ReptileUV products and to bring new innovations to improve life for the reptiles in our care. If you or your reptile are not completely satisfied, contact me through our website and I will do my best to make it right. I've been keeping reptiles since I was eight years old (
1961). My father was a long time rehabilitator of avian species. He was a self taught nutritionist as well. He died last year at 77 years old riding his motorcycle when a dog ran out in front of him. I bought my first iguana in 1972 when they were then called "Chinese Dragons". There was no information in print about the green iguana at that time. My lighting experience started in the late 70s using metal halide lighting, hydroponics, cuttings, and CO2 injection systems for indoor growth. In Holland I worked with some of the brightest people in this field. My fascination with creating the Suns spectrum indoors is what enabled me to create the MegaRay. Even though I've been rehabilitating animals since I was eight or nine years old with my dad, I personally got heavily involved in major rehabilitation: many times overstepping veterinarian practices in the mid-90s. The amount of diseased and deformed animals, due mainly to the lack of UV was nothing short of depressing. Many of these animals had been under so-called UV lamps. After getting a 6.2 UVB Solar meter, I got involved in the study of UV lighting in late 1999. Leading up to 2001, I have tested over 300 Reptile lamps for their ability to produce ultraviolet, the failure rate on these bulbs, and the ultraviolet decay rate. I was incredibly disappointed with the quality of the Reptile ultraviolet lamps. The only lamp I found that produced reasonable ultraviolet unfortunately only came in a spot configuration. It was made by Westron. What I dreamed of was a lamp that had the ultraviolet of the developed spot lamp, but instead of it being focused in a small section, it would have a good UV gradient. At the same time I needed to make sure that ultraviolet was not wasted as was the case with the flood bulbs. I also discovered that the decay we were experiencing in all mercury v***r lamps was not from the arc tube as everybody thought but rather the outer glass envelope. The glass would solerize after being bombarded by huge amounts of B and C radiation and filter out more and more of the UVB as time went on. After releasing my results to the major manufacturers I was equally disappointed in the response I received from all but Westron. I was even threatened with lawsuits from one of the big three. Bob MacCargar, First MegaRay My main profession is in the automotive collision field. My dad owned a successful body shop for over 47 years. I wrote many articles for the trade magazines. The shop that I was managing in 1998 through 2002 was a state of the art facility, and the paint brand that we used was PPG. My shop was a test bed for many of the new products that PPG developed. One of their new innovative products was an ultraviolet activated UV primer. The article I wrote about it was called " The 2 minute Cure" and it was published in Body Shop Business. I bring this up because interestingly in the set of pictures that were published with the article, there was a little lamp that - believe it or not- was the very first MegaRay. I developed this lamp, because of how expensive the UV curing lamps were. I asked Westron to help me develop a UV curing lamp, and they sent me several to try. None of the original designs worked, and I finally asked Westron to build one to my specifications. It worked beautifully. Every time I improved on the lamp, Westron would build it for me, and eventually, I developed the very first prototype of what looks like the MegaRay today. The little lamp you see in the picture was built in 2000. It took me a year to develop the bulb that you see today, but it took me two more years trying to convince Westron to go into the manufacturing of this lamp. The MegaRay bulb that you see today is a hand built custom item. It is extremely time-consuming and costly to manufacture. I am in no fear whatsoever of someone copying the design and selling it cheaper. It simply can't be done. I can tell you that I've had China sending me lamps for two years to test for them in hopes that I will market the bulbs. There is not a bulb that comes out of China that would cost me more than $6.50US. The only thing my competitors are interested in is profit. The major whole sale distributors are making a 300% net on every bulb they sell wholesale. The deal I put together for my wholesalers puts me at a two dollars per bulb net, provided I do not have to replace too many on warranty at 7% net. No one in the world besides me is crazy enough to do this. Not only does the MegaRay have the only narrow flood design in the world with the least amount of decay of any Reptile lamp in existence, it also produces the most UVA of any bulb that I have tested (or that has been sent through the UVGuide to be tested). UVA is as important a factor as the amount of UVB that is produced. Reptiles have a fourth cone in their eye as compared to the three cones in mammals. This fourth cone is what "sees" ultraviolet A. Basically an animal lives in a black-and-white world if it does not have enough ultraviolet A above the 350 nm range. When people tell me they see an immediate response in their animals activity after being exposed to the MegaRay, I need to tell them that it's not from the ultraviolet B but rather from the ultraviolet A. Even though circulating D3 is being produced immediately upon exposure, it takes days before we'll really see a physical response (unless of course the animal is already experiencing convulsions from advanced metabolic bone disease). I've been very privileged to converse with people like Dr. Bill Gehrmann, Dr. Gary Burghardt and Dr Michael Holick. For the last year and a half I have been working on a metal halide lamp that has all the same qualities as my existing mercury v***r MegaRay, with the obvious advantage of having a better light spectrum. It will have better visible light: more like sunlight with a much higher LUX. Hopefully we'll see this on the market within the next six months. Unlike the other distributors that are quick to get something inexpensive from China and throw it on the market before it's been extensively tested, I won't put anything on the market that has not been tested both in the laboratory and in the field. If it's not good enough for my own personal family of animals, it's not good enough for anyone else either. Bob MacCargar
CEO, Mac Industries Inc.
