Thermostat question

[Gunner253]

I just got a Hydrofarm thermostat for my zoomed uth and I'm wondering how high I need to turn it up. I have the uth under the tank with the thermostat probe in between the uth and tank then I have repticarpet( only on the warm side, reptibark on the rest) and under the carpet I have the acurite probe glued to the glass. Right now I have the thermostat set at 102 and the ir gun is barely reading 88. Is that normal? I guess as long as it hits temp on top of the carpet it doesn't matter. The rest of the temps in the tank are good btw.

[Lizardlicks]

With plastic tubs, I have mine set at 95f to maintain a hotspot range of 87-89f above the substrate (paper towels) and 91-93f under it on the tubs surface with my flexwatt heat tape. It's not a totally accurate tstat, and in addition it's an on/off style that drops by about 4 degrees before it cycles back on. Gonna upgrade to a herpstat in the near future because I'm not nearly happy with that wide a range in fluctuations. Hydrofarms are definitely a "it works for now," deal.

[Gunner253]

I just don't want it to settle in hrs later and once I'm gone the temps jump up. At least he can't get to the glass. I'm just surprised the carpet isn't soaking up more of that heat. As long as the surface temp is fine I don't care I was just wondering if it sounds abnormal like I'm doing something wrong

[Sauzo]

Well the Hydrofarm has a safety switch of 108F. Once it reaches that it will shut down so I wouldn't worry about burning your snake. As for setting the temp, as long as you are 100% positive positive positive that the snake cant get under the carpet, then use the temp gun and turn the T-stat up a couple degrees until the temp gun reaches the temp you want on top. As a general rule though, you want the bottom of the tank closest to the UTH to be the place you read from as if a BP can dig down, it will dig down so you want the lowest and closest spot to be the hottest spot for safety. I actually quit using UTHs since I use aspen as my substrate and use about 2" deep so I just use a CHE as the only heat source for both my baby sunglow BCI and my BP. My big BCI is in a Pro-Line HDPE cage so I use a RHP with her which will be the same thing as soon as I have the spare cash to order 2 more PVC cages.

Oh you can test it also, just boil some water and use your temp gun to see when it gets up to 110F or so and then dip the probe in and see if the Hydrofarm turns off. I have never had to deal with an overheat on mine.

[Gunner253]

Yeah I don't see him being able to burrow down. It's repticarpet held down by his hide surrounded by reptibark. The only carpet showing is in his hide. It just seems weird to me the glass and carpet would block that much heat. Even the thermometer probe on the inside against the glass only reads 96 when the thermostat is at 102. I could take pics but I'm positive I set it up properly

[Sauzo]

Never doubt the digging ability of a ball python. He could easily dig down through that reptibark. The hide though will probably keep him from getting to the glass. The glass isn't blocking the heat, if anything it is absorbing it and amplifying it. You heat blockage is the repticarpet. The t-stat probe might be off a couple degrees or the air pocket where the probe is between the tank and UTH is warmer than the glass as the UTH is spreading a lot more heat over a much bigger surface. Regardless though, maybe bump the t-stat up 3F and see if that bumps the carpet temp up to 90F. As long as your ambient temps are good, i wouldn't worry too much about the UTH. I personally don't even use UTHs and just use CHEs or RHPs exclusively in my PVC and glass tanks and they all work fine.

[kitedemon]

What you are seeing is normal. Glass takes a long time to heat up (and cool off for that matter) this is called thermal mass, basically a heavier the object is that is being heated the longer it takes to change. Tanks have lots of weight so lots of thermal mass. Tubs have no weigh and no mass. A hydrofarm on/off stat is not a good idea for a tub at all. It heats up and cools off too quickly. It is ok for a tank where the spikes the stat causes are controlled by the mass of the glass.

The issue is complex so there are too many variables to make a blanket statement. The type of heater (sounds like it is a low density unit that caps around 100ºF) the thickness of the glass, the temperature of the room. Are all large influences in how much deviation you have between interior temps and probe temp.

The big question is the room temps. This with a glass tank will have a large influence on how much heat loss you have.

With a UTH the room temp also is going to the regulation for the cool end temps. Typically this is the first combination in beginner issues. The room is too cold. This usually leads to the need of a secondary heater that heats the air, like a CHE, or a bulb of some kind, (although a IR heat lamp is different somewhat). You will hear that CHE 'suck' the humidity from the air this is from a lack of understanding of RH. Clearly glass does not absorb water. RH is relative humidity, relative to temperature, it is expressed as a %, a % of the maximum amount of water vapour the air can support. This changes dramatically with temperature. Any heater that changes the ambient air temperature will change the Rh heaters that don't heat the air don't.

basic chart of how much RH you need at different air temps.
76ºF = 69.3% RH
77ºF = 67.3% RH
78ºF = 65.0% RH
79ºF = 63.0% RH
80ºF = 61.0% RH * rounded up.
81ºF = 59.2% RH
82ºF = 57.4% RH
83ºF = 55.7% RH
84ºF = 54.0% RH

[Lizardlicks]

Well, not exactly weight so much as density, but yeah close enough.

[Gunner253]

I'm keeping my ambient temp on hot side around 83 degrees and cold side around 78-80 day. Night the whole tank levels off to about 76-78 with the hot hide being a constant temp day and night. I think it's just gonna take some tweeking and I'll get it. My humidity is at 50% and bumps to 70 when I spray and slowly lowers through the day. I have the top 80% blocked with foil tape( on the outside of course). I just notice he's not using his hot hide so it makes me wonder even though when I check the ambient temp of his hide its 90 and surface temp with the gun is getting up to my 90 deg mark. I had to bump up the thermostat to 103 and I'm getting anywhere from 88-90.5 with cooler patches throughout

[Sauzo]

You don't need to spray the tank. 50% humidity should be plenty. I keep all my guys 50-60% and they all have great 1 piece sheds.