UTH and thermostat recommendations

[ODoyle90]

Hey all,

So I recently bough a new tank for my BP (I know tubs are apparently the way to go, but that is not the issue in this post). Petco was having their $1/gal sale, so I decided to upgrade from my 20L to a 40 gal breeder. I haven't filled it and switched over yet because I am moving soon and figured I would stock it when I do move. Currently, I have the evil heat lamp system set up that I had when I shopped for my first snake (corn, deceased). I also have a UTH and check constantly to make sure the temps are in range. However, with my new tank, I would also like to ditch the lamps and go to the UTH/ thermostat combo. I'm excited to scrap the lamps to get a more consistent and humid home for my slithering friend.

I have been researching and shopping around online, but wanted to see with the always helpful BP.net community on which systems people have had the best experiences with.

Also, I am somewhat confused as to how the UTH could heat the whole tank when my current one uses the extra heat from the lamp to get to the right temp. If it helps, I currently use aspen bedding.

Thanks in advance for any responses. Y'all never let me down!

[RetiredJedi]

I use a UTH with the Hydrofarm digital thermostat, the Eco Carpet, and covered the top with foil and my temps/humidity stay on track. Two good full sheds so far.

I bought two of the Eco carpets so that I can switch one out while I'm cleaning the other one. For me the carpet works great because I only have two hides and a water bowl to move when I change the carpet. If you have a lot of stuff in your tank then it could be a pain. The carpet has helped my BP with shedding, it's really easy to clean, and fits the bottom of the tank perfectly. I use a soft brush, warm water, and just hang dry it.

[Alexandra V]

The UTH won't heat the whole tank, just the side that it is on. That said, the way I do it is I set up a small space heater in the room with my snakes so that the ambient air temp is always between 78-80F and then added the UTH to one half of the enclosure and set it with the thermostat to achieve the hot spot.

As far as heat mats go, I personally really like the ExoTerra ones because I find that they all give out about the same amount of heat output (convenient if you have multiple snakes because you can hook them all up to the same thermostat) and I never had any issues quality-wise. The Zoo Med UTHs are good quality too, the only reason I don't use them is because my store ran out when I needed them.

Thermostat wise, I use a Herpstat and I love it, never had any problems. If the probe stops working or is disconnected from the thermostat, it automatically cuts off the heat so there is less chance of overheating, and it's super accurate. Whatever you do, DON'T get the cheap ones they have at pet stores (I think they're the ZooMed ones or something like that). I tried one out and it worked fine the first couple of weeks and then the temps in my tank started to creep up and up constantly, even though everything was properly attached.

My

[MasonC2K]

I have a pre-wired Johnson Controls A419 thermostat I got from Reptile Basics. I've had no issues with it. Surprisingly, at least for me, the Zoomed UTH's and Flexwatt put out the same heat/wattage ratio so I have them all hooked up to it.

I also have a 40 Breeder and unless your ambient room temps are greater than 78 degrees you will need the lamp (low watt bulb) to keep the cool side warm enough.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Its all up to you and your "future" plans

I use 11" flex a watt and Reptile Basics VE-200

[ODoyle90]

Thanks for the responses. After looking around some more I was thinking about going with this thermostat from big apple herp:

http://www.bigappleherp.com/BAH-1000-Thermostat

Also, should I just put a low wattage heat lamp on just the cold side. Basically, would I only have one lamp running at a time along with the UTH?

My last (hopefully) question is about what to do at night. While looking around, I saw some units had a heat drop addition to utilize, but those ones are a little out of my price range. I have a zilla timer. Would the night temps possibly be achieved by setting that to the lamp off at night?

Thanks for bearing with all the questions!

And I was planning on doing the foil/ cardboard trick for covering the screen top. There was a thread somewhere on this site that provided a tutorial on how to do that best to trap humidity. I'm looking forward to that for sure.

[Alexandra V]

I donmt know where that thread is, but if you ask me, plastic wrap works much better than aluminum foil for trapping humidity.

You would only need the one low-wattage lamp to keep the cool side temperature up, and ball pythons don't need a night time temperature drop, you can maintain the enclosure at the same temperature all day and all night.