Are slight nightly drops in temp okay?

[Spoons]

So I've got a bit of a dilemma. My thermostat has arrived, so I set up the tank like it should be, and little snake loves it so far as I can tell. During the day the temps hover around 91 and 80. It also is perpetually roasting in my house - the heat is usually around 82 (ugh) which means in the room the snake is in, it's about 78, so it's good for him.

At night, though, it gets chilly in my room. There are two outside facing walls that face the wind, and despite the heat being blasting the temperature in my room drops and the tank goes down about 5-6 degrees on both sides. The windows are covered and all, but there's not very good insulation here. The tank has tin foil on 2/3 of the top and 3 sides covered to keep heat in, with the front open for me to peek in and check the thermometer if I get up.

Is that okay for snake? I would fiddle with the Thermostat some more, and I do have a ceramic heat emitter (75W) but I do not like to use those without being able to monitor how they are doing for a while. The CHE will get the tank TOO warm I think, and I don't want the UTH to get too hot... Or, if it makes the tank the right temp in the morning, to get too hot when the room starts to warm up early on.

So, that's about it. Will it be harmful to have a bit of change in temperature? I don't think it ever drops below 85. Before my thermostat arrived I just used the CHE for a few days and it kept the tank at an ambient 85ish, 80ish at night. Surely in the wild it gets cooler at night? I want to to the best by him!

Thanks!

[nucklehead97]

My snake tank gets a little colder than that at night and my female eats fine and is a good weight so no I do not think so. As long as you have a warm hide they can go into when they get too cold I think that it should be fine but if it drops below 75 F I would put a towel over the front of the tank at night so it insulates a little bit more. As long as your snakes are healthy and eating it shouldn't hurt. Please correct me if I am wrong I am just going off of my own experiences.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Regardless of the ambient temp dropping the temps on the warm side should not be dropping if you have a reliable T-stat. Whether the cool end is at 75 or 80 the warm side should remain the same 24/7 if it does not, this means you have an unreliable t-stat and should invest in something better.

So long the temps are within acceptable range you are fine however unstable temps and fluctuation can lead to food refusal in the long term so keep that in mind.

Ideally you want your setup as stable as possible.

[Spoons]

Hmmm. I use the recommended Hydrofarm thermostat. Is it possible that I just don't have a good enough seal on the tank? I know the instructions for the UTH say to "stick to the tank and not have any air bubbles" for the best heat transfer, but that is not possible to do with the big chunky thermostat probe in between the UTH and the glass. Around the probe is sealed to the glass well, but obviously the area the probe is sitting is not touching the glass. Could that be causing some descrepancy in the heating?

I have only had it for a day or two here, so I'm still fiddling with it during the day to find the sweet spot.

Could it be that it gets too cold in my room at night (It's a pretty segnificant drop) for the thermostat to heat the hot spot? The thermostat is set to cap out at 95, because that keeps the hot spot at about 92. But if it's significantly colder in the surrounding area, wouldn't it be harder to keep the substrate warm? The thermostat can cap out and be a nice 95 degrees, but since it is so much cooler in the room, that 95 is not enough to keep the hot spot as hot as it should be. Kind of how in regards to ambient temps, my CHE is enough to keep it at the perfect temp during the day, but at night it gets cold enough that it can't heat it up to the proper temp? (With the UTH it can, but this was the day before I got the thermostat).

I'm having a hard time getting what I'm thinking into words, does the above make sense at all? I don't want to raise the cap on the thermostat, because then during the day the hot spot would get too hot.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Could it be that it gets too cold in my room at night (It's a pretty segnificant drop) for the thermostat to heat the hot spot?

Only if you have an unreliable T-thermostat which your would fall in this category, or are using a heat pad that does not get above a certain temps.

If you want stable temps you want Herpstat, Helix or Vivarium Electronics and some heat tape.

[Viol8r]

Are you taking air temps on the hot side or using a gun to check the actual inside bottom of the tank? If you have a hide with only one opening, the inside of the hide will be warmer than the hot side air. I use ambient temps in my snake room (82) and have a drop of 3 degrees at night.

[Spoons]

I am taking the temps via a thermometer probe under the substrate,, touching the glass of the tank where the heating mat sits. I'm going out today to pick up a bigger heating mat (got a bigger tank) and I'll see if that changes anything (bigger UTH, more surface area to heat, the stat probe will be less of a problem). If not I will have to look into other options, a new Tstat or something. The cool side is taken with the thermometer resting at substrate level on the cool side.

[Viol8r]

You should really invest in an IR temp gun for better accuracy. Thermometers are better for collecting air temps.(even though it was touching...)

[grcforce327]

Are slight nightly drops in temp okay?
Thanks!

Mother Nature seems to think so.