Hey guys!

So I know I've kind of been spamming the forum for the past couple days, but you guys have been super helpful so I'm milking it for all it's worth . Anyways, I've taken a bunch of your advice and I've put together a new tank setup. Tell me what you think! I know it's not much, and there's nothing really fancy about it, but here are some pics:

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NOTE: Ignore the readings on my thermometers. Right now I'm working on getting the humidity and temps right. I started out using a couple of analog thermo/hygrometers, but clearly they were off. When I placed the digital one in the tank, the analog hygrometer read 55% humidity, but the digital one said 75%. So clearly one is wrong, and I trust the acurite more than the analog one. I also just installed the UTH so I'm messing with my thermostat to try and get the temp right.

Here is a breakdown of my setup:
  • 20G long reptile terrarium (from the Zilla starter kit)
  • Coco husk substrate
  • Large water dish. If Z wanted to, she could probably fully submerge herself in it.
  • Two identical plastic log hides. One placed on the cool side, the other on the warm side on top of my UTH.
  • Plastic climbing log in the middle of the tank.
  • Blue daylight heating lamp (from Zilla starter kit). I have it raised because I'm not using it as a main heat source. Mostly it's to just keep the air temp up during the day. I still need to get a dimmer switch for it, but for now just moving it away seems to be working.
  • Acurite thermometer/hygrometer with temp probe and ambient temp. I keep the actual reader on the cool side where it reads the ambient cool temp. and humidity level. The probe is underneath the substrate on the warm side (up against the bottom glass) directly below the harm hide.
  • Generic analog thermometer/hygrometer. I mostly just keep it in there to keep track of the air temp. The thermometer part seems to work fine, but the hygrometer is terrible.
  • Zoo Med UTH on the underside of the warm side of the tank. Right now I'm kind of uncertain about this UTH. I'm dumb and accidentally put it on backwards the first time (the cord was coming out the from of my tank). I know removing the pad can damage it because of the bending, but I tried to remove it as carefully and flatly as I could to turn it around. I know it's giving off heat (the thermometer is clearly picking up heat), but I can't tell if it's giving it out evenly or if there are dead spots.
  • Hydrofarm thermostat with the probe sandwiched between my UTH and the bottom of the tank. I'm going to start saving for a Herpstat, but for now the hydrofarm is the best I've got. Still working on adjusting the temp to get it just right.
  • I'm using some folded up and duct taped cardboard as feet to elevate my tank, haha.


For the most part, thats my set up. I went to Lowe's and bought a General brand infrared heat gun as well to help me keep track of substrate temp. Thoughts or suggestions?

P.S. Recently I've been having a hard time with humidity at night. Even if my humidity is around 60% during the day, once the lamp turns off (I have it on a timer) the humidity tends to jump to around 70-75%. Not really sure how to prevent this, or if it's a bad thing. I just know you usually want to keep humidity around 60%.