New Ball owner, saying hello and a quick question :)

[Beaudacious]

Well, I have purchased my first ball python last week. I am not new to snakes, or their heating requirements. After due research, and a head full of being a snake daddy once again. I have his home all set up. I've got his hides, his cool side sitting at a constant 78F and hot side maintaining 88F with humidity ranging from 55 to 60 %. My only concern is his UTH which I have placed stuck to the bottom of my tank with a rheostat probe between it and the glass. It reads with my rheostat bottomed out at around 97F. I also have a digital thermometer with a probe pressed inside the hide against the glass which averages about 93F. ( I feel it is about a degree or two too high) my substrate is coco husk, and is about 1/2" thick. My question and concern is I can't lower that temperate any further with the rheostat as it is bottomed out. Will this temperate be okay for my little slithery friend? Or do I have any options as to offering more range of control on my UTH temperature?

Thank you guys so much! Looking forward to chatting and joining the community.

[Ax01]

what kinda rheostat do u have? i've only seen the ones where u plug in your heat source; haven't seen one with an actual probe. it'c concerning that your rheostat bottoms out at 97 and can't go lower. even tho your glass temp is 93 right now, it can go up and up per your rheostat which cannot be lowered. 93 is almost at the edge and u should unplug your UTH if i gets any hotter. the 1/2 inch of coco husk is fine, but your BP can burrow or move the substrate to get closer to the glass and possibly get burned. if u are looking for more range of control of your UTH, get an actual thermostat. Step 4 of this tank set-up guide provides a few different options - http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-With-Pictures!

when u get all set-up, don't forget to post pix of your new BP.

[Beaudacious]

Sorry! I got way ahead of myself I mean I placed a digital thermometer inbetween the UTH and the glass and kept track of it that way. With the rheostat at its lowest setting I still reached a high of 98F on that prob directly on the UTH.

[Beaudacious]

I think I am going to return the rheostat and dish out the extra 30 dollars for a thermostat that will actually cut the power of the heater and cycle when reaching desired temperature.

[Ax01]

Sorry! I got way ahead of myself I mean I placed a digital thermometer inbetween the UTH and the glass and kept track of it that way. With the rheostat at its lowest setting I still reached a high of 98F on that prob directly on the UTH.

u need to take temp of the hotspot - the surface inside your enclosure.

also the order of your UTH, probe, glass, etc. should be like this...

~~~~~~~~~ <-- substrate
---------o------- <-- thermometer probe
========= <-- glass bottom
---------o------- <-- thermostat probe
------------------ <-- heatpad or heattape

I think I am going to return the rheostat and dish out the extra 30 dollars for a thermostat that will actually cut the power of the heater and cycle when reaching desired temperature.

that's a good idea.

[redshepherd]

~~~~~~~~~ <-- substrate
---------o------- <-- thermometer probe
========= <-- glass bottom
---------o------- <-- thermostat probe
------------------ <-- heatpad or heattape

Just wanted to say, this is a good illustration! LOL

[Beaudacious]

Purchased a thermostat instead of the rheostat. And I do have it set up just like that awesome illustration haha. Immediate difference in keeping the hot spot (glass inside the tank above UTH) at a solid 90-91F. . Thanks guys!

[dmt_jovi]

Just wanted to say, this is a good illustration! LOL

It's a great and simplified version (not that the original is very hard to understand) of Pit's famous drawing.

Which speaking of it, since it might be useful to Beaudacious, here it goes:

[MrKai]

Pics or it didn't happen.

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