Have you ever had one of those days...

[Crowfingers]

So, I deep cleaned my boys cage last night, took everything out, scrubbed, vacuumed up the dust, wiped down the glass etc. Then put everything back (hides and probes in the same spots, rocks and stick in different)...now *ALL* his temps are off. He was perfect 90*-83*-80* with 81* ambient, now I can't get the hot side hot enough and the cool side is either too hot or too cold :<

This happens occasionally when I re-arrange after a deep clean, but man is it frustrating. No idea why cleaning hides and changing where his sticks are makes such a big difference, but as of right now his temps are 2 degrees off except ambient which is stable...I think I may go crazy lol

[zina10]

Well, all the decor eventually absorbs and retains the ambient heat, helping to keep the temps stable. When you remove all that, keep the cage open a while and then return all the decor COOLER then it was before, it will throw off the ambient temps. It will take a while for everything to stabilize again.

As long as you don't change the way you heat, everything will dial in again eventually.

[Crowfingers]

Yeah, I know...just hate the day or two that it takes. Esp now that its fall and cooler in the house (71 vs 78) lol. I just can't afford to keep the heat that high through fall and winter or I totally would.

I've been considering getting some heat tape for the winter so that I can keep the hot hide up without also raising the cool side as much - last winter once it actually got cold and the house was in the 67-68 range it was hard to get 88-90 in the hot hide without it getting up to like 84-85 in the cool and 83/84 ambient from having both CHEs set higher (both on thermostats). I don't know if I want to go through that again this year. Dealing with that last year made this little fluctuation seem like nothing. But I gotta admit that under the tank heat makes me nervous...

Reptile show is tomorrow which is why I'm thinking about it at 4:30 am instead of sleeping :/ and I know I can pick up another thermostat and tape for far cheaper than online.