Hi everyone,

So I'm a new BP owner, I have a 20 gal long set up with a flukers medium heat mat on an exo terra thermostat, as well as a 60w ceramic heater.

This evening/morning I have reason to suspect that my thermostat just isn't working. I was keeping the hot side at about 91.2 F and over the last 6 hours its been consistently 83.

I already have a new thermostat coming on Sunday, but my question is, would I be able to run the heat mat TEMPORARILY without the thermostat so that I can get the "proper" temperatures? I have about 1 inch of cypress mulch substrate and I've been using an infrared heat gun as well as a digital probe thermometer to monitor the tank.

And advice or ideas are welcome.