placement of the heat pad and heat lamp

kk soo im debating where i should place my heatpad and heat lamp shoud they be on the same side of my heat lamp as in...heat lamp on top of the area of my hide and heatpad?

I'm having a bit of trouble with this, too. Everyone says that a thermostat/rheostat is essential for the UTH, so I got two lamp dimmers - one for the UTH, one for my heat lamp. I don't really know how much I'll be using the one for the UTH though... on full blast, it seems I'm just BARELY warm enough on the warm side! So I ended up placing my heat lamp over the hot spot, too.

Does anyone else do this?

My heat pads are both on the right sides of the tank (looking head on) and the heat lamps are 75w/ infrareds that are directly in the middle w/ the water dish under it (helps add humidity in a tank).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by franken_stein

I'm having a bit of trouble with this, too. Everyone says that a thermostat/rheostat is essential for the UTH, so I got two lamp dimmers - one for the UTH, one for my heat lamp. I don't really know how much I'll be using the one for the UTH though... on full blast, it seems I'm just BARELY warm enough on the warm side! So I ended up placing my heat lamp over the hot spot, too.

Does anyone else do this?

---

Temperatures are not to be guessed at, you need to know what the temps are especially if your using a UTH.
Dimmers only work well in a temperature regulated room, otherwise they are useless.
Thermostats are a must for uth's as is having a good probed thermometer.
Without a probed thermometer you will find it difficult to read the uth's temperature, dial thermometers won't do it, and guessing is risking your snakes health.

Generally the heat lamp will cover a portion of the warm end and a portion of the middle of the tank leaving the cool end cooler than the rest of the tank.

Thanks!

I do actually have a probed thermometer, but this actually leads me to another question... hope someone can help me out here!

My probe is from an indoor/outdoor thermometer to measure both ends of the glass tank. The probe end is buried underneath my aspen substrate. That temperature that its reading seems good, it's in the low 90s. But when I use my infrared thermometer to measure the surface temperature of the top of the aspen, it seems to be a bit low for my hot side... around 85-88 or so. I know the temperature at the very bottom shouldn't be too high in case the snake burrows, but is this okay to have the top of the substrate be a bit cooler than the desired hot spot temp?

You don't need (or want) a heat lamp.
If you're UTH or heat tape is working properly, that's all they require.
Heat lamps can (and do) more harm than good.