Where do you measure your temps?

I have a 140g, ~22in ball in a 20G terrarium. UTH under the hide on the hot side and a CHE above the hot side. I'm using reptibark substrate and I have it about 1/2 in thick.

I'm just wondering WHERE ya'll measure your temps? I have a digital thermometer/hygrometer on the warm side and an analog one on the cool side. I have a temp gun that I'm using to measure the temp of the substrate.

I'm getting ~70 with the analog thermometer on the cool side. It's positioned about an inch off the ground on the back wall. When I use the temp gun to measure the substrate I get ~70. I know this needs to be higher.

Using the temp gun I'm getting ~90 under the hide on the warm side (above the UTH). The digital thermometer reads ~80. It's sitting on the ground in the front corner.

I have black mat board covering 3 sides and I've closed off some of the top with foil.

What am I doing wrong? How can I raise my temps? I don't really have the option to raise the temp in the room. Thanks in advance for all the suggestions.

Hey There - To create a better heat gradient I would maybe suggest moving your CHE towards the center of your tank or over the cool side to heat to at least 80 or so. From the sounds of it you don't have any supplementary heat source to create warmth on the cool side of your tank. A UTH on the hot and the CHE over the cool should create a nice temp for your cool side substrate and depending on wattage maintain a reasonable ambient air temp through out.

What wattage CHE are you using? When I was using a 100W I was having trouble with overheating and had to hook it up to a dimmer to control the temp. Ended up switching to infrared lighting though as it didn't kill my humidity like the CHE.

I'm no expert, but when I first set up my tank I had to play around a bunch to get my temps/humidity right.

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Originally Posted by el8ch

Hey There - To create a better heat gradient I would maybe suggest moving your CHE towards the center of your tank or over the cool side to heat to at least 80 or so.

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This :)

Alright I moved the CHE towards the cool side. Now the thermometer on that side is reading 80 :) but now the thermometer on the warm side is dropping. However, the temp under the hide, above the UTH is still 90. So am I good? Or do I still need more air heat on the warm side?

I think that should be fine. Sounds like the air temp in the entire tank is around 80 and the substrate on the warm side is around 90. I think you are right in the ball park.

You need to measure the temps on the ground, where the snake spends their time. Air/ambient temps are not nearly as important as the ground temps to BPs.

That said, you should have the probe of the thermometer under the substrate on the bottom of the tank above the UTH. There, it should read between 92-94. Since these guys don't need a ton of bedding, the temp on the surface under the hide should be around 90-92 which is just right.
On the cool side, you want 80-84 on the ground. I use two UTHs, each on their own thermostat, in each of my cages to get the temps just right. The ambient temps usually follow suit if both sides are where they should be and the tank is well insulated. :)