Location of Themostat Probe in BP Enclosure?

I am waiting on the arrival of a Zoo Med ReptiTemp 500R Remote Sensor Thermostat. I am not sure where to put the probe. I know enough to put the probe in the area of my UTH pad, but I am not sure if I have to attach it to the glass on top of the pad or does it have to be between the pad and glass. Any suggestions? I am also having a hard time keeping the humidity of the enclosure at the correct range. I currently have plastic wrap over 3/4 of my screen top and misting every 2 days. I have a digital barometer, which shows the level decreasing after 2 days to about 70%. I replace my old bedding with reptibark. Any suggestions besides misting more often?

The probe needs to be secure directly on the UTH outside the enclosure.

If placed in the enclosure and your BP moves the probe, tip his water dish over, or pee nears the probe it could cool down the probe making the temps shoot up and you definitely want to avoid this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Haksui76

I am waiting on the arrival of a Zoo Med ReptiTemp 500R Remote Sensor Thermostat. I am not sure where to put the probe. I know enough to put the probe in the area of my UTH pad, but I am not sure if I have to attach it to the glass on top of the pad or does it have to be between the pad and glass. Any suggestions? I am also having a hard time keeping the humidity of the enclosure at the correct range. I currently have plastic wrap over 3/4 of my screen top and misting every 2 days. I have a digital barometer, which shows the level decreasing after 2 days to about 70%. I replace my old bedding with reptibark. Any suggestions besides misting more often?

---

Put the probe between the glass and the pad. If your humidity went DOWN to 70% what was it before that and if it's at 70%, is that before or after misting? Your humidity should be in the 50's for every day range and beefed up when in shed. What are you wanting it to be?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RetiredJedi

Put the probe between the glass and the pad. If your humidity went DOWN to 70% what was it before that and if it's at 70%, is that before or after misting? Your humidity should be in the 50's for every day range and beefed up when in shed. What are you wanting it to be?

---

The 70% reading is 2 days after I misted. So according to you, I am pretty close to where it should be. There is currently no shedding.
Do I have to put the probe in the center of the heating pad? I have already attached my heating pad to the glass and it is a strong adhesion. Can i place the probe closer to the edges of the pad?

Well, if you already have it stuck on I would try to get it as close to the center as possible but getting it on there is the most important part obviously. If you have to pull the edge of it off to get the probe in there just use some foil tape to stick it back on and it will hold pretty good.

When we first got our tnk the guuy at the reptille store told us we didn't need a thermostat. Nnow we don't listen to a word he says. We didn't get our herpstat till a week aafter so the UTH was already stuck on. We pulled it off and we re-stuck it no problem. For our raack we use flexwatt aand just tapedthe probe to the flexWatt using heat safe tape. If you have problems sticking the UTH back onto the glass you can pick up soome heat safe tape and tpe it baack on. I would recomend putting the probe right on the pad thoughm if you put it In the taank the snake can move it aand your pad can get really hot.

Cheers.

hey not trying to steal this tread but i am in the same situation and i just got my thermostat and just set it up yesterday this is how i did it. I hot glued my probe to the inside of the bottom of my tank in between my terrarium liner(green zilla carpet) and the paper towels that my ball python lives on i have hides on top of the paper towels so she cant get underneath the paper towels or terrarium liner and i also hot glued the probes cord to the side of my tank so she cant get wrapped up in it.
The reason why i didnt put it how everyone is suggesting(under the tank stuck with the heating pad) is cause the temperature that i have my thermostat set at wont be the temperature of the hotspot cause the heat has to go through the glass, carpet, and a layer of papertowels so i would have to use my temp gun to make my hot spot the right temp but my thermostat would read a way higher temp cause the heat loss that the glass and carpet absorb.

please give me your inputs i think that the way i set it up is safe for my ball python but i could be wrong.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bp-guy

hey not trying to steal this tread but i am in the same situation and i just got my thermostat and just set it up yesterday this is how i did it. I hot glued my probe to the inside of the bottom of my tank in between my terrarium liner(green zilla carpet) and the paper towels that my ball python lives on i have hides on top of the paper towels so she cant get underneath the paper towels or terrarium liner and i also hot glued the probes cord to the side of my tank so she cant get wrapped up in it.
The reason why i didnt put it how everyone is suggesting(under the tank stuck with the heating pad) is cause the temperature that i have my thermostat set at wont be the temperature of the hotspot cause the heat has to go through the glass, carpet, and a layer of papertowels so i would have to use my temp gun to make my hot spot the right temp but my thermostat would read a way higher temp cause the heat loss that the glass and carpet absorb.

please give me your inputs i think that the way i set it up is safe for my ball python but i could be wrong.

---

Hey there.

What a lot of people do (including myself) is put a digital temp probe inside the tank so that you can set the thermostat a little higher and still have the temp that you want on the substrate/glass. I don't see a huge issue with how you did it the only concern I would have is in the off chance that the probe gets knocked loose or pulled off of the glass than your UTH is going to heat up to the full capacity. I would be concerned that because of the high humidity needed for BPs, that moisture could get under the glue and lift the adhesive.

Not saying the way that you did it is wrong - everyone has their own methods of husbandry, and if its working for you than that's awesome. I'm just playing the devils advocate.

Cheers!

The thermostat probe should be located outside the enclosure for the reasons already listed. Thermostats are made to regulate the heat source itself, not the glass inside the tank. Digital thermometers are made to read the temps inside the enclosure, and should be the units hot glued down inside.

It also sucks if you want to reuse your thermostat for another enclosure in the future because I'm not sure if the heat has any effect on the bonding of the glue to the probe itself. You will be able to remove it from the glass but I'm not 100% about removing it from the probe. For that matter, I'm not sure if the heat produced by the hot glue could effect the probe itself. I'm not saying that this is the case - but I don't know, it would be something that I would be worried about (but than again I'm a little paranoid).

Cheers