UTH/Thermostat Discrepancy

Hey BP.net!

Here I am troubling you with more (probably stupid) issues. After setting the tank, I am finding myself with somewhat of a discrepancy. When I first plugged the UTH to the T-sat i set the t-stat to 95 degrees, but after a couple of hours, the temp inside the tank (without aspen) was in the high 80's (Basically the same as the ambient, maybe 3-5 degrees more). So I set the t-stat to 100 degrees (just to test, I won't be putting the snake there unless you guys tell me it's safe) and the readings were approx. 80-93ish degress (again, without substrate). My guess is that substrate (Aspen) will reduce the heat by 2-3 degrees as well...

I think that I should re-position the T-stat probe, maybe to a corner of the UTH, so the tank gets more heat area..:confused::confused:


What do you guys recomend?
Also, I have the Thermometer's probe sensors without protection, will Hot glue affect their performance (after it's dry)


http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...23374596_n.jpg

update, I took the sensor out of there, and now the glass is heating like it should, Im pretty sure the air bubble wasn't helping at all. I guess that tomorrow I'll glue the probe to the glass or something like that... :gj:

or you could use aquarium silicone (or perhaps even hot glue, though i'm not 100% sure that it's non-toxic, you'd have to research) to put a blob on the bottom where you need the probes to be, and then take a razor and slit out a channel for the probe wire to sit in.

and yeah, probe should definitely be inside of the enclosure.

I was thinking of doing it with hot glue, but I'll look into the aquarium silicon :gj:

Hot glue is safe to use and the easyst. Aquarium silicone needs 5 days to cure and if you need to change it then you need a holding tank. Hotmelt is fine once it is cooled if you were really concerned you can order human food grade hot melt, personally I think this is over kill.

That looks like a hydrofarm T-stat? remember the accuracy of the probe is suspect you will need to double check it with something reliable.

http://images15.fotki.com/v230/photo...CA_9509-vi.jpgHosted on Fotki

FYI 26.9ºC is 80.42ºF this is an accurate thermometer. The hydrofarms were at this location for an hour before this was taken. They were reading 83.8,82.4 and 81.6.

Oh and these are the 'new and improved accuracy' models I have no idea what the older ones were like...

That's very interesting... thanks for this post, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about UTHs right now myself...

Wow, kitedemon, thanks for the info






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If I am reading your post correctly, you are looking for the uth to heat the tank?

If so, then no it won't heat the whole tank. You need to set the temp to the heat on the glass. More than likely your snake will eventually burrow and be right in contact with the glass. Mine seem to like sitting on 83-88 degrees F. Even if the thermostat is set to 88 it probably won't be that much due to heat loss of the glass.

If you are looking to heat the ambient temp you would need to look into a ceramic heat emitter. Being that you are in P.R. I almost doubt you would need that unless you are using a air conditioner.

As far as the hydrofarms go, you need to take them with a grain of salt and realize that it's not proportional and there is always an on/off. So if the temp is set to 90 it could go up to 93 when its off and then drop down to 87 before turning back on.

I use them but really want to get a herpstat with the 4 probes

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rperry03

As far as the hydrofarms go, you need to take them with a grain of salt and realize that it's not proportional and there is always an on/off. So if the temp is set to 90 it could go up to 93 when its off and then drop down to 87 before turning back on.

I use them but really want to get a herpstat with the 4 probes

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Agreed! The point I was making is if you set it to 90 and it is like the worst of the three I got it would actually be closer to 94º then it gains 3 or 4 degrees to 97-8º before it shuts off. Check the probe is reading correctly before you set anything. It is spec'd to be within 4ºC range and lives up to that. (8ºF give or take) Don't trust that it is reading 90º that it actually is 90º!!!