Best Alternative to UTH?

What is the best alternative to under tank heaters (like Flexwatt) that keep temps up without killing humidity?

If there is something else, please share what it is.



The other poll inspired me to ask.

I did not include a hot rock on purpose ;)

Depends on what you are keeping...
bps do best with an uth or flexwatt. but i know corns and kings would be fine if you kept the ambient temps in the room at 82-84 since they dont necesarily need the gradient... Those are just two examples. If you really dont wanna kill the humidity, regardless of what youre keeping, that i suggest a radiant heat panel (rhp).

It is hard to beat a UTH, flexwatt or commercial made one. (ultratherm zoomed ect.) A radiant heat panel would be my second choice I guess but it is not very good for terrestrial animals I personally do not believe that a animal should be able to go between a Tstat probe and heat source and that makes it hard to regulate for terrestrial snakes.

CHE is my third and it can be regulated fairly easily. But IMO they are poor alternatives to a UTH. I have been using a RHP in one enclosure to control ambient temps but it is quite variable .

From everything I've read the only thing I can think of would be rhp "not to kill humidity", Ive never used them before but not sure if you would get a good gradient seems the cool side would be too cold? Not sure though as I haven't used them..I'm sure someone will post that has/does.

UTH's do not affect the ambient temp in a tank. They only provide spot heat. You're asking about apples and giving us oranges to choose from for an answer.

Quote:

---

UTH's do not affect the ambient temp in a tank. They only provide spot heat. You're asking about apples and giving us oranges to choose from for an answer.

---

What I'm saying is suppose you don't have, can't get, or for whatever reason are not allowed a UTH of any variety. I dunno, an apartment management company says no to UTH's and all like styles of heating because they think they pose a fire risk.

BUT you still want a BP and so you need a heat source, but you don't want to kill the humidity because you don't want to have to mist every day. Nevermind about alternative caging styles. I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible.

What's the alternative? Or is there none?

I don't care if UTHs heat ambient air or not. I want to know what is a good heat source to provide that doesn't kill humidty that isn't a UTH....

Your best bet is to just use an infrared heat bulb, yes they are't the best for humidity but RHP's really don't work well unless you have a PVC cage so that limits your possibilities.

My experience with RHP's is that they are too hard to regulate and only work well if you use it in combination with a UTH or flexwatt. And both would need seperate thermostats, as well as be used in a PVC or custom enclosure.

For glass tanks, best setup would be UTH + infrared heat lamp. The reasons you listed for not being able to have a UTH dont really make much sense, care to elaborate? If your living situations are limiting you from being able to do whats best for your snake, then I would suggest waiting until the situation changes to get one. Glass tanks are bad enough for husbandry, not having a UTH would make life pretty annoying..

Quote:

---

The reasons you listed for not being able to have a UTH dont really make much sense, care to elaborate?

---

Purely hypothetical - and management doesn't ever have to make sense.

Personally, I have a UTH and a heat bulb but hate the heat bulb. I don't feel comfortable leaving the heat pad on forever. I mean thats a long time. I'm sure its designed to handle that, and I regulate it with a rheostat, but still, forever is a long, long time. I like giving it breaks, and so I use the heat bulb for that but it kills humidty, so I didn't know a good alternative was.