Thermometer Question

I have a baby ball in a 10 gal tank. I am using an UTH (with about 1" of dirt on top) as well as a UV light, and the temperature usually hovers between 87 -91 degrees. The one night I turned off the UV basking light, the temperature dropped to about 73 degrees, so I apparently need to keep the UV light on as long as it is in that room. I don't have a temperature control on the UTH, so do I need to put a separate thermometer on the UTH itself, like at the dirt level?

Well, all belly heat should be monitored by a thermostat. A good-quality stat will tell you the current temp and the set temperature of the UTH. A lower-quality one will only tell you the set temp, but you can put a thermometer probe at dirt level as well to monitor the thermostat accuracy.

hope this helps! I'm personally looking into getting a VE-100 from Reptile Basics. It looks like an excellent starter stat.

Check out the caresheet. http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

You need a thermostat on the uth and yes you should have a probe thermometer monitoring the surface temp or a temp gun. Not regulating the uth can really hurt your snake. Also a uth should only have a thin layer of substrate over it. Usually around 1/4 inch. Having one inch of dirt (?)over it will not allow the heat to reach the surface but I can guarantee that on the cage bottom the uth is way to hot. Having that much substrate over it will insulate and trap the heat and in the event your snake burrows it could get burned.

Your snake does not need a uv bulbs. You can use a regular heat bulb. Use red so you can leave it on day and night. 73 is to cold and your cage should always be above 78, 80 being the eminent goal.

I like Herpstats. I have a 1 and 4, they are awesome.

http://www.spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html

Thanks for the link.

It looks like I am going to return the UTH I have and get one with a built in thermostat. I have a probe in the tank now, and I'll thin out the substrate near the UTH. The place that sold me the set up sold me a 75 watt UV basking light, which is red. My tank at 88 is too warm then?

Built in thermostat?
Just buy a thermostat and plug the heat pad you have now into the thermostat.

dirt? Why dirt? I would not use dirt in a tank for substrate :confusd:

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Originally Posted by Bruiser

Thanks for the link.

It looks like I am going to return the UTH I have and get one with a built in thermostat. I have a probe in the tank now, and I'll thin out the substrate near the UTH. The place that sold me the set up sold me a 75 watt UV basking light, which is red. My tank at 88 is too warm then?

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Yea I would say 88 is alittle to high. You can get a thermostat and turn down the power to the bulb to lower your temp. You can get a simple thermostat at Lowes for about $12.

Your not going to find a uth with a good built in tstat. But one and hook up the uth you have. Until you get one I would unplug the uth.

A ten gallon tank is way to small for a 75 watt bulb, but a basking bulb is even worse. You need to get a regular heat bulb. A fifty or sixty with a rheostat will work well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

Built in thermostat?
Just buy a thermostat and plug the heat pad you have now into the thermostat.

dirt? Why dirt? I would not use dirt in a tank for substrate :confusd:

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I don't have dirt in the tank, it is a mixture I got at the pet store.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KMG

Yea I would say 88 is alittle to high. You can get a thermostat and turn down the power to the bulb to lower your temp. You can get a simple thermostat at Lowes for about $12.

Your not going to find a uth with a good built in tstat. But one and hook up the uth you have. Until you get one I would unplug the uth.

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Thanks, I'll grab a thermostat tonight. So you're saying I should have a thermostat on the bulb and the UTH?

Thermostat on the uth, dimmer on the bulb ..

Thermostats are sold online, I don't think any lowes or home depot or any of those kinds of stores sell thermostats.
Dimmers/rheostats yes, thermostats I don't think so.