Incubator or Thermostat Issue?! Also, how much Media is enough?

Hi everyone,

Couple questions! First, how much media does everyone recommend using? I bought a 16qt Sterilite bin for my upcoming clutch, and had a 64oz bag of SuperHatch. I've used just about all the SuperHatch, and it only fills the box about an inch. I'm assuming that I'll need more, or is that a decent amount?

Also; I'm having a strange issue with my incubator temperature. After fiddling with my thermostat (Helix) and testing temperatures, I finally had it perfect. The thermostat temperature was set at 85 degrees, and my freestanding thermometer within the incubator read 88-88.5 degrees. It was stable for about 3 days. Yesterday morning, I walk in and check it, and it was reading 95 degrees! Nothing else changed; the probe was in the same position, the thermostat was in the same position. I dropped the thermostat back down to 80 degrees last night. This morning, the incubator was at 79 degrees. I just bumped the thermostat up to 83 degrees to see what happens.

Any advice on this? What is the max/min temperature the eggs can withstand in case this spiking were to happen with eggs in the incubator? I'm just really confused why it even did this, and obviously concerned for my eggs that are due in 3-9 days!

Thanks again everyone,
Kourtney

As far as substrate I use 6 cups in a 7 quarts tubs

As far as your temperatures there are several things to take in consideration when setting up your incubator

1# Having a RELIABLE t-stat
2# Probe placement (I place mine in a dummy tub set like any other tubs)
3# Preventing hot spot by having fan(s) moving the air.

You really want stable temps yes you can have a variant depending on the tub location (top to bottom) however temps should be stable ideally between 88 to 90....you can incubate as low as 86 or has high as 92 however I do not recommend such high temps.

I incubate at 88.5

I have my fan working fine, and have had that running the whole time. I had the thermostat probe set up near the middle of the incubator, and hadn't moved it at all when that spike happened. I guess I will try putting the probe in the bin. It was just very strange that it was stable for days, then flipped out! If I see it spike or do anything crazy like that again I may have to try another thermostat I have laying around, I had just never had issues with the Helix before.