Thermometer readings

My ball is in a 9ltr RUB with a UTH hooked up to a habistat thermo 600W underneith. The thermo regularly goes on and off, so I'm assuming the matts the right temp at 86 hot side. I have a digital thermometer and hygrometer in the RUB with the probe sitting under the newspaper on the bottom of the RUB. I'm getting readings of 77?? And 70% humidity!? I've drilled more air holes and moved the water bowl as far away from the heat as possible and it's not made a difference. Do you think I need to be worrying about what the thermometer is reading out? As long as the thermostat is ticking on and off at 86? I've had him two weeks, no problems at all. He's alert, taken both feeds quicker than Mike tysons livershot and has poo'ed twice (pretty small). I have an exo terra thermometer and hygrometer on the way but I'm stressing currently. As soon as he's big enough I have a 24x18x18 vivarium all set up and ready to go with ceramic heater.

So, two things... for the humidity, you just have to keep making holes until you get it down to where you want it. If you get too many, just cover the outside of the hole with tape, or get a new tub and start over.

For the UTH, you will often need to set them hotter than you want to get the desired heat inside the tub. The heat mat has to heat the bottom of the tub and keep it warm. It's not uncommon to have your thermostat on your UTH set to maybe 94 degrees to maintain a surface temperature of 90 degrees inside your tub. You lose an amount of heat having the UTH on the outside of the tub. This is where a heat gun comes in handy. You can just point it at the tub floor and get an instant temperature readout.


Does that help?

Thanks treeguy that helps a lot! Cheers