UTH doesn't seem to be doing much?

I'm getting my temperatures sorted out for my snakes arrival this week and have my thermostat set to 95 attached the to UTH. There is an accurite thermometer on the same side of the cage and since I turned the mat on (1hr ago aprox.) the temp hasn't risen. The hide that is above the mat is warm inside though.
Can I use a reptile basking spot lamp or UVB temporarily before I get my infrared bulb?

Is the probe of the thermometer on the tank floor over the uth? It should be.

No more than 1/4 inch of substrate over it.


Yes UV bulb is fine. Just know a spot lamp bulb can create a extremely hot surface temp. Make sure you monitor it well.

A UTH is not designed to heat the air. It provides belly heat. If you want to heat the air, you need either a RHP, CHE/heat bulb or heat the whole room with something like a oil filled radiator or raise your house thermostat.

Also for a BP, you dont need hot ambient. I keep my ambient air temp in the whole cage at around 79-82F depending on the room temp. I provide a 90F warm spot via flexwatt which my BP pretty much never sits on lol.

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Originally Posted by KMG

Is the probe of the thermometer on the tank floor over the uth? It should be.

No more than 1/4 inch of substrate over it.


Yes UV bulb is fine. Just know a spot lamp bulb can create a extremely hot surface temp. Make sure you monitor it well.

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Yes to both, and ok I have a reptisun 10.0 or a 100watt reptile basking spot lamp which one would be better just temporarily until I get the infrared or ceramic heater? Thank you

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Originally Posted by kodexi

Yes to both, and ok I have a reptisun 10.0 or a 100watt reptile basking spot lamp which one would be better just temporarily until I get the infrared or ceramic heater? Thank you

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I would go with the UV bulb if you just need a temp bump. The 100w spot bulb is going to create a really hot hotspot.

Use ceramic bulb so no light is emmited