Tank w/belly heat only...Opinions please

Ok, after many hours of searching this forum and many dollars spent, I have found (like many others) mulitple problems with my tank setup. My setup currently is a 20L tank with small UTH's on both sides on seperate reostats, CHE in the middle. The lid is mostly covered to retain humidity, but it does not retain enough of it. The CHE sucks it dry. Although my temps are good, my humidity hovers around 40%. Here is my proposed soluition. I have spent a ton of cash trying to get this right so my hope is this will be my final step.

I want to get 2 large UTH's so that about 90% of my tank is covered. I will put them on seperate reostats to achieve ~82 on one side and ~92 on the other. The ~10% not covered by UTH will be in the middle for transition. I know this will keep my humidity good and my house is at a constant temp so the reostats should suffice. My last remaing question...Is it ok to heat my snake with ONLY belly heat? I ask this because I know the ambient temps WILL NOT be very high. However, we are heating a BP that rarely (if ever) leaves the ground or his hides. I am sure the ambient temp in the hide will be good as well. Is anybody using this type of setup? Any other ideas or concerns? Any help would be most appreciated.

i was under the impression that UTH only was the preffered method? if there is enough insulation around 3 sides and the top (with holes to prevent stagnant air) i would imagine that the ambient are would slowly but surely increase and level out. i'm currently running uth/che and constantly misting to keep the humidity up. on friday, however, i should be getting my thermostat and 2nd UTH in the mail :-D

I use two UTH's in a similar way but I do have a single black light that is 75 watts (my house is pretty cold.) My tank is as tall as it is wide so I need the high wattage to keep the ambient temps around 80. In a longer tank, 75 watts would likely be too much and would kill the humidity. The black light I have is from the hardware store and gives off next to nothing for light. My humidity stays at 60% with some damp towels on top of the tank which I soak every other day and wash frequently. During a shed, I put some sphagnum moss in the tank to up the humidity a bit.

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Originally Posted by td30

Ok, after many hours of searching this forum and many dollars spent, I have found (like many others) mulitple problems with my tank setup. My setup currently is a 20L tank with small UTH's on both sides on seperate reostats, CHE in the middle. The lid is mostly covered to retain humidity, but it does not retain enough of it. The CHE sucks it dry. Although my temps are good, my humidity hovers around 40%. Here is my proposed soluition. I have spent a ton of cash trying to get this right so my hope is this will be my final step.

I want to get 2 large UTH's so that about 90% of my tank is covered. I will put them on seperate reostats to achieve ~82 on one side and ~92 on the other. The ~10% not covered by UTH will be in the middle for transition. I know this will keep my humidity good and my house is at a constant temp so the reostats should suffice. My last remaing question...Is it ok to heat my snake with ONLY belly heat? I ask this because I know the ambient temps WILL NOT be very high. However, we are heating a BP that rarely (if ever) leaves the ground or his hides. I am sure the ambient temp in the hide will be good as well. Is anybody using this type of setup? Any other ideas or concerns? Any help would be most appreciated.

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All i have is a UTH on my spiders enclosure and he is doing very well.In my opinion ditch the CHE humidity sucking piece of garbage ;)

i have a 70 gal and use uth as my heat source i only turn on my heat lamp if my humidity gets to high to dry it out a bit, other than that its all good

Thank you all. I am ordering a couple large UTH's and dropping the CHE.

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Originally Posted by 771subliminal

i have a 70 gal and use uth as my heat source i only turn on my heat lamp if my humidity gets to high to dry it out a bit, other than that its all good

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Do you use one UTH or two? If just one how do you keep the cool side above 80?

I've actually been doing some research and am looking into the radiant heat panels currently available from Big Apple. They are a little pricey, but I think it may well be worth playing with. They supposedly have no real affect on humidity and have a lot of new safety features in them. Can not speak from experience yet, but maybe in a couple months I will have some first hand experience with them!

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Originally Posted by Gloryhound

I've actually been doing some research and am looking into the radiant heat panels currently available from Big Apple. They are a little pricey, but I think it may well be worth playing with. They supposedly have no real affect on humidity and have a lot of new safety features in them. Can not speak from experience yet, but maybe in a couple months I will have some first hand experience with them!

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Hi there!~ You could also call Rich at RBI. He has been using and is now selling RHP's; he'd be able to answer questions you might have about them! :)

i know you got your questions answered but i have another suggestion. you can make the switch to tubs, i have a tub with two small UTH's on each side plus a CHE over the hot side and i get 90 on the hot side, 80 on the cool and humidity is usually 55-60