A little help getting Started

Hello all ! Great site. 1 week proud owner of a beautiful female bbp.
There is a wealth of info on this site, but i have a few set up(i know set up is covered extensively on the site) questions.

My set up.
Housing is a 10L(i know odd size) with aspen. I'm using a small UTH on one side(cool) and a heat lamp(75 watt in both basking and red bulb) on the warm side.
Right now i have 88 deg on the warm(lamp)side and about 78-80 on the cool side where the UTH is. I have a hide in both areas but she seems to prefer the cool side. Like alot of people who run lamps, i'm having a problem with humidity, about 40%. I covered 75% of the lid with foil(on the warm side) and put in a huge water bowl that almost goes accross the width of the tank under the lamp. Going to try moss, then a humid hide. I'd like to avoid misting. I have the basic analog gauges but just picked up the acu-rite wired.
My questions are:

1. Should i keep running the UTH on the cool side or move it over to the warm/lamp side ? If so will the two heat elements be overkill on the warm side. The bedding where the UTH is on the cool side is barely warm to the touch. Every now and then she lays on top of the cool hide.
Or should the cool side be non heated all together since the tank is rather small.

2. How are you guys running your acu-rite thermometer ? Seems like the probe is just for 1 temp and the other temp and hygro are in the unit. It would be great if the probe was the themp and hygro.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as i want her to have the best environment.

Thanks

What are you controlling your heating elements with? I'm not sure, but it may help humidity to switch them just so the lamps aren't running as hot, which in theory seems like they would suck less water out of the air.

On the acurite there is a temp and hygro on the unit & the probe is just temp. Most people who use these put the probe under the warm hide so they know temps inside of that hide and I'm not sure about others, but my base is on my tank floor about a foot from the end of the cool side against the back glass.

Oh...and :welcome: to bp.net

Thanks for the welcome dreese. Actually i forgot to mention the lamp is a 5.5 with built in dimmer. But i'm running it at full to keep those mentioned temps.I thought about lowering that but was afraid to lose my temps. Didn't want to have to trade temp for humidity.

a humid is the easiest way to fix humidity problems. put some moist spagnum moss in a hide, or anywhere a hide just keeps it moist longer, and that will raise your humidity levels.

Awesome, thanks. Checked the ambient humidity in my condo and it's 30% also. Time for a humidifier for myself as well.

So you guys use some type of heating element on both sides of your set-up ?

I have a ceramic heat emitter on the cool side (like your heat lamp, to keep the ambient temps up) and a UTH on the warm side. The probe for my thermometer is stuck to the glass right on top of where the heat pad is, and the unit itself is sitting on the floor of the tank right next to her cool hide. That way I know what the temps are down where she spends most of her time.

I don't think that 40% humidity is too bad...but you will want to do something (mist, humid hide, etc.) to bump that up to at least 60% during sheds. Misting the tank isn't so bad, especially if you only have to do it during sheds....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trott

Awesome, thanks. Checked the ambient humidity in my condo and it's 30% also. Time for a humidifier for myself as well.

So you guys use some type of heating element on both sides of your set-up ?

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That would obviously help humidity in the tank as well.
I dont know about anybody else, but since my house stays at a crisp 68 deg. or so I've got to have somethin on the cool side too keep it up there...Just a piece of flexwatt hooked to an alfie...nothing serious

Thanks all. Right now i have the acu rite probe under the warm hide, UTH side with dimmer i got at HD, and i have that set right at 90 and a dimmer lamp over the cool side hide at 80. Put some wet spaghnum moss in a dish yesterday but still no progress. Going to take out the cool side hide and replace it with a humid hide.
Oddly enough she likes to stay on top of the warm side hide under the fake leaves.
Keep you posted.


A note on the gauges. I had a analog gauge an inch over the substrate on the warm side and it read 85. I put the digital probe under the warm side hide and it hit 99. Is the analog off that much ? Or is it the hide trapping more heat ?

Thanks again

The analog can be off that much and hides do trap heat :)