Where to buy a good T-stat locally

Hey everyone. Thanks for all the good info in my previous thread. I went out today after work and picked up nearly everything I need for a better habitat for my BP, following the sticky thread here on the forum.

The only thing I'm missing is two new UTHs and the two T-stats. I've seen the Alife and others online, but I'd prefer to just go out tomorrow and buy something locally. Does anyone know if any chain retailers sell good thermostats, or am I going to *have* to order online for my needs?

One last Q, the guide didn't mention what size UTH to pick up for the 20L tank. Would one t-stat regulated ZooMed 10-20 UTH on each side work? Seems like a common sense question, but I just want to be sure since nothing was specified.

Thanks for everything!

edit: oh, and one other question... I have been unable to find day and moonlight bulbs which don't produce heat. Do they even sell them? The guide seemed to suggest using the ceramic element for heat and referred to the two bulbs as though they were strictly lighting. That, and my ambient room temps are keeping the snake's tank at about 78F naturally throughout the day, so I'm not sure I need to heat it up much beyond that. I would very much like to have a day/night cycle though, particularly so I have light in my room at night when I turn off the overheads to keep from bothering the snake.

Your heat source should not cover more than 1/3 of the floor space of your enclosure. Whether you'll need a second lower temp heat source depends on your enclosure, the room it sits in, etc. Most often you won't, especially with summer coming on.

I don't know of anything from a chainstore I'd trust. Get hold of Rich at www.reptilebasics.com by phone or email. Tell him your exact snake setup and he'll get some pre-wired flexwatt out to you faster than you'll believe. You will also need a tstat or a rheostat to control the flexwatt. Rich sells tstats or you can manage with a simple rheostat for now (not as good as a tstat of course).

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...=855662#855662

You might try looking into Fluorescent for daytime lighting if you feel you absolutely must have it. I wouldnt bother with nighttime lights, personally.

The Zoo Med 500R THERMOSTAT ( Not the reptitemp Rheostat) Is a good option for your setups. Its cheap, but reliable. I use two of them on racks, and am very very happy with them! Nothing beats a Spyder Robotics Herpstat though!

You just plug the heat pad into the thermostat. place the probe over the heatsource inside the enclosure ( in your case the UTH's) and adjust the temperature until it is exactly where you want it to be on the hot spot.

Thanks for the info. I will check out the Reptile Basics site.

The tank is kept on a stand in a "pseudo-closet" alongside my room which I can close off with a folding door. There's really no lighting in there, so it's generally pretty dark even in the daytime. I'm typically gone from 7am to 6:30pm or so each day thanks to working overtime lately, so when I get home I'll be in my room for a few hours and I don't feel comfortable having all my overhead lighting on until 11pm. I don't think a nocturnal snake would really appreciate that, thus my desire for nighttime lighting. That way, I can not only see my beautiful BP when I'm at home, but I'll have enough ambient light to walk around withing tripping into things. Any serious work I can always do outside of the room, negating the need for turning on harsh lighting.

So, that's basically why I'm after some kind of nighttime light that won't bother the snake, but also won't overheat him. The one I was using, a red night bulb, was raising the ambient temps to over 80F (and the day bulb was pushing it up to 85F or so), pretty warm imo, and I was told that 78-80F is ideal so I don't want to make it uncomfortably hot, nor do I want to mess with the natural 60% humidity inside this house.