UTH questions

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Originally Posted by f4n70m

Well the uth works better on the bottom.

Reason being they like belly heat. Ara said get a bigger light. That i wouldnt do. Lights suck out humidity like crazy. If you was using a 10G tank u could put the zoomed on the bottom and used the feet to raise it off the ground or bottle caps (i use caps cuz they are higher).

Also you uth may read 84 now my uth has reached 120* not hooked up to a tstat. And yes there was NO snake in there at the time.

Your best bet would of been to just mount the uth on the bottom cover the time with foil or a damn cloth. The aspen holds humidity fairly well.

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With this setup, is it normal for the ambient air in the tank to drop dramatically? Since they'll be getting their heat from their belly instead of the air is it ok for the air temp to drop?

I decided to try this out since my humidity keeps dropping unless I mist pretty frequently, but the temp of the actual tank has dropped so far to 70 degrees! The aspen directly above the UTH is rising though, just recently put it on, it's at 79 so far and rising. Could this be a problem with the rest of the tank so cool?!

The rest of the tank shouldnt be so cold. U may need to still use the lamp to raise the temp a bit. But if its on a dimmer u can dim it down so it dont put out so much heat. Just enough to raise it. That or u could raise the temp in the room itself.

Reason they say to avoid lamps is because it sucks out the humdiity. And plus belly heat is better for them. The uth is best placed below so they can get that belly heat. But also u may still need to use the lamp if u cant keep the temps up if u cant raise the temp in the room

Quote:

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Originally Posted by f4n70m

The rest of the tank shouldnt be so cold. U may need to still use the lamp to raise the temp a bit. But if its on a dimmer u can dim it down so it dont put out so much heat. Just enough to raise it. That or u could raise the temp in the room itself.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by f4n70m

Reason they say to avoid lamps is because it sucks out the humdiity. And plus belly heat is better for them. The uth is best placed below so they can get that belly heat. But also u may still need to use the lamp if u cant keep the temps up if u cant raise the temp in the room

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Seeing as my heating bill is astronomical already, I think I have to leave the light on! Unfortunately it's not on a dimmer though, so I'm going to have to change that. I did switch the UTH to the bottom and it has risen the temp of the aspen decently. Thanks for all the advice so far, you have all been extremely helpful!

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Originally Posted by Seak

Seeing as my heating bill is astronomical already, I think I have to leave the light on! Unfortunately it's not on a dimmer though, so I'm going to have to change that. I did switch the UTH to the bottom and it has risen the temp of the aspen decently. Thanks for all the advice so far, you have all been extremely helpful!

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Reson i say a dimmer may help is because say u cant use a space heater or any way to heat the room. You would have to use a lamp. Unless some1 else knows a diff way, You could try to cover top with foil to keep heat in

But as far as dimmer say u got a 75W bulb. It puts out to much heat u can dim it down to put out less. Also uses less power :P

You may want to get like a infrared bulb so it doesnt really bother him. Because like 24/7 will stress it out

Edit*

Listen ATLEAST dim the uth man. Your uth will reach 120* and burn ur snake. You DONT want that. The uths get to hot at least with a dimmer u can control how hot it gets to some extent

Best bet would be a thermostat but they get kinda expensive

Edit x2*

Also its best to use like a acu rite at walmart $12 that has a probe u place inside the cage on the uth to get the exact temp. :P If you dont have one already

Quote:

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Originally Posted by f4n70m

Reson i say a dimmer may help is because say u cant use a space heater or any way to heat the room. You would have to use a lamp. Unless some1 else knows a diff way, You could try to cover top with foil to keep heat in

But as far as dimmer say u got a 75W bulb. It puts out to much heat u can dim it down to put out less. Also uses less power :P

You may want to get like a infrared bulb so it doesnt really bother him. Because like 24/7 will stress it out

Edit*

Listen ATLEAST dim the uth man. Your uth will reach 120* and burn ur snake. You DONT want that. The uths get to hot at least with a dimmer u can control how hot it gets to some extent

Best bet would be a thermostat but they get kinda expensive

Edit x2*

Also its best to use like a acu rite at walmart $12 that has a probe u place inside the cage on the uth to get the exact temp. :P If you dont have one already

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I bought the ReptiTemp 500R based off what someone on this forum said so that the UTH doesn't burn him.
The room he's in is open to the rest of he house, so a space heater wouldn't work. A dimmer for the light sounds like my best bet so far, so I think that's what I'm going to look into.

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Originally Posted by Seak

I bought the ReptiTemp 500R based off what someone on this forum said so that the UTH doesn't burn him.
The room he's in is open to the rest of he house, so a space heater wouldn't work. A dimmer for the light sounds like my best bet so far, so I think that's what I'm going to look into.

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Oh u do got a tstat? Thats really good then. Kepp ur uth hooked up to that.

You could try to cover the top with foil this helps keep in humidity.

Some1 also reccomended to me a bit back to buy stuff like a mix between cardboard/styrofoam at like walmart and put it around the sides of the cage to help keep heat it. Could always try covering the top see how that goes. It would keep heat it. If not them a dimmer switch on the lamp so u could control how much heat the lamp is putting out if u only need to raise it a bit

I have similar problems. Got an UTH hooked up to a dimmer but still have to use a bulb to keep the ambient temps up (which shouldn't drop below 75f BTW!), thereby killing my humidity! Just bought one of those newfangled ceramic bulbs which don't give off any light and are not supposed to dry out the atmosphere so much. I've yet to try it though! Good luck!

I'm in the same boat, needing an overhead lamp to heat the ambient air. Yes, that drastically drops the humidity. We get perfect sheds, though, so the humidity must be good. Here's what I do:

UTH (stuck onto the bottom to create belly heat) plugged into the 500r. That 500r has space for TWO things to plug into it, so the overhead lamp is plugged in as well. That way, the lamp is going on and off along with the UTH. It gives the humidity a chance to stay a bit higher than if the lamp were on constantly.

During the coldest part of winter these past couple of months, when necessary, the overhead lamp was plugged directly into the wall outlet, remaining on constantly.

To raise humidity there are 2 wet paper towels: One is inside a bowl with a bit of water. The other is on top of the warm hide. Since that hide is a big tortilla holder, the top is flat and holds a wet paper towel perfectly. Not damp, but as wet as they can be. During shedding, I'll also dab water directly onto the paper towel substrate around the tank, just not where the snake is actually lying on to prevent scale rot.

I check the AccuRite readings throughout the day. So far, this set-up has worked great! Good luck with your set-up! This forum is a wealth of information. :)

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Originally Posted by Patricia

I'm in the same boat, needing an overhead lamp to heat the ambient air. Yes, that drastically drops the humidity. We get perfect sheds, though, so the humidity must be good. Here's what I do:

UTH (stuck onto the bottom to create belly heat) plugged into the 500r. That 500r has space for TWO things to plug into it, so the overhead lamp is plugged in as well. That way, the lamp is going on and off along with the UTH. It gives the humidity a chance to stay a bit higher than if the lamp were on constantly.

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Prob i see with that is the fact ur kicking the light on and off. I can see u blowing bulbs A LOT faster then if u just left it on a dimmer

Way i see it if a bulb last 1 year hooked to a dimmer 24/7 that $11 a year

If u get bulbs last 3 months due to turning on and off A LOT during the day ur spending a lot more