BP Temperature Related Question.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mhavens

I don't want to hijack Cornishninja thread but I'm a new BP owner and I'm having some similiar temperature issues too.

Im using a 10g tank
UTH
Hydropharm thermostat set to 98
thermostate probe is on the hot side glass under the substrate
cypress substrate
temp probe under substrate on the cool side

The ambient temp reads 77
the cool side is reading between 74-78
im not sure what the surface temp on the hot side is (IR therm on its way). But the thermostat sensor is reading 98.

He seems fine. He's eaten twice and has shed once and moves between the hides regularly. My concern is that the temps might be to low. I'm thinking of putting a second UTH on the cold side and setting it to say 85.

Are my temps to low? Is there a way to insulate the tank? Will my two UTH system work?

Thanks

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UTH's do not change the temperature of the air inside the tank so if your air temperatures are too low you are going to need to use a heat lamp to increase them.
How thick is the layer of substrate? if it is thicker than 1/2" the UTH won't be able to do its job effectively.

Checkout this thread: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...t-Thermometers

Aaron

Thanks for the info. I have read that post like 10 times. It's very informative. I actually based my set up on that article and I'm in the process of getting a heat lamp.

The substrate is around 1/2". I actually took soom out so that it was a little thinner. But I was nervous about setting the thermostat to 98 degrees. I don't want to burn him. I have a temp probe on the edge of the hot side under the water bowl, it's reading between 80-82 degrees.

When he gets bigger and needs to move into a bigger cage I will probably get a PVC one. I think if I remember correctly you did a nice write up on PVC cages.

Thanks everyone for the advise. I can't believe how much my daughter and I are addicted to this ball python. We absolutely love him and want to make his home comfortable.

Update.

Okay, after a couple of days of careful measuring and adjusting, I've got the temperatures balanced healthily at the ones recommended by you guys, and the snake seems to be moving back and forth between cool and hotspots again as he/she was before. So I guess everything is alright now!

Thanks so much! :) I'll be hanging around in the future, learned a ton of new stuff already just from reading around, so I'll be sticking around to learn more!

and to Mhavens, I don't mind you getting in on the thread at all :) I hope you can get your query solved too!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cornishninja

Update.

Okay, after a couple of days of careful measuring and adjusting, I've got the temperatures balanced healthily at the ones recommended by you guys, and the snake seems to be moving back and forth between cool and hotspots again as he/she was before. So I guess everything is alright now!

Thanks so much! :) I'll be hanging around in the future, learned a ton of new stuff already just from reading around, so I'll be sticking around to learn more!

and to Mhavens, I don't mind you getting in on the thread at all :) I hope you can get your query solved too!

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Cornishninja are you measuring the surface temperature or the glass temp under the substrate? Also what kind of substrate are you using?

To everyone else. Is setting the thermostat to 98 too high? I took the thermostat probe out of the tank and mounted it to the backside of the UTH. I hot glued a thermometer probe to the glass above the UTH and it reads about 94-95. I have about a half inch of cypress substrate. I measured the surface temp with an IR thermometer and it reads about 81-82. My fear is if I thin the substrate and raise the thermostat tempurature he may burrow down and get burned.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mhavens

Cornishninja are you measuring the surface temperature or the glass temp under the substrate? Also what kind of substrate are you using?

To everyone else. Is setting the thermostat to 98 too high? I took the thermostat probe out of the tank and mounted it to the backside of the UTH. I hot glued a thermometer probe to the glass above the UTH and it reads about 94-95. I have about a half inch of cypress substrate. I measured the surface temp with an IR thermometer and it reads about 81-82. My fear is if I thin the substrate and raise the thermostat tempurature he may burrow down and get burned.

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Most people have to set the thermostat much higher than 98 to reach a proper hot spot.

The probe for your thermometer should be directly over the Uth inside the tank. If its reading 94-95 it means if your Bp burrows, it can reach the 94-95 hotspot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bobbafett

Most people have to set the thermostat much higher than 98 to reach a proper hot spot.

The probe for your thermometer should be directly over the Uth inside the tank. If its reading 94-95 it means if your Bp burrows, it can reach the 94-95 hotspot.

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I have the thermometer probe hot glued to the glass directly over the UTH inside the tank. So this would tell me that the max temp my BP could come in contact with. I took the thermostat probe out of the tank and mounted to the backside of the UTH. I believe you also recommended this.

I have been reading a lot where people are saying that the belly heat should be in the upper 80's low 90's. It looks like I would need to crank up the thermostat to 100 or more.

Thanks for the advise

The average temps recommended are 80ºF/80ºF/90ºF (ambient/cool/warm) the extremes I have seen from reasonable sources (there are a number of out to lunch ones too) are 75º-88º/77º-84º/87-94º personally I would avoid the extreme ends but I gives you a sense of the temps many accept. I personally believe 88ºF for small balls (600gm and under) is about right and 90º for the rest. The cool side IMO 79-81ºF and ambient I feel has the largest range of ok for me 77º-85º. I target 80º/80º/90º myself the only place where I have variation is the ambient air temps which I personally ramp from my low end (77ºF) to the high end (85ºF) during a 24 hour period. I hope this helps.