Thermostat question

It is very very odd to have a gradient with the ambient air temp. Air should be moving and mixing causing a consistent temp through. This indicates to me a mistake in reading the ambient temps. likely the probe is being effected directly by a heater. I would guess the ambient to be around 79 ish.

If this is correct I would suggest a change in the amount of standing water or the way it ventilates. Having openings on either end of a closed middle often increase ventilation and placing the water bow on the cool side increases the air flow over the water and in turn RH.

Lizard licks yes absolutely true, but there is so much denial of the physical laws of nature and poor understanding of basic thermodynamics, that I usually simplify when I can.

I have a gradient ambient air temp in my glass tanks but I also have the ventilation kind of set up like my Pro-Line HDPE cage is where there is a slight gap on the cool side and the CHE is on the hot side with about a 1" gap around the dome so the cool air settles in on the cool side, flows over to the warm side and rises up where the CHE is and the escape is regulated by the air gap around the dome. I personally am still trying to figure out how Boaphile cages create air circulation as they are vented around the door, the tops are completely sealed so I would imagine air would get stagnant in them but that's a different topic.

As to the OP, I wouldn't worry about getting it exactly perfect. As long as you get it close. I mean in nature they aren't living in a 90F perfect environment. Heck when I was a kid, I had a ball python that I used a 55 gallon tank with a screen top and heat lamps and his humidity was only room humidity and he used to have horrible sheds but you know what, that gal went from a hatchling to an over 4' female and ate all the time and was fat as a cow. They are pretty hardy and a lot people seem to think they are fragile like fine china. the only thing is you got to regulate belly heat as burns will mess them up which is why I don't use belly heat for any of snakes. Think I have used belly heat once for my pied girl and then I dumped it as I use aspen and the belly heat did squat with 2" aspen.

Does it really matter if there's a gradient in ambient temps? He has a hot side, a cool side and a baskings spot and as long as these temps are in acceptable range he'll thermo regulate and there shouldn't be an issue. Correct me if I'm wrong. It's a glass tank, it's not gonna be perfect, but if I'm giving him every opportunity to thermo regulate with proper temps I think it should be ok. I have four thermometers and 2 thermostats. One star controlling the uth and one the Che. I have the stat probe for the uth inbetween the pad and the glass and the thermo probe directly above it glued to the tank under the substrate for the Che I have on the cold side I have the stat probe and therm probe next to each other glued to the glass about an inch from the bottom in the cold side hide. It's set to 78 Bc the hide will stay around that while the surrounding cold side stays around 80. The Che is on a dimmer also and only about 25% turned up so it's nice soft heat. I have an acurite in the middle reading middle temp and hot hide temp and a basking light on 25% making a spot on top of his hot hide 85 and the surrounding 83 a thermo probe is an inch above the hot side ground measuring ambient temp. I also have an it thermometer gun that I check surface temps throughout the enclosure. I have all the tools I'm just trying to see if there are little tweaks I can do to make things even better. Thanks for everyone's responses! Keep me coming!!

Btw, my room gets very little natural light and it's chilly during fall and winter which is why I have secondary heat and lighting sources.

Yes it does matter the only way to have a gradient in ambient air temps is there is a dangerously low amount of air moving basically it is 100% stagnate. It is close to impossible to achieve however to have the air stratified completely. It means likely you have not been actually measuring the air temp at all. It is literally the temp of just the air not influenced by a heater typically a gradient heater that heat objects not air.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Yes it does matter the only way to have a gradient in ambient air temps is there is a dangerously low amount of air moving basically it is 100% stagnate. It is close to impossible to achieve however to have the air stratified completely. It means likely you have not been actually measuring the air temp at all. It is literally the temp of just the air not influenced by a heater typically a gradient heater that heat objects not air.

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so how do I measure the ambient temp without the influence of the heaters? I'm measuring away from the main beam of heat coming from them. The amount of difference temps are only a few degrees off so it's not like it's a serious problem. Right now it's 853 pm and my lights are off and the Che is on and the temps are 79 ambient hot side 77 in the middle and 77 on the cool side wight the Che keeping the temp up. The ambient inside the hot hide right now is 85 and surface temp is at 89-91 and the cool hide temp is 77.5. I'm just getting confused Bc I feel like I have good temps and now your adding a completely new element to the equation. If you could tell me how to measure ambient temp properly that would help a ton!

Ideally they should be measured from ⅓ up the side dead centre of the enclosure. However most over head heat sources emit long wave IR. This means like a light it travels from the face out in all directions and the ambient temp should not be in line of sight (straight line) of the heater. Sometimes this means blocking the thermometer with a some paper (white paper) It is shocking how much this can change a reading. My arboreal enclosures will alter 8ºF just by shielding the thermometer from the RHP. Would this happen with ambient temps? No paper will not stop air from moving. You don't have to constantly monitor them just check during set up and then periodically. I do every week.

It is likely your ambients are 77ºF add the error to the thermometer +/-2ºF (you said you had an accurite? is it one of the newer ones?) so 75-79ºF somewhere inside here likely (the older models was +/-2ºC close to 4ºF in that case 73-81ºF). Personally I hate seeing ambients below 75ºF for long, if this is the true ambient temp you are closer to one end of the range adding a couple of degrees would buy more breathing room.

There is a theory (unverified at this point) that low ambients inconjuction with higher hot spots are responsible for burns. The ambient air temp is a contributing factor in thermal regulation. It is known that animals kept with very low ambients regardless of the hot spot being spot on often get sick. It is also clear that animals can be kept successfully with no hot spot at all. It is likely that ambients are more important that any other temp.