Are these temp readings possible?

Icygirl, thank you for sharing the info about your obviously not accurate Acu-rite. I definitely hope it is malfunctioning rather than just switched to Celcius, as if those were C readings, it would translate to temps of 111F and 103.5F. Although I do give Jotay credit for thinking of that possibility; it just isn't the right answer this time. Definitely take that defective gauge back and exchange it for a new one! And that means tomorrow I'll be trying a few things to try to verify whether or not mine is accurate. I appreciate the ideas people have given for testing it.

JLC, at the risk of sounding like one of those people who asks for advice and then says "I think you are wrong, I'm going to do what I feel like doing no matter what you say"... I'd like to ask what makes you say that a UTH doesn't provide enough heat to get the ambient temperature of the entire tank high enough? When I first read your reply, I thought uh-oh, and went and took a little twist-tie to hang the probe from the screen so I was measuring the temp an inch or two from the top of the tank, rather than on the floor. After giving it an hour to make sure the temps had at least mostly stabilized again, I switched it to the other end of the tank and did the same thing. I didn't turn on the lamp at all during those couple of hours to make sure that whatever reading I was getting was being maintained by the UTH. The air temp on the warm end was 79.3, and 77.4 on the cool side. So really the only place that is significantly too cold is the floor on the cool side. Heat rises, so it isn't surprising the coldest spot is the floor where there is no UTH, and adding a UTH there sounds like the perfect solution. Am I missing something?

do you have air conditioning running in the room? If so, where is the vent in relation to the tank? Could it be blowing directly on it? Just a thought!

Steve

You could always cover both ends of the enclosure and leave your ventilation open space in the middle. :) You could also just nudge the UTH a bit move over towards the cool end...not a huge amount, just a bit sometimes is all that's needed once you deal with that open mesh that's letting out pretty much every bit of heat and humidity that makes it's way over to that cool side.

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Originally Posted by kc261

Icygirl, thank you for sharing the info about your obviously not accurate Acu-rite. I definitely hope it is malfunctioning rather than just switched to Celcius, as if those were C readings, it would translate to temps of 111F and 103.5F.

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It's definitely still in Fahrenheit. The "cool side" temp, when switched to Celsius, says around 6C (almost freezing)! I'm going to return this thing to Walmart when I get the chance.

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Originally Posted by kc261

JLC, at the risk of sounding like one of those people who asks for advice and then says "I think you are wrong, I'm going to do what I feel like doing no matter what you say"... I'd like to ask what makes you say that a UTH doesn't provide enough heat to get the ambient temperature of the entire tank high enough? When I first read your reply, I thought uh-oh, and went and took a little twist-tie to hang the probe from the screen so I was measuring the temp an inch or two from the top of the tank, rather than on the floor. After giving it an hour to make sure the temps had at least mostly stabilized again, I switched it to the other end of the tank and did the same thing. I didn't turn on the lamp at all during those couple of hours to make sure that whatever reading I was getting was being maintained by the UTH. The air temp on the warm end was 79.3, and 77.4 on the cool side. So really the only place that is significantly too cold is the floor on the cool side. Heat rises, so it isn't surprising the coldest spot is the floor where there is no UTH, and adding a UTH there sounds like the perfect solution. Am I missing something?

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No...not missing anything. I was just speaking from personal experience of trying to heat a glass tank in a cool room. Yes, heat rises...but the room was cool enough that the heat would dissipate through the glass before allowing the air inside to reach and maintain warm enough ambient temps. Maybe it'll work for you, though. Good luck with whatever methods you try. :)

The weather has been very pleasant for several days now so we haven't been running the AC. There may be some drafts in the room due to the fact that none of the doors in this house seem to fit their frame very well, but nothing as bad as AC blowing directly on or near it.

JLC, thanks for explaining about your experiences with the UTH in a glass tank. The difference here may be that the room isn't as cool as the one you had your tank in, and/or my tank is better insulated. Either way, during the winter, we let the house get pretty cool at night, so I better be prepared to prevent the temperature in the tank dropping. From the testing and experimentation I've been doing, it looks like the extra UTH will work fine in the current conditions, but may not be enough year round.

i have a 55 gal glass aquarium and use a uth hot side stays 90-93 cool side 80-82 humidity 60 63% i have a good 3/4's covered with 3 layers tinfoil shine side down 3 layer ducktape seems to be working for me.
i would think your guage is out

A Radiant Heat Panal solved my problem as far as bringing up the ambient temps but that would be a task to use with a glass tank setup. I have noticed with it approaching fall that I have some tweaking to do from last winter. The other night it dropped to the 40's and I woke up to a 89/74 reading which concerned me. I am going to do some tweaking with my probe placements which I am sure would solve the problem.

It sounds like an oil filled space heater is just what the doc ordered in your case. If your room temps are not atleast in the mid 70's you're going to have a hard time maintaining temps.

it's not your thermometer it's your heat source. like JLC said, UTHs are great for hot spots but not for heating an entire glass enclosure. sure you can get a surface temp of 90-something degrees but the UTH will only raise the air temp a few degrees over whatever the room temperature is. you'll either need a heat lamp for the hot side or an oil-filled spacer heater to correct this problem.


goodluck!