Heating and new BP?

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Originally Posted by bg77

So is it better to have (2) UTH rather than one and a ceramic heater? And where does everyone get their UTH from? i got mine from the petstore it was a ZOO Med, a tad pricey. I also have a thermostat that is Zoo med. Any suggestion on those?

Thanks

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I dont want to say one way is better than the other, but I CAN personally say that overhead lights/CH's kill humidity wayyyy more than two UTH's do. I have tried both. I Also have two zoo meds, they are good UTH's but yea they do require the control.

The zoo med rheostat I actually just ordered on ebay (it was 9 bux , why not right) so I'll give it a try but right now I have two lamp dimmers, which are basically the same thing. They do require a bit of tweaking almost daily but its better than frying your snake. With any luck the zoo med rheostat will be a little more steady than the lamp dimmers I use. Eventually I will invest in a helix or a ranco to control the heat automaticaly.

I agree with missi...lamps/lights really batter your humidity levels generally. UTH's heat from the bottom and release moist, warm air into the tank creating humidity. As soon as you click the heat lamp on the humidity that is in the air within the tank simply evaporates off.

In our BP Humphrey's 20L tank we have a ZooMed UTH on one end with a 50w infra red lamp over head of that with a hide in between the two heat sources. The tank has a split screen sliding top so in order to have to play with the temp and humidity levels I went down to Ace Hardware after taking careful measurements I had 3 different sizes of 3/4 acrylic/plexiglass cut (don't bother trying to cut this stuff yourself, even the thinner ones). This way it gives me a variety of combos to work with so far as heat/humidity levels go. Warm side usually runs during the day at around 90-93 or so and the ambient (cool) side around 10 degrees cooler. Where does Humphrey stay? In the middle (usually). At night he turns into "Monkey Boy" and consistently hangs out in the tree branches.

Now the Redtail we have just gotten apparently thinks he's part groundhog. He loves to bury underneath the substrate - hide or no hide. The owners where we got him from said he has always done that. It's just him. Luckily, we have the Exo-T Rainforest UTH 11"x17" in there so with the Rainforest type it runs not as hot as say, the ZooMeds. Not nearly as hot. I believe that that big pad is only 12watts. Which is good for the Redtail since he lays directly on it for the most part. We don't need any burns. The Rainforest is designed to operate at a lower temp than most other UTH's. If he wasn't a burrower, I'd go with a higher temp pad.

Though I must say (and no, I don't work for them!) the Exo-Terra tank that our (wife's actually, I'll have nothing to do with it) Emporer Scorpion is in seems over the past day since setting it up to be handling this issue perfectly. Very little fluctuations between temps and humidity since I can completely cover the top via one half canopy with dual lights and the other screen half with the plexiglass. (It gets fresh air ventilated through the enclosure on the front side). I drilled holes through the plexiglass and mounted black handles right in the middle and I must admit, the plexiglass screen enclosure(s) compliments the tank really well! Just make sure to put masking tape on the oposite side you drill through to prevent the plexiglass from splintering or cracking off the opposite side. The terrarium has three live plants in it which also helps maintain humidity. I just looked and it's 78 degrees in there with 84% humidity. Of course, the humidity will drop off some as he temp continues to rise but I'm using the scorpion setup as a ball park guestimate for what I can expect and need when Humphrey goes over to his Exo-Terra from his current 20L. So I figure with 2-25w DayGlow lamps and the Desert UTH I should be able to have daytime temps of around the high 80's with around 60 to 70 percent humidity. Keep in mind all of my temp and humidity probes are just slightly above substrate level. I always figure I want to know what the temps and humidity is where the reptile mostly resides - not elsewhere.

It's really just trial and error. If you can get away with just UTH's and keep the temps up high enough go that way for humidity sake.

Just my thoughts. Hope maybe you can pick something out of all of this gibberish. Good luck! You'll find that "sweet spot".

Jeff

I have mine like Diagram #1, & my temps are perfect.

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Originally Posted by tideguyinva

Question number 2. In the diagram below what is the correct positioning of the heating ? Top or Bottom?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...va/diagram.jpg

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Originally Posted by mrmertz

In our BP Humphrey's 20L tank we have a ZooMed UTH on one end with a 50w infra red lamp over head of that with a hide in between the two heat sources.

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Just thought I'd give you a tip, you really should have two hides, one warm over the UTH at about 90 degrees and one on the cooler side around 84 degrees. These hides should also be identical so your bp feels equally secure in each, whether he is looking to cool down or warm up. One in the middle does not give him that option. Bp's will chose security over warmth, so not having a hide over the warmer side means he does'nt use it much if at all when he needs to.

I have two zoomed UTH's and have measured them up to 115 degrees uncontrolled, which can kill your bp. I hope you have some sort of control for your UTH, and if you do, don't forget to mention that when giving advice;) It is a very important thing that is often over looked.