Temp drop at night?

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Originally Posted by thegoalie22

Why can't I just get a UTH and a thermostat and that pet store. I defintetly can spend 129 dollars on one.

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the only "thermostat" i've seen in pet/co/smart is the reptitemp 500R. They dont sell the higher end, more professional (read:reliable) thermostats. :/ If they functioned like caring corporations, they'd actually carry everything you needed but thats a rant for another day lol.

Its your money, i know the 40gal UTHs are lik..40-50 bucks at pet/cmart or at least they were last time i checked, i haven't gone into one in months because i don't buy anything except for the odd cat toy from the big box stores. I'd rather support the smaller, professional stores that stock good things for my animals (once again , totally a personal preference and not everyone cares about something like that or has the opportunity to choose something else).

I shop online for two reasons. 1; i make very little money at my job at the moment and want to save as much as possible and i've found stuff is WAY cheaper on the nets, even after shipping.
2. i want to support the people that better my hobbies. Reptile keeping big a BIG part of my life.

and like i said, this is just me and whats worked for my system. If this dosen't sound good to you, pioneer something new! :p

I mean can't spend that much

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Originally Posted by thegoalie22

I mean can't spend that much

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do you have a lot of temperature flucation in the room your snake is in? like.. does the room go from 60-70, or 70-78 or have more than just 2-3 degrees? or... do you spend a lot of time at home? you can always go for the reptitemp. but since there is no actual temperature setting on the unit you have to eyeball it, and if your room temps change, the thermostat can only compensate 1 way to change the temp. Do some searches on the forum for Reptitemp 500r and it should bring up some more info.

If you dont want to change anything, thats your choice, but i'd definitely get him at least 2 identical hides :)

Explain what the purpose of having a thermostat is. I know it is to control temps, but if room temps are stable and I check on it very often( I am cyber schooled),is it really necessary? To be totally honest, my absolute max budget is 75 bucks. Cant I just use my thermometer to monitor the temps, and if it gets too hot, turn it off. I have one of those round thermometers, the zilla one, and couldn't I just place it on the warm side to monitor temps? Are UTH's prone to power surges?

Where to the UTH's go? Like in the tank, outside of it, what?

I am almost always home.

No I do not think there is a huge temp fluctuation in my room, at least in fall, winter, and spring.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thegoalie22

Explain what the purpose of having a thermostat is. I know it is to control temps, but if room temps are stable and I check on it very often( I am cyber schooled),is it really necessary? To be totally honest, my absolute max budget is 75 bucks. Cant I just use my thermometer to monitor the temps, and if it gets too hot, turn it off. I have one of those round thermometers, the zilla one, and couldn't I just place it on the warm side to monitor temps? Are UTH's prone to power surges?

Where to the UTH's go? Like in the tank, outside of it, what?

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you can do anything you want, he's your animal. BUT, since they rely soley on their environments to regulate their temperatures, what if the UTH shorts and it spikes? What if your thermometer isn't accurate? Its really just the 'set it and forget it" mentality of a thermostat that helps for safety. What if you go out for the night and for some reason the tems arent stable and your UTH goes up to 120?

Ive tested every UTH i've owned. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM exceeds 100 degrees F when measured with a calibrated digital thermometer. I've had them reach 124. Thats not safe. I've had them reach 105-111 with the reptitemp, thats the reason i ordered my johnson. I bit the bullet, spent the ~90 for the unit and shipping and then didn't have to worry about my animal if i left for the the day/weekend/week/whatever. If 90 was all it took to buy my piece of mind then SOLD.

As for UTH location, they go on one side of the tank on the outside on the bottom. You can either stick them on with the sticky, or use foil tape or another high temperature rated tape to stick them to the bottom so you can re-use them on another enclosure if necessary. If you get a thermostat, you put the thermostat probe between the UTH and the tank to get a proper reading. This way, the snake can't knock the probe around or pee on it or something and cool it down, causing the thermostat to kick on, you can get bad temp spikes if you dont place the probes properly. :/

Those round analog zilla thermometers are terrible, they're known for being over 10 degrees off in either direction. We reccomend the accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer with hydrometer and probe. They can be found at home depot/lowes/walmart/target for like 12 bucks , this is what it looks like http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...FIPQlAevk_2QAQ

whoa mile long URL lol!

I got a appropriate size uth.
I will set ot up when I get home. I did not get a thermostat because I am home so much and can just monitor it

You should at least get something to regulate the UTH with. They almost ALWAYS get above 100 degrees. So even if you were watching it 24/7, you'd have to keep unplugging it like every 10 minutes to get it to the proper temp. If you want to go cheap, get a lamp dimmer at Home Depot for $10. It is way better than using nothing at all. And definitely get that Accurite thermometer so you can always know what the temps are at the hot & cold spots of your tank. So lamp dimmer at Home Depot for $10, Accurite at Walmart for $11-$12 keeps you below your budget of $75.