uth questions

Hi guys, new to the forum here been lurking for a while now and have done a TON of reading on my new favorite obsession. Anyways I was finally able to get my first bp ( nofeet, i know very corny i guess technically i named him cratos but the kids decided nofeet was better and its kinda stuck now lol)a little over a month ago after much convincing of the missus and doing a ton of research before hand. My question is this. I have a zilla uth for my young snake and the problem is with the uth alone im only getting around 80 or so degrees from it as mesuared with a temp gun on the substrate. So I have been using a 50w night red light to obtain my hot side temps of about 93 thats in conjunction with the uth. Only problem is it absolutely sucks the humidity down to around 25%.thats with a towell on top if I mist and re wet the towell I can get up into mid 50s to low 60s but you have to repeat this process every two hours or so. So obviously whioe im at work or asleep im not there to keep this up. If I have the lamp off my humidity will go back up into the 50s within a few minutes. So what im wondering is if I buy a better uth such as zoo med put it on a t stat will I obtain better result. I was kinda thinking since the zilla gets it to 80 which would be good for the cool side maybe still use it to maintain the cool side and use a better one for my hot side thus removing the dang lamp and solving my humidity issues. Sorry for the long first post and thanks in adavance for any help. Its greatly appreciated. Chad

Hello,

Firstly, 80 seems low for any UTH. Imake a few simple changes before you end up spending your entire life misting your setup. Been there - it's not fun!

Go out, get a rubermaid tub! Drill a bunch of holes in the sides of the tub, a few on each side. Use a good UTH on a thermostat and don't go crazy on the bedding, it doesn't need to be 3" thick.

Yeah I feel like every moment I have at home I've either been misting or checkkng temps lol. I currently have him in a 10 gallon glass tanks. I really dont want to to put him in a tub because I like seeing him and his tank hes basically a center piec3 in the living room lol. I will switch to a tub if I have to in order to give him the proper environment. Substrate for the first two weeks I was using aspen about an inch thick and I thought that might have been the problem so I switched him out to the eco earth coconut fiber substrate at about half an inch or little less stioo no dice. Im sure this uth is defective but still wanna see from others what they recommend as to which one is the best maybe zilla is usually ok and I just got a dud. But I doubt I will go with another one of theirs.

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Originally Posted by cjhawkins1984

Yeah I feel like every moment I have at home I've either been misting or checkkng temps lol. I currently have him in a 10 gallon glass tanks. I really dont want to to put him in a tub because I like seeing him and his tank hes basically a center piec3 in the living room lol. I will switch to a tub if I have to in order to give him the proper environment. Substrate for the first two weeks I was using aspen about an inch thick and I thought that might have been the problem so I switched him out to the eco earth coconut fiber substrate at about half an inch or little less stioo no dice. Im sure this uth is defective but still wanna see from others what they recommend as to which one is the best maybe zilla is usually ok and I just got a dud. But I doubt I will go with another one of theirs.

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I'd go to a local reptile expo, or contact a local breeder who knows what they are doing and buy a small strip of prewired flexwatt or THG heat tape. It'l be much cheaper! My experience with the major manugacturers of URH, I find Exo Terra to be the most reliable.

Ok thanks. I may have to go to that. I just want to get away from using the light asap.

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Originally Posted by cjhawkins1984

Ok thanks. I may have to go to that. I just want to get away from using the light asap.

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my question to you is how much substrate are you using? The problem I see if you are using alot of substrate and only reaching temps of 80 deg. and you go with a more powerful heater , if the snake burrows into the substrate it will get burned the deeper in the substrate it goes. 1/2" of substrate is all you need.

Its a half inch or less. Coconut fiber substrate.

if its a half inch or less then yes you definitely need to go up a level with the heater. Obviously make sure you have a way to control and maintain the temps. There is also a thread on here about how to turn the tank on its side and use the top opening as a front opening cage . If I am correct it was called a LUCY door? im not positive , maybe one of the other members can find the link and post it because im technically challenged and dont know how to do that! lol.

What setting are you using on the thermostat that controls the UTH? Where did you put the probe for the thermostat? If you move the substrate aside and take a temperature reading on the glass over the UTH, what is it?

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Originally Posted by bcr229

What setting are you using on the thermostat that controls the UTH? Where did you put the probe for the thermostat? If you move the substrate aside and take a temperature reading on the glass over the UTH, what is it?

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Thats the thing, Im not using a thermostat on uth because it never got hot enough in the first place. If you push the substrate aside you get 83 84 ive seen it as high as 86 once directly on the glass. Ive got a rheostat but ive never used it because it never got hot enough to even use it. Ive tried letting just uth run by itself all day while im at work still never got up above the 82 83 mark and then the rest of the tank is mid 70s

Sorry if I missed it in the thread, but how are you measuring the temp and how do you have the UTH attached to the glass?

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

Sorry if I missed it in the thread, but how are you measuring the temp and how do you have the UTH attached to the glass?

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Im measuring it with a extech psychrometer. It take surface readings relative humidity ambient temps wet bulb dew point etc. I know its accurate it is used for my work and has to be calibrated every three months. And the uth is stuck directly to the bottom of the glass just using the peel and stick backing that was on it.

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Originally Posted by cjhawkins1984

Im measuring it with a extech psychrometer. It take surface readings relative humidity ambient temps wet bulb dew point etc. I know its accurate it is used for my work and has to be calibrated every three months. And the uth is stuck directly to the bottom of the glass just using the peel and stick backing that was on it.

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That sounds like a neat tool! It also sounds like you UTH is defective. Have you read the temp directly on the pad? Bear in mind that the UTH will NOT influence ambient temps, but it still doesn't make sense that the hot spot is so cold.

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

That sounds like a neat tool! It also sounds like you UTH is defective. Have you read the temp directly on the pad? Bear in mind that the UTH will NOT influence ambient temps, but it still doesn't make sense that the hot spot is so cold.

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Yeah it seems to be perfect for keeping reptiles we use them for checking conditions for painting water towers. Not sure of the price but I would recommend it to anyone. Not directly on the pad but I have pushed the substrate aside and checked the glass highest was 86. Im thinking its defective as well gonna go buy a new different brand tonight and see what happens. One more thing I know they dont do much for the ambient temps but say if you can mai tain a 90 hotside and 80 cool side surface temp do you worry with the ambient temps as much?

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Originally Posted by cjhawkins1984

Yeah it seems to be perfect for keeping reptiles we use them for checking conditions for painting water towers. Not sure of the price but I would recommend it to anyone. Not directly on the pad but I have pushed the substrate aside and checked the glass highest was 86. Im thinking its defective as well gonna go buy a new different brand tonight and see what happens. One more thing I know they dont do much for the ambient temps but say if you can mai tain a 90 hotside and 80 cool side surface temp do you worry with the ambient temps as much?

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Ambient needs to be 78-82. The cool side surface temp is pretty much irrelevant. The hot spot aids digestion, and the air in their lungs largely determines overall body temperature. That's why a BP will scorch itself hugging a heat rock when the air temps are too low.

Or think about it this way - if you sat on a 90deg stool in a 50deg room, would you feel like it was 70deg all over your body? Hyperbole, of course.

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

Ambient needs to be 78-82. The cool side surface temp is pretty much irrelevant. The hot spot aids digestion, and the air in their lungs largely determines overall body temperature. That's why a BP will scorch itself hugging a heat rock when the air temps are too low.

Or think about it this way - if you sat on a 90deg stool in a 50deg room, would you feel like it was 70deg all over your body? Hyperbole, of course.

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Lol good point but it does illustrate it well for me ha. So if I can get a uth to maintain somewhere around the 90 deg range I should have no need for the heat lamp except for occasionally to raise the ambient a few degress right?

As long as the room is in the high 70s, no need for the lamp. If it drops below that, you will need heat supplemental to the UTH like a lamp or CHE.

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Originally Posted by cjhawkins1984

Thats the thing, Im not using a thermostat on uth because it never got hot enough in the first place. If you push the substrate aside you get 83 84 ive seen it as high as 86 once directly on the glass. Ive got a rheostat but ive never used it because it never got hot enough to even use it. Ive tried letting just uth run by itself all day while im at work still never got up above the 82 83 mark and then the rest of the tank is mid 70s

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Yeah sounds like a defective UTH. I'd get a new one... along with a thermostat.