What else can I do to increase tank heat?

I recently adopted a adult ball python male. He is 4 years old and about 4 ft long. I'm keeping him in the 30 gallon glass reptile tank which he has lived in for the past 3 years. It has aspen substrate.

Originally I was having trouble maintaining humidity in his tank as I would spray the substrate to bring it up to around 60% and within minutes the humidity would be back down to 40% as it is quite dry here. I solved this issue by getting a regular humiafier for my room and placing near his tank.

The problem I am having now is keeping the tank warm enough. Right now the temperature is reading 75° in what is supposed to be the warm spot. Which is much too cold.

Now part of this may be because my thermometer has no probe on it and I have placed it near the top of the tank so it might not be reading the warmest part of the tank.

I am using a heat coil underneath the tank on the warm side and a heat bulb above the tank on the warm side as well. The bulb seams to put out a great deal of heat. But the temperature reading not seem to be adequate, which is quite odd as his previous owners were using the same equipment and said that it was sufficient to keep his tank warm.

He has also been hanging out on the cold side of his tank the past couple of days so I'm really worried that he is not warm enough.

What can I do in order to warm the tank further? My best thought is to put an under tank mat on the bottom of the tank and maybe tape the coil to the outside of the glass? But I'm not sure if this is the best solution, I've found plenty of advice online on what to use to set up tank heat but nothing on what to do if you currently heat setup is inadequate. Any advise would be aprecated.

Your thermometer that is up on the side of the tank is not reading the temperature of the hot spot at all. You need to get a way to determine what temperature your snake is actually coming into contact with (thermometer with a probe, infrared thermometer, etc). You're basically saying that you've turned the oven on, but because you can put your hand on the top of the stove without burning it, the inside of the oven isn't hot enough.

I would strongly advise against adding any additional things to heat your tank until you know exactly what your hot spot temperatures actually are.

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Originally Posted by flyingmongoose

He has also been hanging out on the cold side of his tank the past couple of days so I'm really worried that he is not warm enough.
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What can I do in order to warm the tank further?

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If he's hanging out on the cold side, I'm not sure you need to heat the tank further. The opposite may be true.


Like previously said you need to get something to measure the actual temp on the ground before you increase the heat more.

What is this heat coil you speak of? I'm not clear what it is but I'm gonna say its a safe bet it should not be inside the tank.

A thermometer at the top of the tank is useless. It needs to be a few inches at most from the tank floor. You need to track the temps where the snake is. You should also get a probed thermometer or an IR temp gun to find the hotspot temp.

I'm guessing but with a heat coil and a bulb on the hot side the surface temp is way to hot which is why your snake is staying on the cool side.

Move the thermometer and get another device to measure the hotspot so we can help you better.

As for now I would remove the heat coil and only use the lamp. A lamp alone can provide a warm hide and good ambient temps. A uth is great but should only be used correctly with a tstat. And you should only use a correct uth.

There are other things we can do to insulate the tank and save heat and humidity but we need to know the actually numbers first.

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Originally Posted by KMG

What is this heat coil you speak of? I'm not clear what it is but I'm gonna say its a safe bet it should not be inside the tank.

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It's not in the tank it's under it. The tank is on my dresser and the heat coil is in the air gap between the tank and my dresser. The tank hangs out about an inch so there is ventilation for the heat source.

It's a flexible silicone coated wire that heats up when plugged in. It does not seam to get super hot. I can comfortably hold it without being burned.
There is probably about a half inch of clearance between the bottom of the tank and the coil.

And yes I'm going to get a digital temperature and humidity probe as soon as I get home from work and I'll let everyone know what the accurate numbers are.

Thank you for your help

Keep in mind that what feels warm to us can be hot to them. I would turn it off for now until you know what it is actually running at.

Update: I got a thermometer with a probe and put the probe right in the warm spot. Right now I'm getting a reading of 80.6° in the warm spot and 71.4 in the cool side.

Where did you put the probe and how long did you leave it there to get your reading?

Probe is on the bottom of the tank on top of the substrate and about 2 inches from the side of the tank. I have left it there for a half hour and it has fluctuated from between 80.6 and 77.5 during that time.

What is the temperature of the probe if you put it directly against the glass buried below the substrate? Also, how deep is the substrate and what are you using?

Put it under the substrate over the heat coil so we know what its giving you.

What watt bulb do you have in right now?

Covering the back and sides with thick paper, cardboard, foam, etc. Will insulate and give you a few more degrees. Also making a cover, I used cardboard covered with foil, will keep the heat from escaping through the top.

Substrate is aspen and it is about 1 inch deep. i buried the probe and it got considerably warmer. Im just waiting for the reading to even out. but its showing 99 degrees right now.

the bulb wattage is 75

99 and still rising is dangerous. Unplug it!

I wouldn't suggest going higher than 75 for that size tank. Cover the top and sides and lets see what you get. I bet we can get your air temp good and when you add a uth and tstat your hotspot will be set giving you the total package.

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Originally Posted by KMG

99 and still rising is dangerous. Unplug it!

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^ This x 10000000000!

Don't Worry Its very much unplugged and far away from the tank.

The back was already covered with one of those dorky 3D background things which are prety thick.
I just covered the sides with some spare Linoleum i had lying around and i covered some cardboard in tinfoil and put it at the top of the tank so the screen at the top is about 50% covered.
I left the rest open to allow the humidity and air to get in.

Current readings are cold side 68.9 hot side (against the glass and under the substrate) 89.2
humidity 67% (he's suposedly shedding soon)

Good start. Just track your numbers and report back tomorrow.

Temperature update.

After 8hrs with the light off (it gives off white light)
Cold: 68.5°
Warm: 74.7°

After 2 hrs with the light back on this morning
Cold: 71.6°
Warm: 78.4°

Humidity levels seem generally ok.

Get a red bulb today so you can leave it on. Your temps dropped way to much.

Or,

You could get a che(ceramic heat emitter) that doesn't put out any light and only pumps heat. They are a bit pricey but last a long time when used correctly. I have one that's been on 24/7 for over 2.5 years now.

I just got the red bulb for now. I will probably end up switching to the Che later.

Temperatures have remains pretty steady all day at between 69-70 on the cool side and 79-80 on the warm side. So still too cold :(

I think my tank may be larger then 30 gallons. Which is what they told me it was. It us 36" X 18" X 16"

I keep my home at 68F. Being that I like having my bp tank in the living room I have a uth, 100 watt che, and a 60 watt bulb.

The uth and che are on the warm side but my cool side was to cool so I had to add the 60 watt bulb to pick up the slack. It sounds as if you may need to do the same.

Ok I'm going to pick up a proper uth today see if that does the trick as I'm not currently using one. Hopefully that will do the trick.

Do you use any particular kind of thermostat to regulate the uth temp?

I use Herpstat. I have two Herpstat 1, a Herpstat 2, and a Herpstat 4. They are great.

A uth does nothing for your air temp so that will not be a fix. It just provides a good hotspot. Plus any good tstat will need to be ordered online as most pet shops only carry junky options.