New Owner Introduction

Hi all, well not technically a new owner yet as I haven't received my girl, but the purchase was made and awaiting confirmation for shipment.

My name is Ryan, I'm glad to have found this site as I have already used the BP care sheet to get myself familiar with enclosure setup.
I do own one very giant dog and in the past have owned a veiled chameleon. Not that chameleons are the same, but I am familiar with the importance of temperature and humidity ranges.

I purchased a baby pastel (appears to be black and yellow) female today from LLLReptile. I did business with them with my veiled chameleon and was very pleased.
With 4 days estimate until arrival because of the weekend (expecting shipment on monday and arrival on tuesday), I've got the basic setup for a home complete and am currently experimenting with the temperature and humidity levels.
I've got a 20 gallon terrarium, a basking light raised off the enclosure to keep the highest point in the cage at a steady 89-90 degrees and provide some light because her home is in a walk-in closet. 2 hiding enclosures, one on the left (cool) side and one of the right (warm) side. The warm side has an UTH to raise belly temperature. I have a thick layer of aspen substrate spread out (1.5-2"). Two fake leaf vines attached to the back of the enclosure as well as a long vine twisting from the left to the right side of the cage going from top to bottom and one water bowl placed on the cool side. I have an analog thermometer attached to the cool side which i will remove when i purchase another digital. I also have a digital thermometer/hygrometer, the temp probe is on the bottom of the terrarium located directly above the UHT covered with substrate. The humidity probe is like in the middle of the tank halfway from the bottom. I dont currently have a thermostat, I will pick an inexpensive one up from the store tomorrow along with another thermostat/hygrometer.

My current daytime reading are (digital readings):
49-52% humidity at the middle of the terrarium.
89-90 degrees at the highest point in the warm zone (basking) about 12" from the light source.
82 degrees under the warm hiding spot above the UHT (probe on glass bottom under substrate)
For some reason my temp reading under the cool side hideout is 87 degrees? (probed above substrate)

Are these pretty reasonable readings, besides the cool side? I'm not sure what the problem with that is?

I'll be getting nighttime readings throughout the night and will reply to this topic with my findings on that.

Its great to be a part of the community!

The cool side may be reading wrong because you are using an analog thermometer. It could explain a lot. The temperatures seem fine. Try to get the hot spot a little higher to about 88F. Humidity is a little low. It should be about 60% and raised to 70% when in shed. many people say a male can live in a 20 gal for his entire life but a friend of mine has a 1500g male. Not all of them are small, so be prepared to have the possibility of an update in size.

Thanks for the tips. I purchased the 20 gal with the expectation of upgrading to a 40 when the money is available. as far the temperature? I should raise the belly temp to 88F? how do you propose doing that with raising the ambient temp up?

i took the digital probe and moved it to the cool side and got those awkwardly high readings. Im going to sit the probe there overnight and see if there is a difference, current readings were with the probe at position for an hour.

As far as humidity, i'll check placement of the water bowl and see if it can increase some. if not, i'll add some moss and go from there

thanks again

The numbers sound reasonably good , but I didn't get where the probe is for the thermostat. Did you dial in the temperature on the thermostat? The thermometer probe that is on the glass above the uth is ok but it might get you inaccurate readings if the probe gets wet or soiled by urine or feces or water. The thermostat probe should go on the outside of the tank in between the bottom of the tank and the uth. Don't tape over the sensor, only over the sensor wire.

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Originally Posted by Albert Clark

The numbers sound reasonably good , but I didn't get where the probe is for the thermostat. Did you dial in the temperature on the thermostat? The thermometer probe that is on the glass above the uth is ok but it might get you inaccurate readings if the probe gets wet or soiled by urine or feces or water. The thermostat probe should go on the outside of the tank in between the bottom of the tank and the uth. Don't tape over the sensor, only over the sensor wire.

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The probe for the thermometer is on the inside of the tank, directly above the UTH lying on the glass. I'm not sure if all of the probes are as thick, but the one on mine has the thickness of a large nail, if that plays any part in not placing it between the UTH and glass.

That probe is for the thermometer but I am referring to the probe for your thermostat. Thermometer measures temperature , thermostat regulates the temperature. Two different things.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Albert Clark

That probe is for the thermometer but I am referring to the probe for your thermostat. Thermometer measures temperature , thermostat regulates the temperature. Two different things.

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OP said he has yet to get a thermostat.

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Originally Posted by BCS

OP said he has yet to get a thermostat.

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I'm pointing towards the herpistat Intro+ to regulate the UTH, but I may need to add a fogger because I'm having trouble with humidity. Are there any other wallet friendly thermostats that can control two units, an UTH and a fogger besides the Herpistat 2? I just added some moss to the cage and put the water bowl a little closer to the heat in hopes of creating some evaporation. I'll monitor a little more to see what the humidity looks like, i may not need to control humidity with a thermostat.

I've also determined that i had a faulty Thermometer/Hygrometer. I knew it was giving me funky readings. I purchased a new one along with an infrared thermometer and the readings are more accurate now.

Question before I make a thermostat purchase. If I have the probe for the thermostat on the outside of the glass between the UTH, what do i want to set that at? The temperature now on the glass is 120F and my infrared reader is showing 88F on top of the substrate.

YOU DONT WANT THE TEMP ANYWERE. CLOSE TO 120. THAT WILL BURN YOUR SNAKE IF IT BURROWS DOWN. SET THE TSTAT WHEN YOU GET IT TO 90 ISH AND MEASURE UR TEMP FROM GLASS. AND GET IT TO 90. u may have to set the tstat to 92 94 to get the 90 Mark.

Sent from my LGL15G using Tapatalk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BCS

OP said he has yet to get a thermostat.

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Thanks for that. I must have missed that info on the thermostat BCS.

I bit the bullet and purchased the HerpStat 2. I bought the 2 because I cant seem to get appropriate humidity levels, its dropped as far as 37% and has reched a high of 63% but stays at a steady 44%.

So I'll be using the Herpstat to regulate the UTH and also the humidity level. Should I use a mister or fogger to add humidity to the terrarium? I don't plan to have it on a schedule, rather than to just turn on when it drops below a point and turn off when it reaches the set point.

Just an update.

Athena has arrived. She came in yesterday and after.an hour of adjusting to room temperature, I went ahead turned on all heating elements.

She fed today, a live fuzzy. It was the Wednesday feeding schedule the breeder had her on and work for me. She must've been fed F/T because when she struck at the fuzze, she held it and then seemed a bit startled and let go. After a minute, she went back to the I jure fuzzy, struck again and held it in her mouth until what I am assuming was her presuming it was dead, then let go again. This time she had zero interest in it. So I held herd and as she was hanging from my hand, put her head close to the dead fuzzy, she struck this time, constricted it for a good 30 seconds and finally ate.

I also got the Herpsta 2 in with the humidity probe. I've set everything up correctly and I want to give notice of my reading now and ask a couple of questions.

The UTH has the Herpstat probe attached and set for 92F.
the thermometer probe I have sitting on top of the substrate underneath her warm side hide and it reads 82F. That brings me to question #1:
1). With the thermometer probe, do I place it on the glass under the substrate to get the glass reading, or do I place it on top of the substrate to get the temperature of where she will lay?

I've also got a fogger hooked up to increase the humidity when it drops. I have the humidity probe for the Herpstat on the cool side where the fogger is placed and it is set at 55%. I also have a hygrometer probe underneath her warm hide, which is getting reading between 59-62%. Question #2:
2)Are my humidity readings okay? And if I needed to lower the humidity in the hide, what's the best way about doing so? I read that a fan blowing towards, but not directly into the top screen was ok?

Lastly, my ambient temperatures are 85F on the warm side, 79F in the middle and 75F cool side. She has kept to herself on the cool side hide and has never used the warm side, but tonight I noticed she's on the warm side, outside of her hide, curled in the corner of the tank. Is this something to be worried about? That she'd rather stay outside her hide, then inside it on the warm side?

She probably is comfortable at that location for now. At least you can rest assured that your temps are safe and correct. Great job!

So relieved. My biggest worry were the temp and humidity. She hides all day and scurries or relaxes in the open at night. I'll post pics as soon as I find a nice hosting site

After over 24 hours of settling and monitoring, here are my tank readings:
http://i62.tinypic.com/vxykb7.jpg

And here is Athena! I was told she is about 3 months and 100% guaranteed female pastel. Sorry for making you turn your head, hosting site auto rotates pics different from my camera. The analog you see in the last pictures is just a spare I through on there. Don't take any readings from it, just like to monitor the heat closest to the light.
http://i59.tinypic.com/k20j2r.jpghttp://i58.tinypic.com/dxio83.jpghttp://i60.tinypic.com/ygy2a.jpghttp://i58.tinypic.com/2ceglsi.jpghttp://i60.tinypic.com/2cgngjb.jpg