Heat light question

Hello! I recently got an adult bp! He's super friendly! He's already eagerly eaten! And seems to be doing great!
the only questions I have are about heating. I currently just have a 50watt red infrared bulb that was given to me when I got him. I was told from the Rescue I got him from that was all I would need and he would be fine.
I don't really want a uth because I just don't trust them. I've read so many things about them catching fire or being faulty even when hooked up to a thermostat.
So I am just wanting to make sure- is the 50watt enough heat for him? His warm end seems to stay between 82-86.

Thanks.

That would depend on how large the enclosure is for him. I have a 4ft wooden vivarium for my elder male, and his heat bulb has a 100 watt infrared, directly under the bulb gets to about high 80's to 91/2, and the low end helps to create a nice gradient over the vivarium.

Almost forgot, congratulations!

Be aware anything electrical can be dangerous. My nephew unintetionally set a bed on fire with my lizard's heat lamp.

I use a 100 watt as well, the warm end should be closer to 90, so might be worth getting an upgrade

Ok. So maybe a 75 watt infrared would be better? And that's ok as the only heat source?

Are you measuring actual surface temperatures or ambient?

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Originally Posted by Finnsmom

Ok. So maybe a 75 watt infrared would be better? And that's ok as the only heat source?

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I use a 75w infrared and a UV white light, keeping the hot end around 92 degrees and the cold end 82. Is your snake's name Finn? Mine's named Flynn. :P

Ok, let me try it this way. I am very much against heat lamps for ball pythons. It can be done but it is more trouble than its worth in my opinion. Also, I believe that heat tape and undertank heaters are safer than a heat lamp when done correctly. If you must use a heat lamp then we probably need a better idea of what your actual setup is. 82-86 is too low for a hot - cold side setup. Also u have not specified how you are taking the temp and where. Floor, Ambient???

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...ius)-Caresheet

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

Are you measuring actual surface temperatures or ambient?

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ding ding ding. It is important to know what kind of thermometers you are using and where they are located in the tank.

Lamps are fine as a heat source, but most people find that it becomes nearly impossible to keep your humidity up.

Don't be scared of UTH's. They fail very rarely and with a good thermostat, your snake is perfectly safe.

Yes I realize it's hard for the humidity to stay up with the heat lamps. I currently have him in a 20gal long.
The warm end fluctuates between 82-86. The cool end stays around 75.
and that is the ambient air temps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finnsmom

Yes I realize it's hard for the humidity to stay up with the heat lamps. I currently have him in a 20gal long.
The warm end fluctuates between 82-86. The cool end stays around 75.
and that is the ambient air temps.

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Thank you for the additional info, I will now leave you to the tank pros since I use racks.

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

ding ding ding. It is important to know what kind of thermometers you are using and where they are located in the tank.

Lamps are fine as a heat source, but most people find that it becomes nearly impossible to keep your humidity up.

Don't be scared of UTH's. They fail very rarely and with a good thermostat, your snake is perfectly safe.

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I use two lamps attached to a heat/humidity sensor and a heat pad. Since I have a screen top I use a fogger, also attached to the sensor, and I cut some plexiglass pieces and set them on top of the screen to keep the humidity up. The whole set up was pretty inexpensive and it works like a charm. You can find most of the stuff I used cheap on craigslist, at reptile expos, online, etc.

Ok. I am going to try the UTH. I just got home from work- and his tank is pretty cool- our house stay on the cool side- so apparently that heat lamp isn't heating it up much :( poor guy, I feel bad now.
I am going to go to Walmart tonight- could someone give me an idea of what thermostat they may have for me to get? And are they easy to hook up to the UTH? I'm not good with things like that...

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Originally Posted by Finnsmom

Ok. I am going to try the UTH. I just got home from work- and his tank is pretty cool- our house stay on the cool side- so apparently that heat lamp isn't heating it up much :( poor guy, I feel bad now.
I am going to go to Walmart tonight- could someone give me an idea of what thermostat they may have for me to get? And are they easy to hook up to the UTH? I'm not good with things like that...

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If you have a Petsmart, Petco, any other pet store nearby, they will sell reliable ZooMed thermostats, which I've always used. Otherwise, I'm sure any run-of-the-mill thermostat will likely work fine.

Hmm I'm not sure if Walmart will carry anything that will work like you need it. There is a pretty inexpensive thermostat on Amazon, I believe it's called a jumpstart? Hopefully someone else can come in with a link.

If your house is cool, you might still need the lamp with the UTH because a UTH will do little to increase the ambient air temp.

What thermometers are you using? If you can post a picture we can help figure out what you need a bit better.

Don't worry about the snake being a little on the cool side. They do better in cool temps than they do in higher temps. Just don't feed the snake until you get your temps in order.

:)


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finnsmom

Yes I realize it's hard for the humidity to stay up with the heat lamps. I currently have him in a 20gal long.
The warm end fluctuates between 82-86. The cool end stays around 75.
and that is the ambient air temps.

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I run tanks, 20 longs. I use either 40 or 60 watt zoo med red night bulbs depending on the season, and where the tank is on my shelves. Yeah, it's a bit more work. And I also have to use humid hides. But it's very doable if you have the passion/time. I'd be more concerned about baking the little guys with to much bulb wattage. I have no trouble with hotspots or ambient temps. But then again my home is always at around 73 to 74 degrees, so please take that into consideration with my two cents. And I don't provide belly heat and like my hot spot around 88 degrees. :) Hope that helps some what.

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Originally Posted by Finnsmom

that is the ambient air temps.

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Surface temperatures are more important.

Ok. Thank you! That helps me a lot. Since our house does stay on the cooler side- I think I'll try the 75 watt red bulb. Or the moonlight bulb? That way it can stay on at night. And I won't go with belly heat. Right now his humidity is not very good because all I have in his tank is a water bowl and a cardboard box and paper towels. ( he has mites :( ) so I'm battling those.
But when they are gone-hopefully soon- I will put his substrate back in and his wood hides and some spagnum moss and that will help with the humidity.

Will definitely be helpful once his mites have cleared up to get some proper substrate in there as well as some moss. I don't know how much it will help, but you could try getting a small plastic bowl/pot - I'll try to leave a picture below of what I mean, directly underneath the heat guard for the bulb, that will evaporate fairly fast because it's a fairly small volume of water, and it might help with the humidity in the warm end; just might need to be changed over often, and also wedged in there too, because the python will just romp around the cage and probably knock it over if not. :rolleyes:

Example of what I mean is in the spoiler, anything that size, really.



https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...stic-bowls.jpg

If you're still looking for an inexpensive but reliable uth and thermostat I'd go with an Ultratherm uth and the hydrofarm thermostat. The Ultratherm uths don't get as hot as the Zoomed units and are less likely to burn your snake even in the event of a thermostat failure. I have Hydrofarm thermostats on all my setups. I've used these products for a few years now with no issues. I also use a 75w IR heat bulb to boost my ambient temps but I'm thinking of using rhps as a sole heat source on my new enclosures. There are nicer thermostats like Herpstat and Vivarium Electronics and some keepers love them but they're a little pricier.

http://www.reptilebasics.com/ultratherm-heat-pads

https://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTP...arm+thermostat

Every place weather is different and will struggle with different things.

Once that said... I also have a 20gal tank, to warm the hot side I used to have an UTH and a 100W white and red bulbs (day/night) but they didn't warmed the same way, I didn't wanted to struggle between light and heat so I switched. For lighting I now use a LED strip all around the tank, awesome, it's dimmable, and it has a very wide range of colors. And to heat a ceramic infrared heat emitter, it is still a 100W but it is way more powerful than the light bulbs, had to plug it in with a dimmer and keep it steady below half of the power.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...fd9da1f34f.jpg

As temps went higher humidity went down, to solve that I covered the lid with aluminum foil and since the ceramic is not the lighting source I didn't had to make an opening, just cut open a little door my lid have, also serves for ventilation.

I also keep the UTH with a dimmer which I also regulate extremely low, it gains only a couple of degrees on the floor no real impact on the tank climate. I don't trust them either but my Kira finds it comfortable.

The only truly expensive item on my setup is the ceramic heating thing. But worth every cent.

Hope this helped, and keep us posted on how things go!



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Ok. Thanks so much for the info. I'm going out today to look at a few things and I'll let you guys know what I've decided!

I just got a 5 months old bp and I'm using a zoo med heat pad and a zillia thermostat but if I turn it on the temp just goes to like 98 on the surface no matter what temp I set the thermostat to please help

Alright. So I got a 75watt infrared red bulb for daytime and a 60watt moonlight for at night since the red was a little to much for my room at night. I have had it plugged in for about 15 min now. And it's only up to 78? Is it normal for it to take this long? I have it on a dimmer but I have it all the way up right now- so I can see how hot it will be and then I'll adjust it from there.
I sprayed his tank also with water to try and get the humidity up in there. But I know with the paper towels and cardboard box hide- it's not going to stay. Hopefully soon his mites will be gone and I can put his wood hides, substrate and moss back in.
I was going to upload a picture of his setup. But I couldn't figure out how...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Finnsmom

Alright. So I got a 75watt infrared red bulb for daytime and a 60watt moonlight for at night since the red was a little to much for my room at night. I have had it plugged in for about 15 min now. And it's only up to 78? Is it normal for it to take this long? I have it on a dimmer but I have it all the way up right now- so I can see how hot it will be and then I'll adjust it from there.
I sprayed his tank also with water to try and get the humidity up in there. But I know with the paper towels and cardboard box hide- it's not going to stay. Hopefully soon his mites will be gone and I can put his wood hides, substrate and moss back in.
I was going to upload a picture of his setup. But I couldn't figure out how...

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I don't ever think you said what thermometers you are using. Can you tell us the brand or describe them?

Are you using tapatalk or the desktop version? You can upload photos to Imgur, photobucket, Flickr, or another hosting site and then post it here. There is a little button that will allow you to insert it into the post. It looks like a picture.






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And I have one other question- I'm worried but I don't know if I should be. So I got him on Monday and he ate on Tuesday- but he hasn't pooped or peed or had any urates. Is this normal? I know I've read that they don't go often. But I just want to make sure it's normal that he hasn't done any of those since I've had him almost a week now. :/
Thanks.

It's zoo med digital thermometer. It's only reading 80 still and it's been I'd guess half an hour now that the new lights been on.
I don't understand how the temps not getting higher??? It was higher with the lower wattage than it is with the higher one. Makes no sense.

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Originally Posted by Cozmod123

I just got a 5 months old bp and I'm using a zoo med heat pad and a zillion thermostat but if I turn it on the temp just goes to like 98 on the surface no matter what temp I set the thermostat to please help

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Hi, you should probably make your own thread so people can help you out. Just go into the General BP/BP Husbandry forum, then click make new thread. :)

Ok- here's a pic of the tank
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...30e85d1acc.jpg


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