any suggestions on raising the cool side temp?

my cool side temp stays at a temp of 78.6-79.9 degrees is there any other way to get it to the mid 80's (82-84) without using heatlamps and whatnot?? my warm side gets to 94.6 sometimes up to 95. im also using a 20 gal tank with an ultratherm heatpad purchased from rich at reptile basics.

any and all suggestions are welcome and i thank you in advance.

I usually have a towel or a small blanket draped over my cool side to help boost its ambient temps.

yea i have the uhm foil paper and duct tape tactic going on but still cant seem to get the temps to even out

you can heat the room you are keeping the snakes in....

a small space heater on a ranco/johnson control will keep the room temps up which in turn will raise the cool side temps.

are there any other suggestions..'cause my coolside temps drop dramatically at night..they get low as 76. im using a ultratherm heatpad from rich at reptile basics with a 20 gallon tank.. on newspaper as substrate

Try a ceramic heat emitter (100 watt)on a thermostat over the cool side,out side of tank, they can cause severe burns if touched. Glass Tanks are harder control, I would switch to a tub. Or another UTH on thermostat on cool side.

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Originally Posted by westcoastjungle

Try a ceramic heat emitter (100 watt)on a thermostat over the cool side,out side of tank, they can cause severe burns if touched. Glass Tanks are harder control, I would switch to a tub. Or another UTH on thermostat on cool side.

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would a 75watt infrared heat bulb do it? and if so what side would i setup the bulb? on the warm side and let the heat flow to the cool side..or set up the bulb over the cool side? therefore having to warm sides huh..lol

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Originally Posted by SGB_74

would a 75watt infrared heat bulb do it? and if so what side would i setup the bulb? on the warm side and let the heat flow to the cool side..or set up the bulb over the cool side? therefore having to warm sides huh..lol

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Use the bulb on either a proportional thermostat or a rheostat over the cool side, then adjust your heat pad again to maintain proper warm side temps.

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Originally Posted by SGB_74

my cool side temp stays at a temp of 78.6-79.9 degrees is there any other way to get it to the mid 80's (82-84) without using heatlamps and whatnot?? my warm side gets to 94.6 sometimes up to 95. im also using a 20 gal tank with an ultratherm heatpad purchased from rich at reptile basics.

any and all suggestions are welcome and i thank you in advance.

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Your temps are fine. I would not worry about changing anything.

from my understanding anything that got down in the low 70's could turn out to be harmful for the snake

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Originally Posted by SGB_74

from my understanding anything that got down in the low 70's could turn out to be harmful for the snake

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Breeders typically lower nighttime temps to 82/72 to induce the breeding cycle... the temps you have are lower than optimal, but not horrible.

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Originally Posted by SGB_74

from my understanding anything that got down in the low 70's could turn out to be harmful for the snake

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But your temps are not in the low 70's. You said "my cool side temp stays at a temp of 78.6-79.9". As long as you keep your warm side temps where they should be you will be fine. Moving your cool side from where they are currently up to 82 is not going to really affect anything IMO.

1. Minimize ventilation through the top of the cage (see sticky posts).
2. cover three sides of the cage w/ rolled cork from a craft store. This was good for a few degrees on my 20g glass.

I use a uth for the warm side and put my heat lamp over the cool side.

I would also measure a few points in the tank to make sure you eliminate cold spots. I usually manage to keep a ambient temperature of 82 in the entire cage (except inside the warm hide of course).

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Originally Posted by pfan151

But your temps are not in the low 70's. You said "my cool side temp stays at a temp of 78.6-79.9". As long as you keep your warm side temps where they should be you will be fine. Moving your cool side from where they are currently up to 82 is not going to really affect anything IMO.

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I'd have to disagree there. I used to think that until my snake got an RI. You don't want to mess with a low base-line temperature. that's what's really dangerous.

If I was given a choice between having to keep my snake in a cage that was 82d everywhere or having to keep him in a cage that had a good warm hide and was 75 everywhere else I'd choose the 82d cage.

gotta go with bear on this one, he learned the hard way. you want to keep ~82˚ for a healthy snake.

i have no probs with the temp in the day but its at night when they tend to drop, and i was wondering is that a bad thing 'cause i see some users saying they have a night drop for their snakes but those are for breeders i dont have any intentions on breeding being as thought shes my only normal BP.

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Originally Posted by bearhart

I'd have to disagree there. I used to think that until my snake got an RI. You don't want to mess with a low base-line temperature. that's what's really dangerous.

If I was given a choice between having to keep my snake in a cage that was 82d everywhere or having to keep him in a cage that had a good warm hide and was 75 everywhere else I'd choose the 82d cage.

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A snake kept constantly at 94-95 on the warm side with a cool side of 79-79.9 will not get an RI. If there was no warm side I would agree with you. Ball pythons are not nearly as delicate as you seem to think. His temps are fine. There is no reason to change anything. If he did try to raise the cool side temps he would probably end up making his warm side too hot.

I saw on one of your other posts that you said:
"I would also measure a few points in the tank to make sure you eliminate cold spots. I usually manage to keep a ambient temperature of 82 in the entire cage (except inside the warm hide of course)."
Do you only heat under your hide? I have always kept one entire side of the cage warm with heat tape and allowed the temp to go down the further it got away from the heat tape. This gives me a gradient of 93 down to about 80. As long as he is measuring his temps accurately his snake will not get an RI at the current temps. I think a lot of people that get into trouble with RI's usually think the temps are higher than they actually are in the cage. I also think drafts cause a lot more RI's than temps. But he can change it if he wants. I just think he is worrying over a non issue.

This is a blurb from NERDs care sheet:
"Provide your ball python with a basking spot of 88-92 °F and an ambient (background) temperature of 78-80 °F. The ambient temperature should not fall below 75 °F. It is vitally important to KNOW the temperatures at which you are keeping your snake(s)."

http://www.newenglandreptile.com/CareBall.html

I agree its probably a close call here. I would still recommend measuring the cage in several spots.

well i took some advice from the users which answered this blog, and woke up this morning with the cool side being at an even 70 :( so what i did was setup a 60watt blacklight over the coolside and got its temps up to 84.4 i think thats the best thing to go with. i'll post a pic of the current temps. let me know if the temps are right? i see all these post with diff temps to house your BP in..a petco caresheet i came across says 95F warm side and 78F cool side..the caresheet i came across on this site says 90F warm side and 80F coolside and now i see the post from the NERD site so is there a set temp that you should house your BP in or does it depend if you breed or whatnot..

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...graff/temp.jpg

This is going to be one of those issues where everyone is going to have a different opinion. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with any of the advice you've gotten, except possibly the petco care sheet. That seems like an extreme range of temp variation to me...

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Originally Posted by CntrlF8

This is going to be one of those issues where everyone is going to have a different opinion. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with any of the advice you've gotten, except possibly the petco care sheet. That seems like an extreme range of temp variation to me...

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yea seems as though you're right..i went down to this local exotic petshop where i purchase my feeders and spoke with the owner and he told me not to use a heatlamp being as though it dries the air out and number 2 heatlamps arent made for snakes..so i did what he suggested and now the temps have finally dialed in at 93.6 (warm side) and 81.1 (cool side)...i appreciate everyone that had their input on this thread and especially the one that pulled that info from the NERD site.

Thats the similar setup I use. I've got a 50watt night lamp over the cool side - that gets 80-85 degrees and a UTH on the hot side around 90-92. Humidity stays around 50%-60% with my screen lid covered with foil and duct tape.

I battled my temps and was debating getting a thermostat and all that good stuff but I think im gravey now. I might get some sort of refectix tape for the warm side to bump a few but its stable.

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Originally Posted by SGB_74

well i took some advice from the users which answered this blog, and woke up this morning with the cool side being at an even 70 :( so what i did was setup a 60watt blacklight over the coolside and got its temps up to 84.4 i think thats the best thing to go with. i'll post a pic of the current temps. let me know if the temps are right? i see all these post with diff temps to house your BP in..a petco caresheet i came across says 95F warm side and 78F cool side..the caresheet i came across on this site says 90F warm side and 80F coolside and now i see the post from the NERD site so is there a set temp that you should house your BP in or does it depend if you breed or whatnot..

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...graff/temp.jpg

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I'm liking your setup much better now. Here's my setup:

* Large UTH warm side stuck to bottom of tank.
* Small UTH stuck to bottom of tank on cool side.
* 100W Heat lamp over cool side (which is where the water dish is).
* 3 sides of tank covered with cork.

* Accu-rite sitting near the glass outside of the warm hide with the probe inside the warm hide. Because of the way I heat, the outside of the warm hide is usually the coldest spot in the tank!
* Another single temp/humidity digital thermometer on the cool side.


Both UTH's and the 100W heat lamp are connected to a lamp dimmer. Basically what I did here was adjust the wattage of the bulb until I got the right ratio of warm to cool when I connected them all to the dimmer. I can adjust all the temps up or down by a few degrees with a single setting. It has worked well because the cage temps tend to drift together as the room temperature changes.

I tend to run 80-82 ambient and 92-94 warm side. Everything fluctuates a bit with the house temp and I occasionally adjust the dimmer if it gets too far out of whack.

I don't adjust for night-time.

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Originally Posted by bearhart

I'm liking your setup much better now. Here's my setup:

* Large UTH warm side stuck to bottom of tank.
* Small UTH stuck to bottom of tank on cool side.
* 100W Heat lamp over cool side (which is where the water dish is).
* 3 sides of tank covered with cork.

* Accu-rite sitting near the glass outside of the warm hide with the probe inside the warm hide. Because of the way I heat, the outside of the warm hide is usually the coldest spot in the tank!
* Another single temp/humidity digital thermometer on the cool side.


Both UTH's and the 100W heat lamp are connected to a lamp dimmer. Basically what I did here was adjust the wattage of the bulb until I got the right ratio of warm to cool when I connected them all to the dimmer. I can adjust all the temps up or down by a few degrees with a single setting. It has worked well because the cage temps tend to drift together as the room temperature changes.

I tend to run 80-82 ambient and 92-94 warm side. Everything fluctuates a bit with the house temp and I occasionally adjust the dimmer if it gets too far out of whack.

I don't adjust for night-time.

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couldnt you just use the acurite by itself, by sitting it on the "cool" side you can get a reading of that temp and just run the probe to the "warm" side and you get a reading for both sides at once. i believe the "OUT" temp is the probe and the "IN" temp is where the acurite is actually placed being as though its placed on the cool side you can get a cool side reading.

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Originally Posted by SGB_74

couldnt you just use the acurite by itself, by sitting it on the "cool" side you can get a reading of that temp and just run the probe to the "warm" side and you get a reading for both sides at once. i believe the "OUT" temp is the probe and the "IN" temp is where the acurite is actually placed being as though its placed on the cool side you can get a cool side reading.

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Thats what I do. Unit itself goes on the cool side, and the probe on the warm side underneath his hide.

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Originally Posted by SGB_74

couldnt you just use the acurite by itself, by sitting it on the "cool" side you can get a reading of that temp and just run the probe to the "warm" side and you get a reading for both sides at once. i believe the "OUT" temp is the probe and the "IN" temp is where the acurite is actually placed being as though its placed on the cool side you can get a cool side reading.

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I have found that there can be some surprising gradients in there. After making any big changes I would recommend moving the main accurite unit (cool temp) around and take measurements at a few locations in the cage to make sure you are actually getting a consistent ambient temperature. In one of my earlier setups the warm hide was in the low nineties and just 6 inches away at the glass it was 75 or so.