Temperature on top of substrate..

Well the other day out of curiosity I set my accurite thermometer ontop of the substrate on the WARM side, and it read 80.. constantly.. Yet the probe is placed on the floor of the aquarium covered by some repti-bark that reads 91 degrees...

I thought it was correct to place the probe on the bottom to get a accurate reading of how hot the glass is etc..

There isn't much repti-bark covering the floor, just enough to cover the glass bottom. I'm wondering what the deal is, freaking out that my temperatures aren't right.

Anyone? :confused:

It sounds alright to me....so long as your cool side temps aren't going too low. If the surface of the glass is 91 on the warm spot, and the layer of substrate is just a thin one, then it should be fine. If the snake wants more warmth, it'll nestle down against the glass.

My cold is in check, reading a constant 81.

I was just worried thinking why the temperature is reading so differently directly on top of the substrate.

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Originally Posted by Gundy

My cold is in check, reading a constant 81.

I was just worried thinking why the temperature is reading so differently directly on top of the substrate.

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I dunno....I'd have to see the setup myself to have a decent guess as to what's going on. It's possible the layer of substrate is thicker than you think it is....or just not conducting the heat very well, regardless. Or, if the ambient temps in the room are really chilly, and the tank is glass (does not hold heat well) the warmth from the UTH may be dissipating too quickly to maintain a warmer temp at the surface. But....that's just imaginative speculation on my part.

Hmm..

Should I work on substrate temperature then?

I guess I am not sure of I should actually have the top of the substrate reach 90 degrees or the bottom of the glass... Either way, the bottom of the glass will be super hot if the substrate needs to actually be 90..


Unless I test this with newspaper..

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Originally Posted by JLC

It sounds alright to me....so long as your cool side temps aren't going too low. If the surface of the glass is 91 on the warm spot, and the layer of substrate is just a thin one, then it should be fine. If the snake wants more warmth, it'll nestle down against the glass.

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It's fine. If, as you say, it's a thin layer of substrate...the snake can reach the warmth it needs. Also...are you measuring the temps under the warmside hide? It's usually much toastier in there than outside the hide.

I was under the impression that you should put the probes on top of the substrate- I just started using aspen on top of newspaper (I had a trouble keeping humidity up), and I've got them tucked under the edges of the respective hides. I figured it's better to know the temps where he's actually at... does anyone else put the probe under the substrate?

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Originally Posted by Swingline0.0.1

I was under the impression that you should put the probes on top of the substrate- I just started using aspen on top of newspaper (I had a trouble keeping humidity up), and I've got them tucked under the edges of the respective hides. I figured it's better to know the temps where he's actually at... does anyone else put the probe under the substrate?

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It all depends on your setup. So long as you're sure the snake can't get burned by nestling down close to the glass (which you seem to have covered by having newspaper down) then it's ok to have the probe on top of the substrate. So long as you don't have a really thick layer of aspen, so that the newspaper is having to reach temps of 100+.......you're fine.

Nope, it's about 1" thick (depending on how much he rearranges, that is! :)

So then technically you are supposed to measure the top of the substrate. But you don't want the glass to get above 100?

You could switch to newspaper as a substrate. It conducts heat great. :)

I have my probes reading the temps of the bottom of the tub. It seems that no matter what I do with the aspen, they will always move it around to the sides of their hide and their body will be in direct contact with the bottom.

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

I have my probes reading the temps of the bottom of the tub. It seems that no matter what I do with the aspen, they will always move it around to the sides of their hide and their body will be in direct contact with the bottom.

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Mine too. He usually pushes the aspen out of the hide through the hole. It is rather funny acutally -- he builds up a big mound right in front of his entrance. And the bare tub is where he likes it. Sometimes I wonder why I put the aspen in at all.

Well I went through and removed alot of repti-bark on the warm side. And left a good layer of it on the cool side. I was using a different probe to measure the cool side and just layed the probe on the substrate, and then I started wondering why I put bedding ontop of the warm side probe.. ahh well.. Will have to see what happens!

Going to see how the surface temperature changes, or if it even does.

Thanks guys for the fast replies.

Hmm.. I think the accurite thermometer thats actually on the bottom of the unit is different then the actual probe. I attached the probe to the bottom of the glass and then just set the actual accurite unit ontop of the glass right beside the probe and got two different readings..

Not sure how this should go?

Hi,

The normal procedure is to place the base unit on the cool side of the tank at ground level to get an idea of the ambients and the relative humidity and the probe can be placed at various points for checking spot temps.

Normally I measure the temp inside the cool hide, inside the hot hide on top of the substrate and in the hot hide underthe substrate - I normally just put the probe in on top of the bedding and adjust things till that reads around 90-93f then ,once that's steady, bury the probe untill its against the glass bottom and check it isn't too hot.

If it has to be over 95f on the glass to get the correct temps in the hide I thin out the substrate until that is no longer the case.

Now that's just the way I do it - I'm sure others will chime in with their recomendations.:)


dr del