Thermostats

[D2b]

I have a UTH and Iv read a lot
On here about thermostats and the need of one. But I don't fully understand how to set one up in my tank to actually regulate the UTH? Any info or advice would be perfect thanks guys

[The Serpent Merchant]

ok, so the thermostat will have a temperature probe. this probe needs to be secured to the UTH. This probe will then tell the thermostat how hot the UTH is. it then regulated the power going to the UTH (The UTH is of course plugged into the thermostat) to keep the temperature of the UTH at the temperature that you set the thermostat to.

depending on how you have your tank set up, you will probably have to set the thermostat slightly higher to maintain the desired cage temperature because some heat is lost when it goes throughout the glass and substrate.

Do you have any specific questions?

[D2b]

That pretty well sums it up man, I can get a thermostat that has a male and female plug in, with this probe at any hardware store?

[mattchibi]

First off, which thermostat have you decided on? If you havent chosen one yet, I HIGHLY recommend Herpstats and Vivarium Electronics (or VE for short).

So your thermostat is going to have a probe coming out of it to track the temps of the UTH at all times and thats also how it regulates it, so you want to put the probe at the hottest point of the UTH.

So, from top to bottom:

Substrate
Glass
Thermostat Probe
UTH - foil taped or just stuck directly on the bottom of the glass

The thermostat probe should be outside of the enclosure, and it should be placed directly in the center of the UTH. You can use a seperate thermometer with a probe (buy them at any pet store for $10) to measure the temps inside the tank.

Read this tutorial on how to set up a tub, it shows very clearly how to set up the thermostat and probes, and will be the exact same for your glass tank.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...Basics...*DUW*

[The Serpent Merchant]

No, unfortunately the only kind of thermostats sold at hardware stores are usually the kind of thermostats used on air conditioners. All these do is send a signal to a relay that turns on and off the air conditioner... these only send 5-12 volt DC signals and cannot operate a UTH.

here are 2 good thermostats that you can get. Unfortunately I have never seen a good thermostat in a store (if you have a really good reptile shop they might have one, but even that is unlikely)

The hydrofarm, $30 on amazon. these are cheap and will work but are not very accurate and should be replaced with a better one when possible.

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR..._bxgy_ol_img_b

Herpstats are the best that you can get, they cost more but they are extremely accurate and have many safety features that make them much better and safer than other thermostats. They start at $99

http://spyderrobotics.com/

[D2b]

Thanks I'll deffinetly get a herpstat, totally off topic but if I put a few pictures of my habitat and set up here now would you be able to let me know if I'm going in the right direction?

[The Serpent Merchant]

most likely we could, I'd start a new thread for them in the BP Husbandry section. Pictures are worth a thousand words after all

[D2b]

Will do, thank you