help with temps?

so i went and got a few thermometers (couldn't find digital anywhere) and a... barometer? anyway, the hot side is at 80, the cool side at 72 and the humidity (outside of the humid hide) is about 27%. i have a UTH and heat lamp on the hot side and nothing on the cool in a 55g tank. any suggestions for making this ideal??

[Adam_Wysocki]

What kind of thermometers? Are you sure they are accurate? .... With a UTH and a heat lamp on one side of the cage, temps should be higher than 80 .... That said, sounds like your going to need a bigger/more powerful UTH and a higher wattage heat lamp. Are you shutting the lamp off at night or is it a red/blue bulb?

Once you get the hot side up to par with bigger/more powerful UTH and lamp, you could move the UTH you currently have to the cool side (or just add the new stuff to the empty side and leave it where it is) and use a lamp dimmer/rheostat to adjust it so that the cool side temps are around 83 degrees.

Sorry that I don't have a simpiler answer for you.

-adam

they're round thermometers with a needle... that's the best i can describe them. i have the biggest UTH i've seen so far. i don't shut off the light at night, i have a basking bulb that i use in the day and a red heat bulb at night. is that good? should i buy another heat lamp and have one at each end?

[Adam_Wysocki]

I hate to say it, but those round stick on thermometers are really pretty crummy.

You're probably going to need a much higher wattage bulb on the hot side (temp should be in the low 90's) and you can probably get away with using the bulb you have on the cool side to get those temps up above 80.

55 gallons are hard to heat with bulbs cause they are so tall. But with the some experimenting with different combinations of wattages you should be able to work it out.

Switching those bulbs out every night must be a pain in the butt.

-adam

yeah, switching them sucks but she has day and night so it's worth it. i looked all around for better (digital) thermometers and couldn't find any. i checked walmart, target and pet stores. can you give me a specific model or website to order from? i'm not sure that i know exactly what i'm looking for. also, both bulbs are 100w, is that still not enough?

[sophie42204]

I agree. The analog thermoms are very inaccurate. Did you check Walmart? They have a digital thermometer/hygrometer (2 temp readings, 1 humidity reading) for $15. If you want to go cheaper, you can get just the thermometer for less than $7 (one temp reading) and a dual thermometer for (I believe) around $9 or $10.

i'd gladly go buy those if the people at walmart had any clue what or where it was. any link to a specific item would help significantly.

[Adam_Wysocki]

also, both bulbs are 100w, is that still not enough?

If you're temps are not correct than no, it's not. You might need to look into using ceramic heat emitters which i think run all the way up to 250 watts (maybe even higher) and then you wouldn't have to switch them out. You could always try bigger bulbs first, but i don't think you're going to find more than 150w and those might not be strong enough. Maybe with running bulbs on both sides of the tank it will help a little more? You're really going to have to start experimenting. Maybe even running three bulbs across the top to keep the temps up. 50 - 100 - 150 all the way across? It's hard to tell over the internet, you kind of just have to keep trying things until you get it all set.

Walmart and Target both have the digital thermometers. They are near the tools and fans in both stores. I would confirm that those temps are accurate with a digital before I went spending a ton of money. I don't trust those round plastic ones at all.

-adam

[sophie42204]

I never find them @ Walmart online...however they are usually in the fan/light/outside thermometer section. Go to that section and look through those isles, you'll be sure to find it. The brand name is Acurite. Gimme a sec, I'll see if I can find a pic.

[sophie42204]

Go here. The one named 'AcuRite Digital Min/Max Digital Thermometer with Humidity Gauge & Light' is similar looking to the one Walmart sells (but the one at Walmart has 2 temp readings and is much cheaper), scroll towards the bottom of the page, you'll see it.