New owner needing help!

[PCOOLEY13]

My wife surprised me with a Coral Glow BP and it is absolutely beautiful and I can't believe she did this however I wasn't prepared for it. Luckily the breeder gave her a small tub, couple hides, water bowl and a foot of 3'' heat tape. I went out and bought a zilla thermostat and had left over temp and humidity readers from my crested geckos i keep. So far I have had the snake about 10 days. Here are a few things I could use some advice on....

1. I'm getting inconsistent heat from the heat tape. I'm seeing a 15degree change over a foot of the heat tape (probe reads 92 and farther away will read like 108 directly on the heat tape, not in the tub). Went on reddit and was told that I need to get a Herpstat 1 since the on/off thermostats don't work all that well with heat tape. Is this true?
2. I keep the room around 73-75degrees with a floor heater for my crested geckos. How can I supplement some heat to the cold side to make it more like 78-80degrees? Could I use a another strip of heat tape and set it for 80degrees to add heat to the cold side? Could I somehow use a CHE or RHP above the tub to increase the ambient temp inside (however this will most likely increase my humidity which is issue #3). I need some help with this since I can't increase the room temp any more due to my Crested's.
3. woke up this morning to find that the little guy decided to play in his water and soak the paper towels I am using for substrate. The humidity in the tub was close to 80%. So I wiped down the tub and cleaned it. How can I prevent the humidity from getting that high again? I'm thinking more holes in the tub for air flow possibly?
4. So I was told to start it with pinkies even though the breeder said it was on hoppers (live). I thawed out a pinkie last night hoping to feed it today and man it is certainly small compared to the girth of the snake....Should I go back and get something bigger like a fuzzy? Not sure why the breeder told me to feed a pinkie when it was getting live hoppers.....

Any help would be great

[Aerries]

Okay, can’t tell you ANYTHING on tubs, BUT NEVER pinkies! Couple things we need are, what’s the weight of your beep? If it’s a 2018 I can imagine it needs to be fed a rat pup, or what ever the equivalent is to mice. This is where I’m moronic with Tapatalk, check out the pined/sticky for feeding chart. And humidity should be maintained around 55-60%ish so yes more holes lol I’m a tank keeper so tubs are alien to me. I know my UTHs are on Jumpstarts but still maintaining warm side appropriately. I’m in Florida so I have no problem with humidity and ambient temps until it gets below 60 lol oh and to help with ambient get a CHE.


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[PCOOLEY13]

Okay, can’t tell you ANYTHING on tubs, BUT NEVER pinkies! Couple things we need are, what’s the weight of your beep? If it’s a 2018 I can imagine it needs to be fed a rat pup, or what ever the equivalent is to mice. This is where I’m moronic with Tapatalk, check out the pined/sticky for feeding chart. And humidity should be maintained around 55-60%ish so yes more holes lol I’m a tank keeper so tubs are alien to me. I know my UTHs are on Jumpstarts but still maintaining warm side appropriately. I’m in Florida so I have no problem with humidity and ambient temps until it gets below 60 lol oh and to help with ambient get a CHE.


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Thanks, I'm not going to give it a pinkie, i think the breeder just misspoke....Yea it is a 2018, breeder said about 3 weeks old with 3 successful feedings and shed.

[WhompingWillow]

My wife surprised me with a Coral Glow BP and it is absolutely beautiful and I can't believe she did this however I wasn't prepared for it. Luckily the breeder gave her a small tub, couple hides, water bowl and a foot of 3'' heat tape. I went out and bought a zilla thermostat and had left over temp and humidity readers from my crested geckos i keep. So far I have had the snake about 10 days. Here are a few things I could use some advice on....

1. I'm getting inconsistent heat from the heat tape. I'm seeing a 15degree change over a foot of the heat tape (probe reads 92 and farther away will read like 108 directly on the heat tape, not in the tub). Went on reddit and was told that I need to get a Herpstat 1 since the on/off thermostats don't work all that well with heat tape. Is this true?
2. I keep the room around 73-75degrees with a floor heater for my crested geckos. How can I supplement some heat to the cold side to make it more like 78-80degrees? Could I use a another strip of heat tape and set it for 80degrees to add heat to the cold side? Could I somehow use a CHE or RHP above the tub to increase the ambient temp inside (however this will most likely increase my humidity which is issue #3). I need some help with this since I can't increase the room temp any more due to my Crested's.
3. woke up this morning to find that the little guy decided to play in his water and soak the paper towels I am using for substrate. The humidity in the tub was close to 80%. So I wiped down the tub and cleaned it. How can I prevent the humidity from getting that high again? I'm thinking more holes in the tub for air flow possibly?
4. So I was told to start it with pinkies even though the breeder said it was on hoppers (live). I thawed out a pinkie last night hoping to feed it today and man it is certainly small compared to the girth of the snake....Should I go back and get something bigger like a fuzzy? Not sure why the breeder told me to feed a pinkie when it was getting live hoppers.....

Any help would be great

I'm also a beginner, but here are some things I've researched/experienced:

1. How do you have the probe set up/where is it placed? Is the probe wedged between the heat tape and bottom of the tub? What kind of thermostats do you currently use? This might be obvious, but there's a difference between a thermostat and thermometer. A thermostat regulates temps, a thermometer just reads them. You definitely need a thermostat with heat tape.

2. Someone else will hopefully be able to chime in more on the ambient air temperature in tubs. I didn't have much luck with them and changed back to tanks. What I've read is that typically UTHs and heat tape don't warm the air, just the substrate. So you could put another on the cool side and set the thermostat to whatever it needs to be to get the substrate to 80 degrees. I have seen photos of where people have poked some holes or screened part of the top of a tub to use a CHE, but you'd need to be careful with placement to not melt the plastic and would need a thermostat.

3. More holes = less humidity. You can do a few more at a time to control how low the humidity gets. I've also found that more holes = less retained heat, so keep that in mind.

4. Pinky, whether rat or mouse, is definitely too small. Most likely a mouse hopper or small rat fuzzy is needed. Here's a screenshot of a chart I've found helpful:


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[PCOOLEY13]

I'm also a beginner, but here are some things I've researched/experienced:

1. How do you have the probe set up/where is it placed? Is the probe wedged between the heat tape and bottom of the tub? What kind of thermostats do you currently use? This might be obvious, but there's a difference between a thermostat and thermometer. A thermostat regulates temps, a thermometer just reads them. You definitely need a thermostat with heat tape.

I have the thermostat probe on top of the heat tape and then the tub on top. It is the jump start thermostat. I have a digital thermometer in their as well.

2. Someone else will hopefully be able to chime in more on the ambient air temperature in tubs. I didn't have much luck with them and changed back to tanks. What I've read is that typically UTHs and heat tape don't warm the air, just the substrate. So you could put another on the cool side and set the thermostat to whatever it needs to be to get the substrate to 80 degrees. I have seen photos of where people have poked some holes or screened part of the top of a tub to use a CHE, but you'd need to be careful with placement to not melt the plastic and would need a thermostat.

3. More holes = less humidity. You can do a few more at a time to control how low the humidity gets. I've also found that more holes = less retained heat, so keep that in mind.

4. Pinky, whether rat or mouse, is definitely too small. Most likely a mouse hopper or small rat fuzzy is needed. Here's a screenshot of a chart I've found helpful:


Thanks for the help

[PCOOLEY13]

Well just fed him a hopper/small mouse and it looked to be the same size as the largest part of him and it went pretty well. This was his first time feeding for me and eating F/T. I had to take his hide out and get a little close to him to notice it then he perked up and I bounced the mouse a couple times and he got it, took him a few min to get it down. Glad something went right haha

[MissterDog]

I recommend following this chart for prey size



As for Herpstats I can definitely say they are more accurate and well worth your money. I'm on the phone so can't go into much detail atm but real quick I'd recommend considering a Herpstat 2 so you can regulate multiple heat sources if you end up needing them.

[larryd23]

My daughter purchased her banana pastel BP this past summer. We purchased him from a local reptile shop along with everything they recommended for his care. Perhaps they were worried about sticker shock or perhaps they didn't give us the best advice. Either way, we walked out with an Exo Terra viv, an Ultratherm UTH, and no thermostat.

The first thing we realized was that the UTH got way too hot for the safety of her boy. Having found this forum, we did our research and decided to buy a high quality thermostat. We purchased a Herpstat 1. And that was our second mistake. Don't get me wrong. We are very happy with the Herpstat. Our mistake was buying the "1".

After getting our belly heat properly managed with the Ultratherm and Herpstat 1, we realized we needed a secondary heat source to properly maintain our ambient temps. So... another heat source and another thermostat.

My advice is the buy the Herpstat 2, at a minimum.