Thermostat/rheostat question??

[BPmom]

I’m looking for a thermometer for my ball python’s 20 gallon glass tank. He has a UTH for his warm side. It is ambient temp 80-84 in my room so haven’t had much use for the purple heat lamp. But I recently found that my new friend is underweight and his previous owners were underfeeding him. So since he will need his warm hide even more, I’m getting more and more desperate!!

His UTH gets his hide up to 94F and I have found it hotter at times. Seeing as how my room and his tank are around 82-86F , I have been turning his UTH on and off so he can digest but not burn himself. I went to Petco and was told not to get a thermometer because it will burn out the UTH faster. i need something to control the temp coming from his UTH. Am I looking for a thermostat or a rheostat? Iv been told a rheostat can dim down the power so it doesn’t not get that hot but can’t set it to a certain temp. It doesn’t help that NONE of the local pet or retailer stores around me have ANY of these in stock!

I want to dim down the power in the UTH but also control the temp that it gets under there without completely shutting the UTh off. Any suggestions for what I’m looking for or where I could get them?! My local hardware stores don’t even have anything!

[dakski]

For my small (10G) tank my baby corn is in, I use a https://www.spyderrobotics.com/index...products_id=76 - Herpstat EZ2. I like this thermostat, but prefer redundant thermostats. I use redundant thermostats on my big boaphile tanks.

One controls the UTH and the other controls the CHE. Remember, all heat sources must be regulated.

If you only have one heat source (UTH), you can get the EZ, not the EZ2. However, UTH really only do belly heat and nothing for ambient heat, so as the colder days come, you will probably need a CHE, etc.

I also use Dimmers from Home Depot (I set them to just above the max temp I want and let the thermostat control the temps). This way, if the thermostat fails, the dimmer keeps it (hopefully) from getting too hot. Here's the link for that: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-...-10E/203812619

Dimmers on their own are a pain not a temp control solution.

[dakski]

I think we went over in your last post, but make sure you are taking/getting proper ground temps with a temp gun.

Let us know if you have more questions.