Surface temps too low, should I turn up my thermostat?

[cletus]

Thanks for your advice. Just out of curiosity, what I were to hotglue the probe to the tank floor so it wouldn't be movable by the snake? If the probe were fastened to the floor of the enclosure in a secure enough way, then there wouldn't be a reason to worry about it moving.

I wouldn't put the thermostat probe in the tank itself. Too much can happen to it. Hot glue is fine to keep it from moving but the snake could pee or defecate on it. Water could spill. Any number of things could happen to get a false reading and cause the thermostat to crank the heat. Just my opinion.

[RedRabbit]

While using hot glue to affix the probe to the inside floor of the tank may solve the problem of it getting moved around, the probe will still be subject to getting peed on, sat on, or other things that will affect how accurately it can read temperatures.

I use plastic tubs, but this is what I've found works nicely for me when it comes to affixing the probe outside of the enclosure. The UTH is adhered directly to the outside bottom surface of the tub. I cut out a small piece of styrofoam (thin enough to fit in the gap beneath the tub, which is slightly raised on little rubber "feet" placed at the 4 corners to give room for the UTH and probe cords to emerge, as well as to avoid excessive trapping of heat), and press a little groove into it to fit the probe tip. I sandwich the probe tip between the styrofoam and the UTH, and tape down the piece of styrofoam. I then also tape down the probe cord at 1 or 2 other points to keep it from being easily dislodged if I need to move the tub around.

With this setup, I've found that the temperatures shown on my thermostat's digital display will match up very closely with what I measure with my temp gun on the inside surface of the tub where the UTH is placed.

[Craiga 01453]

Thanks for your advice. Just out of curiosity, what I were to hotglue the probe to the tank floor so it wouldn't be movable by the snake? If the probe were fastened to the floor of the enclosure in a secure enough way, then there wouldn't be a reason to worry about it moving.

Yoursnake, your call. But ypuve got some knowledgeable, experienced keepers telling you it's better outside.

Like mentioned, the hotglue would only potentially solve one of the issues.