Conflicting information, thermostats, substrates, potted live plants and more....

[FerruleFern]

Hello all I’ve been lurking for awhile on lockdown from posting while waiting on admin new account approval (probably for the best over the holidays, you would all be sick of me by now with all the questions I’ve got!). There is soooo much conflicting information out there so I just want to be sure to clear things up.

My current setup: ZooMed ReptiHabitat 20 gallon tank, Zoo Med UTH, Exo Terra Thermostat, Ceramic Infrared Heat Emitter (100 watt), 2 hides, branches for climbing, large water dish, Reptibark/Eco Earth mix substrate, several digital temp/humidity gauges, and incredibly fancy IR temp gun, oh and an adorable banana ball python

Thermostats - I can’t afford a crazy expensive one for my UTH and I currently have an Exo Terra but I hate it. I don’t like the clunky cheap plastic box, I don’t like the dial on the back, etc. I’m trying to decide between a few, the VE 300 being the higher end but wondering if anyone uses the Inkbird C206T on Amazon? It’s definitely more affordable (especially being right after Christmas).

Another note, after seeing quite a bit of maybe bad information before I found this site, I have already attached my UTH under the tank and the thermostats probe inside the tank (against the glass, under the substrate and under a hide)...so, question is can I affix the thermostat probe on the underside of the UTH (outside the tank) with foil tape OR can I hot glue the probe to the glass inside the tank (I read one thread here that said that is what the designer of Herpstat Tstats recommends so I’m assuming that’s pretty reliable?). I will preface this question with my substrate setup - I have a mix of Reptibark and Eco Earth (for humidity, aesthetics AND because I plan on going bioactive eventually) and a fairly thick layer - maybe 2”.

The tank I have is glass so I was having issues keeping the ambient in the 80’s - I live far north and we are frigid these days. Changing tanks is absolutely not an option at the moment or maybe ever - shipping would be extreme. My house stays around the 70’s but with a ceramic bulb and tin foil over the screen tops (classy, I know (I’ll be changing to plexiglass on top as soon as I can afford it) I think I’ve finally got the temps where I like them. With my ceramic bulb, the hot spot is high 88-90ish. I put the UTH over on the cool side though because it wasn’t staying above 73 no matter what I did, even with the tin foil so the cool side (under the hide, surface temp) is now about 75-76. I’ve checked everything with an infrared temp gun, oh, about a million times or approximately every 5 minutes. (Don’t worry, I didn’t bring my little noodle home until I worked out the temps). As a side note, humidity has been pretty good - right around 60ish.

Now, regarding my previous comment....I know a lot of people are going to say to stay away from bio-active. I’m not planning it immediately but I do eventually want to do that. I have an extremely adept green thumb, experience with bio-active (but always with plants & CuC only, no large inhabitants), and I feel pretty confident with the idea. For now, I think I’ll just add potted plants. I have a few picked out from my own collection (don’t worry, I already go organic with all my soils etc and I’ll be flushing them out just in case anyways) - thoughts on plant choice though? I have a gorgeous ponytail palm thats still small (another reason to keep that one potted, it’ll get too big eventually), a snake plant, prayer plant and several different varieties of pothos. I know Balls can be bulldozers so I have some plans to keep the more fragile ones up high and even built into the background to hopefully keep them somewhat protected.

Tied into the idea of bio-active, I’m working on a plan to create the custom background. I’ve looked at quite a few tutorials from some good sources (Josh’s Frogs for example). SO - my question is about using 1” thick styrofoam sheets (or blue board maybe?) to “build” the background with spray foam, aquarium silicone, etc. I’m hoping that the styrofoam will add quite a bit of insulation for the glass tank. Does that seem like it would be okay to use if it’s all sealed up with the aquarium silicone?

Gosh, I think that’s all of my questions so far. I’m sure I’ll have a hundred more as soon as I post this and DEFINITELY after a few replies, lol.