Backup Thermostat

[nikkubus]

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time, I've been so insanely busy with the height of breeding season but I wanted to hop in and share what happened. I've been checking everybody a couple times a day, waiting for eggs, and noticed a lot of my adult girls who should be heavily heat seeking were at the middle or front of the tubs, look at the thermostat and it's reading 74F (the temp of my house). My adult female rack had the primary thermostat probe somehow slip out of the foil tape holding it to the heat tape. Thank heavens I had a backup set to just a few degrees higher... which was still enough that my females recognized they needed to cool off a bit, but if I didn't have that set up every single tub in that rack would be absolutely cooking, running heat tape full blast nonstop. Always, always, always have a backup to prevent overheating. Things getting too cool for a day or two is not the end of the world unless your house is really cold, but too much heat will harm your scale babies so quickly. Inkbird thermostats are dirt cheap, there is no excuse not to buy an extra one per rack or enclosure. If I had not had that there, I likely would have lost every girl in that rack.

I am so seriously grateful I had the sense to set things up how I did, which is only because of listening to more experienced keepers than myself who had had close calls and catastrophes.

[Bogertophis]

Thank you for reminding everyone about this danger.