ambient air temperature

[Mike Cavanaugh]

I set up a 20 gallon long display tank for one of my balls. Please don't preach about tubs! I have racks as well... this is in addition to them.

I have foam board on the sides and back of the tank. I have a UTH that covers half of the bottom set on exactly 95 degrees (this makes the inside floor 92 degrees.) I have foil and duct tame covering top except for vents. Using newspaper.

Here is the problem:

hot side inside of hide floor 92 degrees (temp gun)
cold side inside of hide floor 81 degrees (temp gun)

hot side outside of hide floor 89 degrees (temp gun)
cold side outside of hide floor 80 degrees (temp gun)

hot side outside of hide, an inch above the floor 81 degrees (digital thermometer)
cold side outside of hide, an inch of the floor air temp is 76 degrees (digital thermometer)

My concern is the air an inch above the floor. it ranges from 76 degrees to 80 degrees. Am I over-analyzing? or is this too low? The ambient air temp is too low right?

MIKE

[JLC]

I'm sure it'll be fine...if you're sure it will maintain those temps. If I understand right, your only source of heat is the UTH? My experience with those has been that they don't radiate heat to the rest of the enclosure very well at all. So if the room temps drop outside the tank, your cool side may drop too low.

You might consider a second UTH for the cool side. Or, if you got a CHE or Radiant Heat Panel, you could also get the overall ambient temps up a bit as well.

All that being said...if you're sure the temps you've stated can be maintained consistently, then I don't think you need to change anything.

[Argentra]

Those temps sound just fine. In my 20L tank, I had a UTH on each side and a low watt day and night lamp above to keep ambient up. Worked like a charm! If my ghost corn weren't so happy in that tank now, I would move my BP back into it! She hates the tub she's in now.

[FL0OD]

i have one 55 gallon glass tank that i use for display and it runs those same temps on the cool side. she seems to be happy with it so i am happy with it.

[APBTOwner]

Okay, let me stress this is my opinion here. I don't want to get jumped on by a bunch of people claiming I preach the only way.

I believe ambient air temps (with in reason) are over rated. I heat Boas, Retics, Burms, Balls, Rocks, Condas all the same way.

I do not use any bulb heat. I use only UTH.

I heat 1/3 of the cage floor, so the inside of said 1/3 cage floor is 95*F. The rest of the cage including the other 2/3 of the cage floor stays room temp.

Meaning that my cold side temps and full cage ambient air temps are between 76-80*F.

This has worked for me for along time and other friends of mine this has worked for over 25 years.

I have never had an RI, or any health related problems from any type of snake keep like this. They all eat like beasts too.

Your set up sounds fine to me. I think its good.

David.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Okay, let me stress this is my opinion here. I don't want to get jumped on by a bunch of people claiming I preach the only way.

I believe ambient air temps (with in reason) are over rated. I heat Boas, Retics, Burms, Balls, Rocks, Condas all the same way.

I do not use any bulb heat. I use only UTH.

I heat 1/3 of the cage floor, so the inside of said 1/3 cage floor is 95*F. The rest of the cage including the other 2/3 of the cage floor stays room temp.

Meaning that my cold side temps and full cage ambient air temps are between 76-80*F.

This has worked for me for along time and other friends of mine this has worked for over 25 years.

I have never had an RI, or any health related problems from any type of snake keep like this. They all eat like beasts too.

Your set up sounds fine to me. I think its good.

David.

Thank you everyone for your replies. they were all very helpfull. I live in NE florida, so we pretty much always have either the air conditioner or heat going.... so the inside of my house is ALWAYS between 75 and 78 degrees.

I guess I will be OK.....

David, just out of curiosity, when you say you have your hot side floor at 95 degrees, how are you regulating that? are you using a thermostat or a rhetostat (dimmer switch)


Thanks ALL,

Mike

[APBTOwner]

Thank you everyone for your replies. they were all very helpfull. I live in NE florida, so we pretty much always have either the air conditioner or heat going.... so the inside of my house is ALWAYS between 75 and 78 degrees.

I guess I will be OK.....

David, just out of curiosity, when you say you have your hot side floor at 95 degrees, how are you regulating that? are you using a thermostat or a rhetostat (dimmer switch)


Thanks ALL,

Mike

Hey Mike. We were just talking about this in another thread here in this room.

I Use a combination of Helix DBS1000s and Herpstats thermostats.

Although, I will say with a nice dimmer switch set-up and a good thermometer (non-contact type maybe) this way would be very affective too.

I think here, its what ever works best for your set up and maintains your level of heating quality.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

ugh. don't know how, room temp is 77 degrees, but an inch above my cool side floor is now reading 73 degrees... and that is using two different digital thermostats!

Don't understand why this is happening. If it is below 75 degrees, I guess I will have to get either another UTH OR a CHE....

[APBTOwner]

ugh. don't know how, room temp is 77 degrees, but an inch above my cool side floor is now reading 73 degrees... and that is using two different digital thermostats!

Don't understand why this is happening. If it is below 75 degrees, I guess I will have to get either another UTH OR a CHE....

You could look into getting a room heater maybe. If you do get one, get one with a safety shut off and a built in thermo. I have read a few horror stories of them over heating a room.

Its an idea though.