Zoo Med uth problems

[twisted-wing]

Hokay I'm tired of this. I have 3 Zoo Med uth's on my 10 gallon tank (size small, for 10-20gal) and the hottest area according to my new zappy temp gun is 85 F.

I can't upload photos from my camera right now, so I've drawn a rather horrible picture of my tank and uths:



This is kind of viewing from top down. The two red bars on the sides are uth's on the sides of the tank. The red bar inside the gray area is underneath the tank. The drawing isn't exactly proportionate, but it gets the idea accross.

I have tin foil taped to half the underside of the tank to disperse the heat (or lack thereforeof) on the bottom. There's about 1 to 1.5 inches of aspen snake bedding... and I think that's all the relevent setup details(?)

Even if one or more of my heaters have stopped working, I was having problems long before now. I'm thinking I need larger uth's, and I want to use a different brand. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I shouldn't need 3 heaters to keep a 10 gallon tank the temps they should be. I'm shooting for 90-5 F on the left side of the tank, and 80 F on the right. The right side is fine actually. Its staying at 80 F like a good tank. Also, I have a Zilla temperature controller for the hot side, which I have set for 95 F. The Zilla controller is on almost constantly, the instructions indicate I need larger heaters when that happens.

So my main questions are.. do I need larger heaters even though I have the right sizes according to the Zoo Med instructions? And can anyone recommend a different brand of uth?

Thank you!

[Kysenia]

Is there a lot of space under and in the back of your tank? This could be causing the heat to be lost other then going upwards thru the bottem of your tank.

If you have a helix type unit that will control the output of the pad and it is not giving you the temps you need, I would check the ambient temperature of your room. My experience is the UTH will give you 20 or so plus degrees above room temp. Also, where is your probe located that is controlling your output? You should have the probe on top the aspen under your hide. I also just have my uth directly on the glass with nothing between it and the tank. Also do you have the top of the enclosure partially closed? If a screen is being used the heat is more then likely leaving the top of your tank.


If all the above is ok you could move the aspen from under the hides and use newspaper in the hide, this will allow for more heat to get thru instead of being held by the substrate.

Check for drafts, room air circulation to make sure there is nothing making your location a cool spot in the room as well. Hope this helps, I am new to this as well, so someone may have more to offer then these ideas

[VegaBP]

My suggestion is to ditch the UTH's (I know its hard to convince yourself to do that when each one of them probably cost over 25$ but I did the same thing) and get some flex-watt.

I had two different UTH's for my 55 gal. I had a large one and a small one. Two thermostats to run them. But after fighting with the heat in my tank constantly I ordered some flex-watt from Reptile Basics. Since I put in the flexwatt I haven't had a problem. The flexwatt temps rarely fluctuate. Plus 2 feet x 11 inches of flexwatt only cost Like seven dollars as opposed to the 25$+ you end up spending on the UTH's. Best thing I've ever done to my enclosure. Plus I'm sure nazgul likes the constant temps as opposed to the ever fluctuating uth temps.

And hey think of it this way, If you take the UTH's out and use some flexwatt you have some back up uth's just in case you ever get another snake. ha ha

[grim reaper in NY]

Do you have a link for the Flexx-watt? I might go to this myself if it works better than the UTH's do.
I'm also unimpressed with the Zoo-Med UTH as I find it does not give out constant heat, even with the thermostat. It fluctuates way too much for my taste.

[VegaBP]

Do you have a link for the Flexx-watt? I might go to this myself if it works better than the UTH's do.
I'm also unimpressed with the Zoo-Med UTH as I find it does not give out constant heat, even with the thermostat. It fluctuates way too much for my taste.

I just got the Flex-watt from Reptilebasics.com. They're great to work with and I got my order three days after placing it (Which seems quick to me). I would totally recommend them to anyone.

[twisted-wing]

you mean the heat tape at that website right? what about humitity? i've tried che's and it sucks the humidity right out of the tank. do you know if flex-watt does the same thing?

[Buttons]

you mean the heat tape at that website right? what about humitity? i've tried che's and it sucks the humidity right out of the tank. do you know if flex-watt does the same thing?

Flex-watt is basically the same as a UTH it's just more consistent with the temps.