Probe placement for new BP setup

[bkimura]

Greetings everyone. My daughter and I will be picking up our 1st snake tomorrow afternoon. (Pastel BP) We picked up the supplies today and I have a question regarding probe placement. First of all, we'll be using a 20G long, a UTH at one end, repticarpet as a 1st layer over the glass, and then 2" of coconut fiber as a substrate over the carpet. I'm presently using a Herpstat for one of my Gecko setups, and I'd like to purchase another one for the BP. For my Gecko, I'm using ceramic tile so I've just taped the probe to the tile above the UTH within her hide. Being that I'm using a loose substrate for my BP, rather than just resting it on the substrate, would it make more sense to actually tape the probe to the glass just under the repticarpet, and then adjust accordingly until I get my surface temps to around 90-95? I'd be using an infrared heat gun to measure the surface temps. Or would I be better off just taping the probe directly to the UTH under the tank? BTW, I'm using a Zoo Med 10-20 gallon UTH. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We presently have a bearded dragon and 3 geckos and we're very excited about getting our first snake. Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
- Bill

[BuckeyeBalls]

outside the tank between the tank and the uth or on the bottom of the uth (bottom is better i think and use like foil tape to tape it down)

That way the snake cant move the probe around inside the cage

[bkimura]

Thanks for the quick reply. The UTH has already been taped to the bottom of the tank so I guess I'll have to tape it to the outside of the UTH. I like this idea better as I don't have to run the probe inside of the tank. (cleaner installation) I'm assuming I would just center it on the UTH and then cover the entire probe with foil tape? Thanks again for the speedy reply.

[Kaorte]

Yep middle of the UTH will be fine.

What kind of geckos? (just curious! haha)

If you are going with a UTH controled with a thermostat, then you really don't need reptile carpet and two inches of coco fiber. You could just go with the coco fiber and use a thin layer. That way your thermostat won't have to keep your UTH running on full blast all the time.

[bkimura]

Good point on the repticarpet. Thanks. Originally we had gotten two baby geckos, a blizzard and a normal.....and then we picked up an adult normal at a local petshop because we held her and became instantly attached because she was so sweet. I'll remove the repticarpet in the morning, thin out the substrate a little more, and use a spare rheostat I have kickn' around until I can get a Herpstat ordered. Thanks for the advice.

Yep middle of the UTH will be fine.

What kind of geckos? (just curious! haha)

If you are going with a UTH controled with a thermostat, then you really don't need reptile carpet and two inches of coco fiber. You could just go with the coco fiber and use a thin layer. That way your thermostat won't have to keep your UTH running on full blast all the time.

[seeya205]

Congrats! Great that you are researching before getting it!