Where to place temp/heat lead?

[rtman26]

Two Things:

1) I have my BP in a tank that IS NOT ideal, I know. It's is a 35 gallon vertical, octagon aquarium that was given to us, and we currently don't have room for a wide enclosure.

2) I know my temp should be upper 90ish on the hot side, and 82ish on the cool side. My apartment is cold, about 65 during the day and 63 at night, so I use heat bulbs along with a UTH to keep him warm. Both the day and night bulbs are 100W, but I feel that the day bulb puts off a lot more heat than the night so I'm probably going to supplement with a CHE or second night bulb of lower wattage.

I'm currently using one of those petsmart dual-dial temp/humidity gauges and it "works". The problem: The slightest change in location reads a drastic change(between 65 and 95) on the temp gauge. I try to move it around a little bit to monitor different areas of the tank, and either my UTH doesn't work very well at all, or the temp gauge just sucks.

I'm planning on buying an acurite therm/hygro with a probe but I'm not sure where I should put it. He has a couple of hides-one that sits on the UTH (with carpet between the uth and glass so he doesn't burrow and burn himself) that he uses after eating, and a second one that is on the cooler side that doesn't even touch the substrate. It's an aztec head thing that I built a shelf inside of because he decided he wanted to cram himself into the top of it....creative little guy.

So after all of that....Should I put it between the warm and cool sides? On the warm side? On the cool side? Do I have to keep it out of the substrate so the hygro isn't reading a higher humidity level? Help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh....Buying a new tank is not an option....

[TheSnakeGuy]

First or all if you are using a UTH it needs to be monitored by a thermostat. If it's not I would unplug it until you get one. If it should fail you wont know it, and it could heat up to over 130 degrees and kill your snake. Since you have such an odd tank shape you may need to have 2 100w lamps on one end for an adequate hot side or one 150w and one on the cool end. Also I recommend using red lamps 24hrs. In my experience they just put out the best heat. After you purchase your Accurite it doesn't matter which end you put it on as long as the probe is put on the other end and you can tell temps across the board. I would put the unit right under the hot side lamps and the probe on the other side. Those little pet store analog gauges seldom work very long and are unreliable in general. Digital is the way to go. Hope this helps

[Annarose15]

I agree with TheSnakeGuy, except regarding the lights. 100W and 150W lamps can get REALLY hot, and studies have show that BPs can still see red light. Get the Acurite and see what your temps really are. Then, if you need night-time heat (which it sounds like you do), start with a lower wattage CHE bulb and adjust the distance from the cage to get the desired ambient temps. Save the box, and exchange the CHE if you need a higher wattage bulb to get your temps. You can then run the CHE day and night without worrying about the impact of lights on a nocturnal snake.

Oh, and put the Acurite probe on the glass directly above the UTH, and then the main unit on the other end of the tank (near the floor). This allows you to measure your hot spot with the probe and cool-side ambient temps and the same time.

[rtman26]

Oh...I didn't know the Acurite would read from the actual unit AND the probe. That's perfect!

As for the lights, My tank is very tall, around 25-30" which is why I use higher wattage bulbs. The lower wattage ones don't do much in the way of heating the bottom of the tank where he needs it, so I need at least 100W. The 150s got WAY too hot.

As far as color of the night bulb, I agree the red ones produce more heat, but he absolutely WOULD NOT come of of his hide with the red bulb on. He comes out every night(as long as he hasn't just been fed) as soon as his day light clicks off at 7pm, but stayed hidden with the red bulb. He is always out at 5am when my girlfriend gets up for work....still no. As soon as I put the black one back in....he came right out. So there was something about it he didn't like.

I appreciate the info...and will let you know what I find out after I put in the Acurite. I'm sure Wasabi (my snake) will appreciate it as well!

[rtman26]

So here's what I've found: The thermo from petsmart was actually UNDER what the digi says. I set the digi on top of the UTH right outside of his hide and the temp reading holds pretty steady at 87. His cool side is pretty much locked at 77 so I have to find a way to move up roughly 3 degrees overall. I've read somewhere that if you cover a few of the sides with cardboard it can help hold heat in...anyone have any experience with this?

The solution to the problem seems simple to me, I just don't want to do it. Considering this is actually an octagonal fish tank (I know, I know...these are for fish...not snakes...), I had to build a lid for it out of wood and screening and I could always set the screening up so it drops the light down into the tank an inch or so...but i'm afraid of him being able to get a little too close and burn himself.

Any tips or tricks you guys have to keep more heat inside of a glass enclosure?

[Annarose15]

Those temps are fine, no need to get too creative for those 3 degrees.

[rtman26]

That's what I though, I just wanted to make sure. THANKS!

[TheSnakeGuy]

I use insulated bubble wrap to cover my mesh screen tops. But it was readily available from my job at PETsMART. You can simply cover most of your mesh with a damp towel. Helps keep in both heat and humidity. There's tour 3-5 degree increase if you really need it.

[rtman26]

The top is already covered up quite a bit and I don't want to block any more airflow. My humidity is at 60, and he hasn't had any problems shedding. Mind you, the snake is not showing any signs of stress and eats like a champion. I swear, if I sliced the mouse up into little steaks first, he would probably still eat it.

Today it just happens to be 70 degrees out and I'm paranoid that the temp is gonna drop off tonight. I'm trying to avoid health issues before I have them.

Thanks for all your help...I guess we'll see what happens overnight.