I am bringing home my first beautiful yellow bellied ball tomorrow and I am having issues with my UTH. I have it plugged into a rheostat, but the temps are reading super high (100 degrees ish) on the "low setting"! On top of the substrate it is significantly lower, but if he burrows he will be in trouble. Now, I don't feel it to be anything but barely warm to the touch to me, and the probe is reading the correct temps when I pull it off of the carpet (I have cage carpet down between the glass and the aspen chip substrate) and place it on top of the substrate. Am I just getting too much residual heat signatures from the glass? Should I get a "rainforest" type of low wattage UTH? Should I buffer the UTH with some solar foam (think hot car visor)? Or should I just stick to a blue and red bulb cycle (my blue bulb placed on the warm side is reading 90 degrees at the bottom of the substrate)? I don't want to harm my first BP investment and just want to get it right ASAP.

Thanks!

Laurel

PS: I have a 20gal 30"x 12"x 12"glass tank and am using an accurite thermometer placed on cool side (81 degrees without light, 83 degrees with) with the probe under the substrate but above the carpet (which buffers the UTH-heated glass bottom).