Quote Originally Posted by SerpentineSylph View Post
They average around 72-76 degrees in the room, though our heat's been on the fritz today so it's colder. I've had the tub setup for less than 24 hours, and still figuring this rheostat out (dim light = hotter, bright light = cooler I did not know until minutes ago. ) so it's currently 96.6 on hot spot and 66.9 in the corner of the cool spot. I'm just wondering why I'm getting such a dramatic difference in temperatures from the hot to cool side, and how to regulate that more so than how to bring my temperatures into the right place. I feel once I figure my oh-so complex rheostat out, that getting the overall temperatures where they should be (once I get the correct 5-10 degree temperature difference down) wont be the problem.

2 things worry me, for starters how the heck are u dropping the cage temp on the cool side to 70 degrees when its 72-76, or are you saying its normally 72-76. if thats the case its pointless to be playing with your rheostat until your room is back up to tempature.

also your rheostat worries me, all a rheostat is, is a varible resistor, you control the resistance with the dial, "dim light" is high resistance, doesn't allow much current to pass, making the light dimmer, "birght light" is low resistance to no resistance which allows full current to flow, making the light brighter.

now your heat source should act the same, "dim light" would allow little current to pass, making the heat source put out less energy. "brightlight, should allow full current to flow allowing it to put out its max energy.

I'd start with get a new rheostat that works the way its spossed to, or are you sure your reading it right?

also if you have that much difference in tempature, I'm assuming your using a heat pad? you might need a bigger heatpad because it might only be heating the one little area and not the rest of the cage. whats your setup? screen top? doesn't hold much heat.

i could ask questions all day, send us a picture of what you got going on. I had no problem keeping correct temps when my room was only 70 degrees.

you can also do what I did and have your girlfriend move in with her 7 bearded dragon cages, that kicks up the tempature of the room up pretty good.