UTH questions

[Seak]

Ok, I'm a noob to this so be gentle.....

What type of UTH do you all think works the best? I'm using a light to heat the tank right now, but the temp is barely reaching 75 at night depending on the ambient temperature in the room I keep him in. Also with the light I can barely keep any humidity in the tank. I've read dozens of bad reviews for UTH, so I was just looking for suggestions.

[Ara]

what are you using for a bedding?? what size light are you using?? how big is the tank, u need to specify before i can help ya. im new to this as well, but within 2 days ive learned sooooooooooooooo much

[BuckeyeBalls]

Well idk i like the zoomed uth. But with any pad/flexwatt u need a tstat hooked up to it. Or else your uth will get too hot and burn snake..

[Seak]

Right now it's a 10g tank (set up a 20g long but the damn thing had a decent stress crack on it so I had to switch for now). I'm using a 75 watt light. The bedding is Aspen bedding.

I asked a guy at the local petshop all of these questions, but the more research I do the more I realize he had no clue what he was saying.

[Nuzum1978]

I've got a Zoomed 55 gallon on my glass tank and a ExoTerra on my tub. The Exoterra seems to fluctuate (cool down) faster when my t-stat kicks off. The Zoomed seems to stay warmer longer. The Zoomed seems to be a little more sturdy/rugged than the ExoTerra.

I don't want to come across as pretentious, but you do have your UTH hooked up to a thermostat, right?

[Seak]

I've got a Zoomed 55 gallon on my glass tank and a ExoTerra on my tub. The Exoterra seems to fluctuate (cool down) faster when my t-stat kicks off. The Zoomed seems to stay warmer longer. The Zoomed seems to be a little more sturdy/rugged than the ExoTerra.

I don't want to come across as pretentious, but you do have your UTH hooked up to a thermostat, right?

I don't have a UTH yet, I'm using a light right now. After everything I read about UTH I figured I'd ask around before buying one. Perfect example is that the guy at the pet store was trying to sell me one, but didn't mention anything about a thermostat!

[Ara]

u need a bigger light, and as far as humidity goes, try a differnt bedding like theres these blocks u can get that u soak and they expand, its plantation soil, mix it with some cypress mulch. it gives great humidity and u can mist it with a spray bottle once or twice daily. or try putting a damp towel accross the top of ur screen, that gave me a huge humidity boost!!!

[Patricia]

I got our Zoomed UTH at Petsmart, and it's worked very well combined with the ReptiTemp 500R. Without being regulated, the UTH can reach lethal temps over 100 degrees.

While waiting for the 500R to arrive (it was ordered online) I kept our BP away from the heat with 2" of bark substrate. Now with the 500R, the substrate is merely a few sheets of newspaper with paper towel on top. Through trial and error, I learned that was the best way for temps to remain true and constant.

[Seak]

Ok, I kind of combined Ara and Patricia's advice.....

I bought the ZooMed UTH for 10-20g enclosures. I used the side mount application because of the piece of furniture the enclosure is on and the directions recommended it. Directly off of the UTH temps are reaching 84. I'm using the light I had to add to the basking spot, temp is getting to 89 in the basking spot, while the cool area of the tank is staying right about 82 (drops to 80 when the house cools down a bit, I'm in NJ and it's winter!).

For humidity I put a damp towel on top and it's keeping it right around 50. I haven't changed the bedding yet so I'm expecting a bit more of an increase when I do.

The snake seems happy today. It laid in the basking spot for a little bit after I set everything up and now he's just curled in his hid (he was staying mostly in the basking area before I got the UTH and was rarely in his hid).

Sorry for the ridiculously long post lol and thanks for the advice so far, I'm sure I'll have more questions in a few minutes

[BuckeyeBalls]

Well the uth works better on the bottom.

Reason being they like belly heat. Ara said get a bigger light. That i wouldnt do. Lights suck out humidity like crazy. If you was using a 10G tank u could put the zoomed on the bottom and used the feet to raise it off the ground or bottle caps (i use caps cuz they are higher).

Also you uth may read 84 now my uth has reached 120* not hooked up to a tstat. And yes there was NO snake in there at the time.

Your best bet would of been to just mount the uth on the bottom cover the time with foil or a damn cloth. The aspen holds humidity fairly well.