Advice on Tub Problems

[mozbink]

All,

I am a newb and need somehelp trouble shooting my current tub setup. My ambient temperature never gets more than 1 degree aprox above room temperature. Here is my setup.

Tub: Sterilite 28qt . 10 Holes on each long side for a total of 20. 5 Holes on each short side for a total of 10. 30 holes total. These holes are staggered.

Thermometer: Accurite with wired probe. Base of Unit is on back left of tub which is the cool side. Probe is on right side of tub on floor directly above the UTH. Centered in middle of UTH. Sits on top of substrate.

UTH: Zoo Med Medium. Covers 1/3 of tubs bottom. It is taped on using aluminum tape. I never took backing off of UTH. Tape is around edges of UTH on all four sides.

Thermostat: Zoomed Reptitherm. Current settings are at 93 degrees as shown by the Accurite thermometer. It pretty much keeps it pegged almost exact most of the time. Only seen it be 1 degree off cooler. 92 Degrees. Probe of the thermostat is taped on to bottom middle of UTH using aluminum tape.

Substrate: Aspen shredded with .5 inch application on bottom of tub.

Water dish: medium to small shallow reptile dish as found in petstores. It sits on cool side front left. Directly opposite the accurite base which is in back left.

I think that is all my relative setup info. Here are my temp readings. As you can see I am also having higher than expected Humidity.

Warm side reading: 93
Cool side reading: 77
Humidity: 89% ( No visible condensation or moistore on walls and substrate does not feel moist to the touch)

So outside of keeping my house at 80 degrees ( I live in Texas and this is not going to be practical.) any ideas on how to get my ambient bumped to 80?

I for some reason expected the UTH to be able to eventually warm the ambient up to acceptable conditions but it has been 48+ hours and it pretty much stays room temp at the Accurite base.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Kaorte]

First off, stick that probe under the substrate and reset your thermostat accordingly. You want to measure the hottest point your snake can get too. If it is 93* on top of the substrate it will be much hotter under the substrate.

77* is a fine ambient temperature. There is really no way to raise it unless you use an RHP, another UTH, or some kind of lamp. You could also use a space heater but a space heater in Texas makes no sense

You can make more holes if your humidity doesn't go down. I try to keep them at about 60-70%

[Animals As Leaders]

First off, stick that probe under the substrate and reset your thermostat accordingly. You want to measure the hottest point your snake can get too. If it is 93* on top of the substrate it will be much hotter under the substrate.

77* is a fine ambient temperature. There is really no way to raise it unless you use an RHP, another UTH, or some kind of lamp. You could also use a space heater but a space heater in Texas makes no sense

You can make more holes if your humidity doesn't go down. I try to keep them at about 60-70%

I wouldn't place the probe in the tank, bad idea.

If you do this you will most likely need to tape to get it to stay and then all your snake has to do is move it around and then you could have more problems. Getting tape off a snake is hard and often leaves tape goo on them(not to mention the stress involved for them), and if the snake moves it away from the hot spot your hosed because the the tstat will stay on rendering the whole tstat function useless. Go in this order: Tape the heat tape or UTH to the surface tank will be sitting on(desk, table, w.e) then tstat probe and thermometer probe next to it, and then the tank. You might wanna put the thermometer in the tank over the hot spot first and make sure its actually heating up to what you want, then put the snake it.

Snapped a pic just so you could SEE what I mean

Both Probes taped down right next to each other


Tub sitting on top of heat source with probes in place



**Just remember that putting the probe from the thermometer in the tank initially to see what your snake is sitting on is what you wanna do, then remove it and put it wherever the probe from the tstat is located so you know exactly where the tstat is turning on and off.**

[Kaorte]

I wouldn't place the probe in the tank, bad idea.

If you do this you will most likely need to tape to get it to stay and then all your snake has to do is move it around and then you could have more problems. Getting tape off a snake is hard and often leaves tape goo on them(not to mention the stress involved for them), and if the snake moves it away from the hot spot your hosed because the the tstat will stay on rendering the whole tstat function useless. Go in this order: Tape the heat tape or UTH to the surface tank will be sitting on(desk, table, w.e) then tstat probe and thermometer probe next to it, and then the tank. You might wanna put the thermometer in the tank over the hot spot first and make sure its actually heating up to what you want, then put the snake it.

The THERMOMETER probe. Not the thermostat probe. :/ The thermometer probe should ALWAYS go (and stay) inside the enclosure.

The accurite probe comes with its own adhesive pad. No one said anything about tape.

This person has everything setup properly except for the thermometer probe placement. Did you not read the post?

[Animals As Leaders]

The THERMOMETER probe. Not the thermostat probe. :/ The thermometer probe should ALWAYS go (and stay) inside the enclosure.

The accurite probe comes with its own adhesive pad. No one said anything about tape.

This person has everything setup properly except for the thermometer probe placement. Did you not read the post?

I personally do not allow my snake to sit on any kind of adhesive I think its smarter to relocate it once the temps have been established with the tstat. Let me ask you this, once the snake soils that spot the probe is sitting and you have to clean how are you supposed to keep it there. The double face tape provided isn't going to stick forever therefore tape will have to be used or something. I just don't even risk it, its not worth it to me. Once you know what the tstat is doing it really is kind of pointless to have it IN the tank. As long as the probe of the tstat isn't going anywhere then your golden. Just make sure you do the initial check inside the cage and then just leave it with the tstat probe. No problem.

[Animals As Leaders]

Also I did misread the post lol I thought he WAS talking about the tstat for some reason my bad!!

But I still think the thermometer probe needs to be relocated once all the trial and error with tstat is done and temps are stabilized. Doesn't ALWAYS need to be like that lol People do things different, and this works for me and I think its the safest for the snake. No risk, thats what I am all about.

[don15681]

you're losing heat that the heat pad is making with so many holes. try taping some up. if you have problems with humidity, the whole tub doesn't have to have the correct humidity level. use a hide, also called a humidity chamber. just don't have your snake sitting in water.

[Animals As Leaders]

you're losing heat that the heat pad is making with so many holes. try taping some up. if you have problems with humidity, the whole tub doesn't have to have the correct humidity level. use a hide, also called a humidity chamber. just don't have your snake sitting in water.

I wouldn't tape anything being that your humidity is higher. Ambient temps DO NOT have to be in the 80's. My temps are around 77-80 mostly averaging at 78 and has never given me a problem. Don't go nuts trying to be dead on balls. I would strive for 50-60% humidity, 77-80 ambient, 89-92 hot spot. Thats perfect conditions. Its never going to be exact all the time, and there will be a slight variance time to time. I don't understand how your humidity is so high with that many holes lol I have way less then that and I maintain 50-60% easy. Did you wet the substrate?

[Kaorte]

I personally do not allow my snake to sit on any kind of adhesive I think its smarter to relocate it once the temps have been established with the tstat. Let me ask you this, once the snake soils that spot the probe is sitting and you have to clean how are you supposed to keep it there. The double face tape provided isn't going to stick forever therefore tape will have to be used or something. I just don't even risk it, its not worth it to me. Once you know what the tstat is doing it really is kind of pointless to have it IN the tank. As long as the probe of the tstat isn't going anywhere then your golden. Just make sure you do the initial check inside the cage and then just leave it with the tstat probe. No problem.

Once the adhesive wears out I use low tac artists tape or hot glue. I want to to know the hottest point the snake can get to at all times. If I do not constantly monitor the temp than it can get dangerously hot and I would have no clue.

you're losing heat that the heat pad is making with so many holes. try taping some up. if you have problems with humidity, the whole tub doesn't have to have the correct humidity level. use a hide, also called a humidity chamber. just don't have your snake sitting in water.

The heat loss from holes on the side of a tub is negligible. The most heat is lost from the top, not the sides. Covering the holes will have little impact on the ambient temperatures.

[Animals As Leaders]

Once the adhesive wears out I use low tac artists tape or hot glue. I want to to know the hottest point the snake can get to at all times. If I do not constantly monitor the temp than it can get dangerously hot and I would have no clue.



The heat loss from holes on the side of a tub is negligible. The most heat is lost from the top, not the sides. Covering the holes will have little impact on the ambient temperatures.

I'm not saying that this is a bad idea or anything, but do you really think its all that necessary? I mean your talking extremely minuscule temp increases. Heres a post on a similar thread that I made

But, being that the probe from the thermostat is on the heat source directly what is the benefit of having the thermometer probe in the tub? You should be testing the enclosure out before letting the animal live in it anyway so your pet is not the guinea pig? So why wouldn't you leave the thermometer in there while testing it to make sure temps are not getting out of hand, and once everything is tip top place along side the tstat probe and monitor it that way? The heat source itself is going to just be a few degrees hotter then surface itself so as long as you monitor both for a reference point it works fine. And being that you tested prior to the animal being in there you KNOW that the temp is not rising above the selected one. For example: Thermometer probe reads 91.2 at its hottest point when in the enclosure, but on the heat source reads 94.3. As long as you know the range you know the temp.

I mean, I totally see your point on this one in wanting to know the EXACT hottest point, but if you test like I said you'll know when its getting too hot because you have that reference point. I'm not too interested in a degree difference and I'm pretty sure their body can't tell the difference either and isn't going to hurt them at all. 10 degrees maybe but one or two no. All I'm saying I really don't see why lol