Setting the UTH, Thermometer and Thermostat

[Redneck_Crow]

I put the thermostat probe directly on the underside of the tank next to the glass and then tape the pad down over it. If you get yourself some little plastic stick on pads at Walmart--the kind they sell to attach on the bottom on knicknacks so that they don't mar your shelving--you can raise the tank bottom a smidge so that your tank still sets straight and there's room for the small bulge the probe makes. I like taping as opposed to sticking the pad straight to the tank because you might want to change it someday and it's easier to peel tape than a stuck down UTH.

I set the thermostat at 95 and check the reading in a couple of hours. You will lose a few degrees of heat through dissipation and whatever other dumb physics stuff I slept through in college. Different substrates will change the actual temp you end up with too. After that two hours, check the temps (a temp gun is a godsend if you don't already have one) and adjust your thermostat setting to fine tune the heat.