Quote Originally Posted by Natassja View Post
Hello!

For the time being I dont have my dream/ideal set-up, but im saving for it.
In the meantime I make the most of an Glasstank, which I isolated the sides of.
I manage to hold the humidity up by using orchid bark, kinda messy but it works.

I have some questions about placing the probe for my On/Off (Non-Proportional) Thermostats who controls the UTH.
UTH covers 1/3 of the bottom of the tank and its attached at the outside bottom. the tank is elevated 1 inch above the table.

Thermostat similar to this:


I have read many different things about this and ended up taping the probe on the outside(in the middle) of the UTH (not between the UTH and glasstank-bottom), with tape. Is this the best spot?

I have the thermostat at 92, and maybe 2-3 inches of substrate, but the temps is slightly colder than optimal, I Also have a 40w bulb that heats as well, to keep the ambient temp up.

I also wondering about replacing "Bulb-heat" with a Radiant heater. any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance!
Taping it to the bottom of the UTH is fine. There's is no best place. Just difference places. The keys being "in the middle" and "secure."

Just make sure you have good thermometer to measure the hot spot inside the tank. I prefer using IR (infrared) types or Temp Guns as some are called. I used temp probes for a long time but they always end up getting moves by the inhabitants. You may have to have your Tstat set a few degrees higher than what you want to achieve the temp inside you are aiming for.

As mentioned already, you should lower your substrate thickness at the UTH site. The thinker the substrate the higher you have to set the Tstat and the harder the UTH has to work. Depending on the material, half-inch to 3/4 inch should be sufficient.

If you are having trouble with ambient air, get a low wattage IR (most snakes can't see IR) heat bulb or ceramic heat bulb. It's don't take much energy to raise air temp from a bulb.

That's my 2 cents.