Temp Problems - Thoughts on what I did?

[dakski]

I have on/off thermostats from Boaphile. Jeff Ronne (the Boaphile) manufactured all my tanks and I bought the thermostats from him. I believe they are Ranco thermostats that he modifies, but do not quote me on it.

https://boaphileplastics.com/product/double-thermostat/

I like them because they are redundant. If the main one fails open, the second thermostat shuts it down. Safety first. I also like that you can run many devices off the same thermostat.

This leads to how I run my heating elements.

First, the large tank stack (the 6X2' tanks) for the boas, the leopard gecko, and the Blue Tongue Skink, all have the same cool side temps - 78F - except Carra (the Leopard Gecko). So I have a probe in between two of the tanks on the cool side and have the thermostat keeping the cool sides 78F at all times.

Second, on the 4X2' tanks, I have one thermostat run the whole tank. How? The RHP and heat tape on the hot side and the cool side heat tape all run off the same thermostat. This works for two reasons. First, the heat tape on the cool side is a lower wattage. I think about 25-33% lower. I do not remember exactly. This way, the same wattage achieves a lower temp than the hot side heat tape. Secondly, the RHP warms enough that the heat tape does not do a ton of work. This is a specialized setup and took a lot of dialing in to get correct. It works great now, but I have considered (and still do) running the heat tape(s) on one and the RHP on another for each tank, as I do on the larger tanks for the cool side. The issue is the 6X2' tanks all have the same temps and the 4X2' tanks do not. This makes the 4X2' tanks more work because all the animals have different requirements.

How does it apply to you, OP?

Below are my thoughts, but I have only used herpstats (I have used them for other setups and I have one as a backup) with one device per channel. You would have to consult them or the manual, or users here more familiar, to see if the below is plausible or safe.

You could get lower wattage heat tape for the cool side and see what happens running the RHP on one circuit and the two heat tapes on the other. You might have to keep the hot side heat tape a little cooler, but with the RHP, that should be okay. Alternatively, you could run the hot side heat tape off one and the RHP off one and the cool side off the other.

You could also, at least temporarily, run your old thermostat on the cool side heat tape and get lower wattage to be safe.

Keep in mind, this may all be arbitrary as the cool side heat tape is potentially not needed. It might make sense to run the warm side RHP on one circuit and the warm side heat tape off the other and see how that works. It could be enough in the 3X2'.

Good luck and keep us posted.