Please help!!!

[jphealy]

I had thought my temps were perfect (82 on cool side, 92 on warm side) until I decided to put the thermometer probe into the warm side hide - The temp shot up!

My setup at the moment is made up of a UTH on 24 hours; There are also 2 bulbs in the viv - one regular 60W white incandescent which is on a timer to come on for 11 hours during the day, the other a 50W infra-red bulb which is also on a timer to come on the other 13 hours at night. The UTH and both bulbs are all at one end of the viv. The warm hide sits right above where the UTH is.

I tried removing the UTH altogether, which dropped the temp inside the warm hide to about 91. But the temp at the warm end outside the hide fell to about 84.

What can I do? Should I replace the UTH and try to place the warm hide so as little of it as possible is sitting over it? Another option might be to get rid of the UTH and have both bulbs on during the day, keeping the temps up, and then just allowing them to fall to about 84 on warm side at night.

Advise please?!
Thank you!

[Smulkin]

What is the hide made of?

It is acting as a heat sink with heat pooling inside - I overcame this issue a few times by popping a few holes in the top of the hide so that heat could dissipate.

[TekWarren]

if you haven't already you may also want to implement a thermostat for your hot side. Smulkin's idea is a good one also if for some reason your hide is not dissipating heat and covers a large portion of the area where the UTH is

[jphealy]

The hide is an Exo Terra cave. I don't know if your familiar with the brand, but at the bottom of this post I've pasted a link to the exact cave I have on the Exo Terra website. It's the medium size one I have. I guess it's made of some kind of plastic or resin, but is made to look and feel like a rock or stone or whatever.

http://www.exo-terra.com/EN/products/caves_i.html

[Smulkin]

Yeah we have a few of those.

You'd need to drill carefully on that one I am afraid it would be quite prone to cracking - maybe a masonry bit would work a little better? Most of mine are plastic and can just have holes melted into them with a soldering iron.