There has to be an easier way....

[The Cannibal Monkey]

Alright, I'm about fed up with this blarging heat lamp and I want to go with just an undertank heater....I just really don't know how to regulate the temps with something like that. Do any of these temperature gauges have an option of turning the heat source on and off when temps hit a high and low?? I'd really appreciate any suggestions.

[JLC]

Thermostat!!


http://www.mgreptiles.com/

Check out that site. Give Matt a call. He's extremely helpful and will happily answer your questions and teach you the ins-and-outs of t-stats, even if you don't plan on buying one right away.

[jglass38]

I would definitely suggest a proportional thermostat over an on/off type to keep a better regulated temp, but either one will do the job for you. I agree that Matt is the guy to call!

[Krynos]

The method I use is two UHT's and one overhead ceramic heat emitter, and two thermostats per enclosure.

I set it up as follows:

One UTH under the cool side, one under the warm side. CHE mounted centrally above the enclosure.

I use two Alife thermostats, one to control the cool side (thermostat set to 82) one to control the warm side (thermostat set to 92).

The probes are burried in the substrate over the UHT's.

Being as one Alife can control three heating devices (all to the same temp) I connected the overhead CHE to the warm side Alife unit, so it clicks on / off with the warm side UHT, I find this keeps ambient air temps in the right range.

We use 20L Critter Cages at the moment while both are snakes are small. These have a mesh top - which is bad. To counter the loss of heat and humidity we do the following:

Get the local plastics supplier (S&W Plastics) to cut a piece of plexiglass to cover the mesh up top. with a hole in the center that I mount the CHE above. Directly below this hole I place the water dish. The combination of the heaters + CHE + plex + thermostats means that we get a set up with air temps at 78-80, cool side belly temp of 82-85, warm side belly temp of 92-95, and a stable humidity of 55-65%.

We use aspen as bedding, we tried cypress mulch for a while, and found that it is GREAT at increasing humidity, so much so that it was hard to get it under 80% lol, so we decided on aspen as our bedding of choice. During shed we put in some moisted spagnum moss, and now we'll also add some cypress mulch (we have a big bag of it) to keep the humidity at 80% during sheds.

I check all temps using a IR temp gun for belly temps, and we also have a Flukers combo digital temp / humidity gauge for monitoring ambient air temps and humidity levels in each enclosure.

When we upgrade the enclosures in a few years once our snakes have out grown the 20L's there are in now now we're going to go with vision cases (or similar) and probably splurge on Helix or Herpstat controls, as these are much better with proportional heating control, as opposed to the on/off of the Alife units. But for the price (about $27) the Alife's are working well for us at the moment

Hope that is of use to you

[jglass38]

To me, that seems like overkill unless you have a major issue with the temp in the room where the enclosure is. For most indoor, room temperature rooms, a single thermostat with a UTH on one end kept at 92-94 should create a sufficient temperature gradient in the rest of the cage.

[Krynos]

Yup lol!

I agree... overkill.

But it gives me great peice of mind to know everything is under control I want everything to be a close to optimum as I can get it... it's just a thing I have to do!

I've been in contact with the designer of the Herpstats, he tells me that once HerpstatII Pro is finished he's working on the next version that will incorporate a humidistat than can be used to monitor and maintain humidity and control an automatic mister. To me that's great! I love that kind of stuff... hell I want a HerpstatII because it will email me with the current enlosure temps and keep ongoing logs lol.

[jglass38]

As long as you know than thats cool! I think everyone here will agree that neurosis when it comes to our snakes is pretty normal.

[sirhissball]

My setup is a bit different, but it works for me. My room temp is stable at 75, not warm enough for only one UTH. I have a Ranco T-stat set to keep warm side at 92-94 and I have another UTH running through a dimmer switch plugged into the same t-stat for 82-84 degrees on the cool side. No worries here, my temps are constant as can be.

[hornsrule]

Just send matt an email and tell him the size of enclosure and all that good stuff and he will tell you exactly what you need. and not the crazy give me all your money version, EXACTLY what you need. Best customer service around and very good prices.

[elevatethis]

Alright, I'm about fed up with this blarging heat lamp and I want to go with just an undertank heater....I just really don't know how to regulate the temps with something like that. Do any of these temperature gauges have an option of turning the heat source on and off when temps hit a high and low?? I'd really appreciate any suggestions.

For anyone keeping snakes....Plastic is your friend. For regulating proper temps and humidity, I'll take the strong stance and say that glass tanks suck. The post above about all the t-stats and heat pads and CHEs and all that stuff just go to show how much trouble glass tanks are. The user above has successfully set up a glass tank- but look how much trouble they went through to do it.

Simplify your life with a rubbermaid/sterilite/whatever tub, about 10" of flexwatt, and a thermostat. MUCH easier!