Quote Originally Posted by bearhart
IN my case, I have an always-on UTH. I can control the temp of the warm side by controlling the thickness of the substrate. After I get it where he starts cycling between warm and cool side then I don't have to worry about it too much because the house temp only changes a few degrees ever.
that can be a very dangerous way of controlling temps. UTHs tend to "spike" every once and awhile and can lead to burns. Also, if you have too much substrate on top of the UTH to cool down the tank, there may not be enough heat radiation from the glass (assuming you are using a viv) and the glass will shatter from the heat stress. I'm afraid you will not find many people on this site who'll agree with you in saying that a t-stat is not necessary for a ultimately healthy bp.