My set-up, so far

[missi182]

Looking good so far!

There a few things you can change a bit though. The UTH you are using, is it plugged directly in, or is there a control attached to it? By control I mean a rheostat of a thermostat. UTHs easily reach over 110 degrees uncontrolled, which will result in a burnt belly on your bp. Even with all that substrate (repti-bark?) your bp can still burrow underneath it to the hot glass.

A rheostat is something that you use to manually control the temperature of the UTH using a slider or dial. A lamp dimmer for $10 from the hard-ware store will work, but rheostats do fluctuate, and therefor require you to manually adjust them on a regular basis. A thermostat measures the temperature of your UTH and automatically adjusts it for you, and is much more reliable than a rheostat. Thermostats are also a little more expensive ($50-$200) but they are worth it overall. If you are interested in picking up a thermostat, this site is highly recommended and has some amazing products - http://spyderrobotics.com/

The next thing you want to change is that dial thermometer. Simply said, dial thermometers or dial humidity gauges are VERY inaccurate, and provide no means of measuring the direct surface temp of your UTH, where your precious bp's sensitive belly is laying.

If you head over to wal-mart or a hard-ware store, you can purchase a $10 digital thermometer/hygrometer combo which will give you much more accurate readings. Make sure you buy one that has a probe, which measures the surface temp of your UTH. These usually read "Indoor/Outdoor Thermometer/Hygrometer" on the package and a popular brand used by members here is accurite (wal-mart).

Since your water bowl is over the UTH, that should help raise your humidity a bit, but what your aiming for is 50-60% humidity. Once you get something like an accurite, if you discover your humidity is too low, there are a few things you can do. You can cover the screen with a damp towel if the humidity is around 40% or simply cover the screen with aluminum foil or aluminum tape (also available at wal-mart) if the humidity is only a bit under and that should keep the temps up and the humidity in.

You can also do a combo of both, you can put foil on the cooler side of the tank over the screen which will keep the temperature up a bit, and put the damp towel near the warm side (at least 2 inches away from your lamp). If you do use damp towels, remember to wash them or switch them at least once a week or every few days.

Ask as many questions as you can come up with, we are here to help!