Anyone Else have this Problem?

[Kat&Rin]

Ok so, I have tile (from Home Depot) in Rin's tank currently. It looks great, is easy to clean, doesn't cause her teeth/claws to get stuck, and is just awesome in general. HOWEVER, it gets waaaaay too hot! I've been searching to see if anyone else has this problem but so far haven't been able to find any posts about this so I decided to post one!

Basically my question is this. Has anyone had this problem before? And what did you do to fix it?

I stuck a bunch of paper towels in the bottom of the tank and put the tile on it...now in the hottest part its like 92 degrees, which is perfect but it sucks for viewing because the instant I turn on the red heat light temps skyrocket to like 99.....Of course, today while chatting with my grandma about it I had an epiphany and now I feel like a moron, I should have and could have used the old reptile carpet underneath instead of spending half an hour ripping, folding and placing paper towel in the bottom of the tank :main_rolleyes:

So, will this work? I've been looking for something to control the heat with (as in a manual heat adjuster or whatever they're called) but have only been able to find super expensive ones....the odd thing is that the reptile carpet never got as hot so its not so much the UTH as it is the tiles themselves.....

 

[SDCowboy]

99* it perfectly fine. The rocks get a lot hotter than that where they're from. I wish I had that problem though. Mine doesn't get hot enough and I have to use a redlamp to heat it up the rest of the way otherwise it doesn't get above the mid 80s.

 

[Pinky81]

Its not the tile or the UTH per say. Your temps are perfect until you add heat from the lamp. If you are going to want to run a heat lamp you are going to need to get a higher grade thermostat that you can set the temps for so that it will adjust your UTH when you turn your heat lamp on. but honestly you best bet is to either try a blue moon bulb lowest wattage so it doesn't throw a ton of heat or get a 5watt incandescent bulb and just turn it on for viewing. A temp of 99 isn't going to kill your Leo, my warm side reaches that during the summer when my apartment temps go up. If you have a 20gallon Long tank your Leo can move to the cool side no worries for the time you have your viewing light on. Just be sure to have a digital probe on the cool end and hot end so you can make sure your cool end doesn't start getting too hot.

Other choice turn your UTH down and leave the red heat lamp on all the time. I know the opinions on red light bothering you lizards is a back and forth debate. During the WI winters I have infared lights on each of my cages 24/7 on the warm side due to my apartment temps. And my Leo's will come out of their hide crawl on top of the hide and lay directly under the lamps. So go by what your leo prefers. But if you are going to do this second choice you need to have a Rheostat or lamp dimmer switch. of some sort to control your UTH.

The heating is a lot of playing and adjusting, but once you get it you got it!!!

 

[Kat&Rin]

Ahhh ok, Well, its more that I just like having the light on for an hour or two at night just to watch her move around lol, I would almost swear that she likes the red light because as soon as I turn it on she's out of her hide and scrambling around like a monkey XD

Yah, I had the repti-carpet temps absolutely perfect and now, being the perfectionist I am, I can't stand having the temps spike so much! Mostly I was worried about her possibly burning her feet but if it gets hotter then 99 where they come from then I'll worry about it a little less. I think I'll switch out the paper towel with the repti carpet anyways though, just to see how it works (and besides, the paper towel sticking out of the side of the tank bothers me so this will eliminate it :main_evilgrin

Anyways, thanks for all the help, Rin and I truly appreciate it :main_yes:

 

[SDCowboy]

You could also just buy a lower watt bulb. Either way 99 is not going hurt your leo.

 

[Pinky81]

Ahhh ok, Well, its more that I just like having the light on for an hour or two at night just to watch her move around lol, I would almost swear that she likes the red light because as soon as I turn it on she's out of her hide and scrambling around like a monkey XD

Yah, I had the repti-carpet temps absolutely perfect and now, being the perfectionist I am, I can't stand having the temps spike so much! Mostly I was worried about her possibly burning her feet but if it gets hotter then 99 where they come from then I'll worry about it a little less. I think I'll switch out the paper towel with the repti carpet anyways though, just to see how it works (and besides, the paper towel sticking out of the side of the tank bothers me so this will eliminate it :main_evilgrin

Anyways, thanks for all the help, Rin and I truly appreciate it :main_yes:

Mine do the same thing when i turn on the heat lamps...infact my apartment is in the 60s today as it is COLD in Wisconsin (surprise surprise!!) and I turned Clyde's heat lamp on his hot hide was 90. He is now on top of his hide laying under his lamp.

 

[Tico]

I have tile in all my Vivs. and my temp are form 75 cold side to 95 hot side and only use UTH

 

[Kat&Rin]

Mine do the same thing when i turn on the heat lamps...infact my apartment is in the 60s today as it is COLD in Wisconsin (surprise surprise!!) and I turned Clyde's heat lamp on his hot hide was 90. He is now on top of his hide laying under his lamp.

hahaha in BC its been warm...79 degrees farenheit, 26 celsius. Well, warm considering its June and we've had crappy cold weather up till now...so much for global warming! But basically, with the warmer weather she's been all hyper lol. The other night I heard her climbing around so I turned my bedside lamp on to see what was going on and all I see is a little head looking at me over the top of her hide :main_laugh: So I laugh, turn off my light and a few seconds later hear a whump sort of sound....apparently she slipped off, and after checking to make sure she was fine I couldn't resist thinking FAIL.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

lol they are really bad climbers, but they sure try very hard. I have to remove high fake plants if I find one that likes to climb. Really hate to see them get hurt while doing a cliffhanger move with the mesh top.

 

[Kat&Rin]

lol they are really bad climbers, but they sure try very hard. I have to remove high fake plants if I find one that likes to climb. Really hate to see them get hurt while doing a cliffhanger move with the mesh top.

Yah its both funny and kinda sad at the same time lol. I always have to make sure everything is super stable because I know that she will climb on it....whether its a good idea or not!

 

[GeckoDude31]

If you want, put some paper towel on the bottom of the tiles, then lay down the tiles on top of them. I found this to be very helpful with my tiles.

 

[jerrymb]

I got a dig therm today and my temps read about 98F. I put an extra piece of paper towel over the uth and it still reads 98. I found a piece of ceramic floor tile and put that over the uth. It still reads in the high 90's. What can be put over the uth that doesn't conduct heat well? I'm assuming that close too 100F is a bit too high?

 

[PaladinGirl]

Mine do the same thing when i turn on the heat lamps...infact my apartment is in the 60s today as it is COLD in Wisconsin (surprise surprise!!) and I turned Clyde's heat lamp on his hot hide was 90. He is now on top of his hide laying under his lamp.

Hey, can you make it so that Wisconsin is warm for at least Monday so Garrick at CrestedGecko.com will send me my new lizard!! :main_laugh:

 

[Kat&Rin]

So I added the reptile carpet in the bottom of the tank (I figured I may as well since otherwise it was just going to take up space in my cabinet) And *so far* the temps are in the 93 range with the light on (though its just a plain old bulb for light fixtures in the house so it doesn't really give off much heat)...I am a very happy camper right now Hopefully they'll stay like this and I won't have to freak out anymore!

I got a dig therm today and my temps read about 98F. I put an extra piece of paper towel over the uth and it still reads 98. I found a piece of ceramic floor tile and put that over the uth. It still reads in the high 90's. What can be put over the uth that doesn't conduct heat well? I'm assuming that close too 100F is a bit too high?

Well, if my new info is right, temps in the wild get well over that, however I still wanted mine a little lower (90-95 range) just because I'm paranoid If its worrying you then I'd recommend a repti-carpet or a cloth/towel you have lying around to try and get temps lower.