Brand new to leo's.... tank concern

[Eradik]

Yesterday marks the first time I'll have ever gotten into the reptile world. I have decided on a leopard gecko and have just a couple concerns that I have not been able to find answers too.

Originally, this post was going to be about mass changes in temperature with my UTH and my 10gal. However, after coming home from work today I noticed there was absolutely no heat in my tank! I pull up the flooring and sure enough the glass is cold. So, I unhooked it and took it back to the store, receiving another one and is now heating up.

First off, I have NOT boughten my leo yet. It was for fears of this exact reason that I am waiting until everything is set before I go any further.

First question, do these heating pads go out often? It's a Zilla brand Small, meant for 10-20 gal. Using spacers, yada yada, followed all instructions, etc etc. I'm scared now that this will happen again.

Second, the humidity gauge I got is showing about 50%. This is high. I've tried opening windows, fans, etc. but nothing is making that gauge go down. Any ideas before I spring for a dehumidifier?

I do have a few houseplants in the room, a snake plant and a cactus. I thought they sucked the moisture out of the room, but maybe they're adding to it? Any ideas would be great!


I think that's about it as to questions. Any help would be appreciated. I have read so stinking much but these are just a few things in my head I can't seem to find answers too. I'll be doing a dry run today and tonight, verify that temperatures stay good and I'll try and post pictures this evening if it helps in my concerns (a few decorations are currently drying). Though UTH has been on for about an hour now, his warm hide is currently a cool 91.5 degrees. Hopefully it doesn't get any higher and stays steady about there. Then I'll check tonight and report back, hopefully being able to get my leo sunday at a local reptile show.

Thanks everyone, sorry for the long post!

 

[OnlineGeckos]

I think the more popular UTH brands are zoo med and exo terra. I have no experience with Zilla's UTH so I can't comment on it. But I currently have 5 tanks and 5 zoo med's medium sized UTH. They've been working great, and they're cheap if you purchase it off amazon as it's free shipping & no taxes.

As for humidity gauge, you could have a faulty one. Those things in my experience don't work well, especially if you've gotten one of those store bought brands that sticks onto the glass. Same with thermometers. I've gone through a few of those then finally decided to get a digital thermometer and humidity meter. They've been working great.

You are doing a great thing for your new leopard gecko by setting the tank up ahead of the time, and making sure the UTH heats up properly. Many people don't do that, and they forget UTH takes awhile to heat up fully. Anyways good luck!

 

[Eradik]

That's a good idea, I will get a digital one. The one is just like you described. I do have a digital probe temperature one that I use for temps, and that's currently on top of the carpet being held down by the side of his warm hide for that temperature. Just as I left for work though it read 94. Getting kind of warm, how high is too high for his warm hide? Or should maybe I not have the probe where it is, since the hide heat will collect and raise it up? Not sure else how to do it, since tape doesn't hold it down on the flooring.

If that doesnt make sense, hopefully When I post pics it might explain it better.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

You do want the probe to lay on the carpet, so you get good readings on where their belly will be laying on. High between 90-95 is fine, as long as there's proper temperature gradient inside, your leopard gecko will know to move around when they get too hot or too cold. So as you test the temperature it's also good to test the cold side, make sure it's in the high 70's to low 80's.

 

[Eradik]

Should I test on the cool side by attaching it to the floor like heat side, or would it be fine just having a digi one on the side of the tank?

 

[OnlineGeckos]

some people have 2 I just use one. My room temp doesn't change that much so the cool side is almost always cool for me. If you make sure your UTH doesn't cover more than 1/3 of the tank, then you shouldn't have to worry about the cool side.

 

[lovelovelove135]

I just want to add some things to the already helpful info Mardy has provided You don't really need anything to measure humidity. You should just have a humid hide and that's it. It can be easily made with any plastic container (you just cut a whole, get damp paper towels, place on hot side, and voila you're done). If you're tank is set up right, there shouldn't be any humidity other than in the humid hide. Sounds like you set it up correctly so I don't think you have anything to worry about. You also don't have to worry about the cool side either. It should just be room temp. One thing I suggest you get, is a thermostat/rheostat. You can actually just get a light dimmer, hook it up to the UTH and fiddle around with it until you get the right temp. I use the Zilla Temperature Controller for a thermostat. It works wonderfully. I got it off Amazon because it was about $30 cheaper than in stores. Hope I helped

 

[Eradik]

You've both been great. Thank you.

I do tend to keep my room cool, and I know with summer coming it's not going to be a concern, but when the cold days happen (and they do in Oregon) I think I'll need one just in case to measure the cool side.

Now, every care sheet says something different. Since you both as educated, what should my temps be? I've heard 70-80 at night and 90-95 day, I've heard 90-100, I've heard it shouldn't cool down at night, Arg so many opinions. What do you two think?

And about my other concern, I'm using the edge of my warm hide to hold the probe down, so that 95 degrees I was getting was inside the warm hide. What should my warm side be, my warm floor, and my cool side be? Am I correct to think my thermometer will read higher inside the warm hide because of the heat buildup and not be inaccurate representation of my temps, right?

 

[Eradik]

And once again, THANK YOU! I just want my Leo to be as happy and as stress free as he can be when I get him.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

The warm side should be at least 90 during the day, it can drop a bit at night in mid 80's. With your UTH being on 24/7 that should always provide a warm spot for your leopard geckos. If your room temperature drops below 70, then you should look into additional heat source such as a ceramic heater or a bulb (red bulb for night viewing & heat).

The cool side should be your room temperature, in the low 80's or mid to high 70's at night.

 

[lovelovelove135]

You've both been great. Thank you.

I do tend to keep my room cool, and I know with summer coming it's not going to be a concern, but when the cold days happen (and they do in Oregon) I think I'll need one just in case to measure the cool side.

Now, every care sheet says something different. Since you both as educated, what should my temps be? I've heard 70-80 at night and 90-95 day, I've heard 90-100, I've heard it shouldn't cool down at night, Arg so many opinions. What do you two think?

And about my other concern, I'm using the edge of my warm hide to hold the probe down, so that 95 degrees I was getting was inside the warm hide. What should my warm side be, my warm floor, and my cool side be? Am I correct to think my thermometer will read higher inside the warm hide because of the heat buildup and not be inaccurate representation of my temps, right?

Ahh...the care sheets. I'm guessing you read the Petco/Petsmart care sheets. Do yourself a favor and throw those out and forget about them xD The temp should stay the same at all times on the hot side. Whether it's day or night, the temp should be about 89-96F. The cool side may fluctuate because it's room temp, but that's fine. I believe it was Dog Shrink (a very knowledgeable member on this forum ^_^) who said she had the temps in the higher 90s, but lowered it down because her leo was having bad sheds. Once it was lowered to about 93, her leo's shedding improved. But the temp shouldn't be anything lower than 88 or 89ish and shouldn't be higher than 96 or 97ish. Some people do have their leos at higher temps like 100, but most say it's too hot.

95 is perfect. Leave it at that Instead of using the hide to keep it down, you might just want to use tape. It's easier when lifting and putting the hide back, and lets in less light during the day. And your cool side, like I said earlier, should just be room temp. In the winter, the cool side can get to be about 50F sometimes for me, but it's fine because there's a heat gradient. If the leo feels it's too cold, it will move and vice versa. And you are correct about the heat build up. It will be slightly warmer in the hide than outside the hide, but not by that much. So it's fine to just go with what your temp says on the inside.

And you're very welcome! I can tell you'll be a great owner Your gecko will be glad to have you :main_thumbsup: Oh! And I forgot to tell you, "Welcome to GF!" ^_^

 

[Eradik]

Yes lovelovelove, Petco, Petsmart, and dozens around the internets.

Alrighty then, picture time, and temperature update time.

Got home from work today, it's a nice sunny day and under my rock it is reporting 100.9. Yikes. Weather is reported at 74 degrees outside and sunny. I did, however, close my window and my door is shut. This is my bedroom so I can do whatever. If I need to keep my window open I will. I suppose I will look into a thermostat or rheostat.

I moved the probe around, and on the cool side it reported a temp. of 78.7 when I held it in the middle of the tank for several minutes. I taped it to the flooring directly above the heater (but outside of the hide) and it reported a temperature of 91.4... and counting. It's slowly going up. Since outside the hide is reporting these kind of temps, should I even bother with a thermostat? Or does his hide need to be cooler than 101? Maybe swap the hides, since the log thingy has more airholes?

My room tends to get colder at night, especially since when I sleep I like the window open, I do have a red viewing bulb I can turn on to help heat it back up a little bit.

Basically, I'm scared about the temperature of my room. It CAN fluctuate. I suppose I should also just get a desk temperature gauge so I can keep track and if it too radically changes I can figure something out then.

Good news is today my (crappy) gauge for humidity dropped to a little over 40%. That's a plus!

Anyway, here are some pictures. I do have a piece of driftwood drying right now for him to climb on, I think I'll put it in the back kind of in the middle. And I haven't get found a good container for a humid hide, but I'll find one!!

 

[Eradik]

Taped down over the heater, it seems to be reporting a consistant 91 degrees, give or take a few tenths. I do have my door open now and it leads to an outside screen door that's open.... Now im worried what it will drop to tonight.... but I'll have my red light on.... arg!! Too much to think about I'm going crazy lol

Even with my fish, I'm always worrying about temperature! Why can't we live in a world with a consistent, daily temperature! haha

 

[lovelovelove135]

See, this is where the thermostat comes in xD It will keep your temps from fluctuating so much. If you don't want to spend a lot of money, you can just get a light dimmer, it works just as well In the hide, 101 is definitely too hot. So you're going to want to get that thermostat/rheostat/light dimmer. It's one of the more important things you need for your tank, wouldn't want a fried gecko haha I don't think you should switch the hides because I think your leo would appreciate the tight, dark hide compared to the airy one. They like small dark places; it makes them feel safer. So basically, you're set up is good so far, you just need a thermostat/rheostat/light dimmer and a humid hide. I don't know if you've read, but it's debatable whether or not repti-carpet is good. The only completely safe substrate without debate would be paper towel, tile, and paladingirl came up with using brown paper lawn bag to make it look slightly more natural. Personally, I'd switch out the repti-carpet for the following reasons: 1)leos claws can get ripped out 2) their teeth can get stuck 3) it's more of a pain to clean than paper towel/tile/etc. But if you stick with repti-carpet, just leave a piece of paper towel where your leo poops so the carpet doesn't get too dirty. The poop will be easier to remove as well. Other than that, I believe you're set Oh, and the driftwood, I suppose we don't have to go through the cleaning since you've already got experience with fish, and probably already know what to do, right? If you don't know, then I can explain I'm a fish keeper too by the way On a side note, I find my leo likes it when I open my windows. She's like ahhhh...fresh air! (I have her in my bedroom too ^_^) She comes out no matter what if the windows are open haha But I would suggest getting the thermostat before leaving your windows open for fresh air because your leo probably wouldn't like it much if the temps kept fluctuating.

 

[Eradik]

As far as the ground goes: I was going to do paper towel, but my UTH instruction manual said not to. Is this okay to disregard? It'd be easier.... as then I could add layers to adjust the temperature as needed?

My concern is that when I left the monitor probe on the carpet itself, it's only registering 91-92ish. Yes, the hide is still 100, but if I use a dimmer or something to decrease the power then the floor covering temp will drop down below 90.

So confused haha. This is my LAST snag to get the tank set up perfectly.

Also, I've read dimmer dont work and you need a special device? True or no? If I went to Lowes tonight, what would I want to look for? I've heard theres differences between light and lamp dimmers, etc etc.

Thanks again for all your help

 

[Eradik]

Something like this?

http://www.lowes.com/pd_316275-539-...rentURL=/pl__0__s?Ntt=light+dimmer&facetInfo=

Is it safe to assume that with something like this, full power on the dimmer would be maximum capacity for the pad? In your experience, where should the switch be? Halfway, 1/3 down?

Ultimately, I'll get this if I need to. I just am confused why my floor is perfect at 92 degrees but the hide is so much higher.... I'll switch out to paper towels and try that too.

 

[lovelovelove135]

Yeah...disregard that haha A lot of people on here use paper towel and it's been fine...nothing bad has happened from using paper towels, at least, not that I'm aware of xD Your leo will most likely be in the hide most of the time, especially when it's just settling in and it's a bit stressed, it's going to hide. So the temp in the hide is slightly more important than outside the hide, since that's where the leo will be. If it feels it needs to warm up because the outside heat is too cold, then it will go into the hide, no biggie I guess if you want to get around the thermostat thing, you can layer up and I don't see a problem with that. As for shopping for a light dimmer, that's one thing I can't help you with xD Sorry about that. I bought the Zilla Temp Controller, and didn't even think about getting a light dimmer. From what I've read on here, I haven't heard of needing a special device, but I haven't read about this topic in depth. There was a recent thread about lamp dimmers, and I didn't know there's a difference, but I guess there is. I would go with the lamp dimmer since that's the last thing I read about using dimmers as a thermostat. Sorry I couldn't be of more help on this topic >.< But the layering sounds like a good idea. Maybe you could even cut up the repti-carpet and layer that, with a protective paper towel on the surface of it so you don't run into repti-carpet issues (the claws). I think the reason why people haven't done this is because it might become a pain when cleaning the whole cage, and they can easily just get a thermostat to do the work. But I understand if you don't want to go out and get one because most of them are VERY expensive. When I was shopping, I was like alright, I need a thermostat. I looked one up and the cheapest one I could find from Petco's website was $60! I was like WHAT?!?! I was expecting around $20! Well, I found the exact same one for about $20 from Amazon free shipping too! And it works really well, so I'm happy with it. There are the really fancy ones like the Helix company, I believe (I hope that's the right name xDDD) and they run at about $100+. So if you want, you can layer. I don't see a problem. And you're very welcome!

 

[lovelovelove135]

Something like this?

http://www.lowes.com/pd_316275-539-...rentURL=/pl__0__s?Ntt=light+dimmer&facetInfo=

Is it safe to assume that with something like this, full power on the dimmer would be maximum capacity for the pad? In your experience, where should the switch be? Halfway, 1/3 down?

Ultimately, I'll get this if I need to. I just am confused why my floor is perfect at 92 degrees but the hide is so much higher.... I'll switch out to paper towels and try that too.

Once again, sorry I can't help you with the specifics >.< I know that with dimmers, you're going to have to fiddle around with it a lot. It's going to be a lot of guess and check. But maybe the probe hasn't been left on the floor long enough to get a good reading. How long do you keep the probe outside the hide to check the temp?

 

[Eradik]

Ok, update time. Got paper towels in there, and right now have the probe reading just outside the warm hide on top of the heater. I'll give it some time. I did find my article and your right, it is a lamp dimmer. Bought one at lowes, a plug in kind. Going to let it get to capacity with the heater plugged in, and then adjust accordingly. My goal is steadily 90 outside the hide and no more than 95 in the hide.

I did about two layers of paper towel. That okay? and it also Seems to be rolling up on the side... Is tape okay to hold it in place, or should I do the fold under trick?

Other than that, I think I'm finally on the home stretch. I will ask what you do with driftwood if you don't mind, you got me second guessing. I usually run it under warm water and wipe it down then air dry. what do you do? Note it isn't driftwood from outside, but store bought and meant for reptiles.

Once again, not sure how to thank you. You've been so great to a complete and utter newbie.

 

[lovelovelove135]

That's a good temp range :main_thumbsup: The 2 layers should be fine as long as the temp is fine. The rolling up on the side is fine. When you do a complete tank cleaning, it may be a pain if you tape it all down. What I do it I just fold it to the side and leave it. If you want to fold under that's fine. Whatever you feel like doing, it's not a big deal Although, one pro to taping it down would be when it comes to feeding time, the feeders can't crawl under :main_evilgrin: there will be no escape! haha Now about the driftwood. Last week, I believe, I asked if I should add driftwood to the tank. If you want to read the thread, it's right here http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=75809 Some people said I should play it safe and get fake wood, but others said it would be fine. Since you already have the wood, I would bake it in the oven at about 350F for 30 min. It should get rid of anything harmful. Just rinsing isn't really good enough. If there's a bad smell in the house, that means they used bleach and you probably shouldn't put it in your tank. But if there's no horrible smell, it's safe to put it in the tank after the 30 mins of baking. And once again, you're very welcome! I enjoy helping others out It's nice to know a leo will be going to a good home :main_thumbsup: