need help with heat

[tgolden]

I'm brand new to geckos and i'm having a little trouble understanding how to correctly heat my tank. This is what I have going. The warm side is around 85 but gets up to almost 100 in the hide.the cool side is in the upper 70's.
Would someone mind explaining the proper way to heart a tank? I have a bearded dragon and he gets his heat from above so the uth is new to me.

 

[tgolden]

Bump

 

[mudskipper]

Read this thread. http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=90237

 

[mudskipper]

Actually, read the first few of these threads. http://geckoforums.net/search.php?searchid=1221750

The differences from keeping a bearded dragon are:

- no UVB light at all.
- if the room is completely dark and you need to provide day/night cycle, use a VERY dim light set on a 12-hour timer. A small aquarium light filtered by paper towels works well. If the room has natural light, you don't need a light at all.
- no basking light.
- red heat lamp on 24 hours is ok as long as it doesn't make the whole tank too hot.
- the temperature on the heating spot is between 90F - 95F.
- the heating spot is the warm hide instead of the basking spot of a beardie.
- leopard geckos absorb heat from their belly and not on their backs.
- UTH should be directly underneath the warm hide
- UTH can get very hot and you can't dim it or mount it higher like a beardie's basking light so you control the heat with a thermostat. Get the Hydrofarms Thermostat. $25 on Amazon. Tape the sensor probe of the Hydrofarms Thermostat on the floor in the warm hide and set it to shut off at 95F.

 

[tgolden]

Thanks for the information! That cleared some things up for me.

 

[panthergecko]

If you only have a few tanks you can use a dimmer but its around the same price for the hydrofarms thermostat so your better off with a thermostat. Lol