I am very concerned with the lack of heat our Leo is getting in her aquarium. We have had her for a couple months now and when we first got her it was summer and we could maintain about 90 degrees on the hot side. Now that it's getting cooler, we are struggling to stay at 85. We keep our thermostat set to 73-74. It can be a few degrees cooler in my daughter's room than downstairs. We have a20 gallon that has a footprint of 12" x 24". We have a medium size pad stuck to the underside of the tank on one end, but I can tell the adhesive backing is not keeping it completely stuck to the glass. No stat. We also have a lamp with a black heat bulb. Thanks for any help.
Not Enough Heat
- Thread starter TigerJon
- Start date
Warm side with digital thermo's probe lying on top of her reptile carpet.
I took the medium-sized UTH back to Petsmart today and got another one. While there I explained to the girl who helped me. She recommended a 75 watt basking bulb to accompany the UTH. After having set everything up, it was clearly not the UTH as I am getting the same results with this one - stat reading no warmer than about 80 on the warm side. The ambient temp of the room is about 72 - 73. When I run the basking bulb and the UTH, we get a reading of about 97. Just the b-bulb, a reading of 89 - 90. The UTH and the night viewing bulb, 82 - 83. There is no way we're going to run the basking bulb at night while sleeping. The outdoor temps yesterday were about 50 and it dropped under 40 last night and is supposed to be down to freezing tonight. What happens if we cannot maintain at least 90 on the warm side? Does it threaten the life of our pet or will she just be a bit more sluggish? Any ideas? Thanks!
WilliamTheLeopardGecko
New Member
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- 543
What UTH do you use? Is the basking bulb a white light one? Because if so they can see it and it will hurt their eyes.
ImNotYogi
New Member
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- 166
- Location
- Saint Louis, MO
I haven't had this kind of issue with ZooMed UTH but I've noticed my probe can be off by a few degrees. Mine is taped under the cool hide and reads 73.5F but my infrared temp gun says 78F when I checked right beneath and around the probe itself. I would skip the little plastic temp gun at the petstore and get one at a hardware store. I had the Zoo Med Reptitemp thing ($30 or so) and accidentally dropped it (around a 2ft fall) and the screen became illegible. Partially my fault but it felt flimsy before that. Now I use a Craftsman 500 degree Therm that cost around $40-$45 at Sears.
Is it possible that it could be as simple as the probe of the thermometer is not making good contact with the floor surface not giving you an accurate reading? Sounds like a dumb question but I have never had an issue with heating a tank or a tub up to the 90-93 range on the warm side and I have never needed to use of any other heat source.
Also I have seen some of the new UTH that are on the market only heat up to about 95 degrees so there is "no need for a thermostat" If this is the case with that UTH this could be the issue.
Also I have seen some of the new UTH that are on the market only heat up to about 95 degrees so there is "no need for a thermostat" If this is the case with that UTH this could be the issue.
mudskipper
New Member
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- 268
Leave it to Petsmart to recommend a bright basking lamp for a leopard gecko... The red heat lamp is fine though.
Would you mind posting a picture of your tank? Most people have to use a thermostat to keep the temperature down. Especially with 2 sources, you should be able to get to 110F very easily unless the room is very cold.
Would you mind posting a picture of your tank? Most people have to use a thermostat to keep the temperature down. Especially with 2 sources, you should be able to get to 110F very easily unless the room is very cold.
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