Temps during warmer weather

[Adinar]

We currently have several tanks that have UTH's and their temps keep getting rediculously high. We keep turning off the rheostats for a few hours at a time so they don't over heat, and they are kept on the absolute lowest setting possible. Anyone else with UTH's run into this issue when it starts to get warmer? Ok to turn them off for the summer? I would assume not due to needed belly heat.

 

[Gregg M]

We currently have several tanks that have UTH's and their temps keep getting rediculously high.

What do you consider rediculously high???

The last three days the reptile room here was 90 degrees ambient air temps during the day... In some of the monitor cages, the hot spots were close to 160 degrees... Believe it or not they were actually using the hot spots...

The geckos were also out and about hunting with vigor...

 

[Adinar]

What do you consider rediculously high???

The last three days the reptile room here was 90 degrees ambient air temps during the day... In some of the monitor cages, the hot spots were close to 160 degrees... Believe it or not they were actually using the hot spots...

The geckos were also out and about hunting with vigor...

Their hot spot temps are generally between 90-92. (We use a thermometer with a prob when using uths). Lately they've been to 100, and most were hanging out on the cool side of their tank and/or still on the warm side, but laying on top of their hides rather than inside of them. And it hasn't even been higher than 80 here yet.

 

[roger]

Their hot spot temps are generally between 90-92. (We use a thermometer with a prob when using uths). Lately they've been to 100, and most were hanging out on the cool side of their tank and/or still on the warm side, but laying on top of their hides rather than inside of them. And it hasn't even been higher than 80 here yet.

Thats not ridiculously high by any means.get a temp gun for accurate reading.They can tolerate even 100, but they will choose what temp they need

 

[Gregg M]

Thats not ridiculously high by any means.get a temp gun for accurate reading.They can tolerate even 100, but they will choose what temp they need

Agreed... 100 is not bad and will not burn your animal... As long as the ambient temp is in the low to mid 80's, your geckos will be fine... Do not be suprised if your leos do use the 100 degree hot spot for short periiods of time... Your leos should be spending more time cooling off than warming up anyway...

 

[Shera]

Yeah, mine was getting up to 103.5 yesterday. I never needed a dimmer before but I'm going to get one now. As a stopgap measure I quadrupled the number of layers of paper towel (which is now up to 8 layers, lol), and that brought the temps back down to the 96F range.

Does anyone know at what temp I have to really start to worry?

 

[Gregg M]

With basking spots you can get away with a suprising temp... In racks I do not suggest letting them get too much over 100 degrees only because of the small space... As long as they can get away from the heat and have a cool side in the low to mid 80's a really high basking spot is fine...

In my natural set up, their basking temps are well over 100 degrees... 120 in one of the cages... They have been running like that for a long time...

My monitor cages have hot spots of up to 150 degrees...

 

[Shera]

With basking spots you can get away with a suprising temp... In racks I do not suggest letting them get too much over 100 degrees only because of the small space... As long as they can get away from the heat and have a cool side in the low to mid 80's a really high basking spot is fine...

In my natural set up, their basking temps are well over 100 degrees... 120 in one of the cages... They have been running like that for a long time...

My monitor cages have hot spots of up to 150 degrees...

Is that in a leo cage? I don't so much have a "basking spot", just an UTH. I do have a 20gal though and the UTH only covers about 1/3 of the bottom, so they can definitely get away from it when needed.

 

[Tony C]

In my natural set up, their basking temps are well over 100 degrees... 120 in one of the cages... They have been running like that for a long time...

How do you heat your naturalistic leo setups, white basking light on a day/night cycle, or infrared for 24 hour heat, or some other method?