UTH & Rheostat

[Adinar]

We've been using a UTH for our baby aft's for some time now and love the results compaired to the heat lamps we have been using. When it came time to seperate 2 of our adult femals due to bullying issues, we went with a UTH. We're running it off of the same rheostat that the aft babies are using (since there's enough room for 2 plugs) and found that the top tank keeps a higher temp compaired to the bottom one. If it was off by a degree or two it wouldn't be a big deal, but that's not the case. We're talking a 5 degree difference here. The aft's will be at 91 while the leos are barely pushing 85. There is a size difference in the tank, one is a 10 the other is a 20, but we have different size mats to for each. Can anyone think of a way to help even things out? Should we thry the tin foil on the bottom of the cage to direct the heat better? Or would that even make a difference?

 

[acpart]

Tin foil on the cooler tanks should help. You could also split the difference or add another layer of substrate to the warmer tank.

Aliza

 

[Samantha]

get another rehostat i have 2 stats up and running

 

[Samantha]

3 sry lol

 

[T-ReXx]

If you can afford it, I'd actually recommend a thermostat over ANY rheostat. In my experience, rheostats tend to just be a pain when it comes to maintaining stable temps. And they need to be watched almost constantly. I would invest in a thermostat, even a simple on/off one is better than a rheo.

 

[sammer021486]

Who is in what tank and which tank is up higher?

I have had success with keeping two different watt mats on the same thermostat. What I did to achieve the correct temperatures was to place the higher wattage mat higher then the low wattage mat. Because less electricity was going to the higher watt mat the elevation in height made up for the difference.

I kept my 8 watt mat on the lower shelf and my 25 watt mat on the top and they were within a degree of each other.

I too would recommend a thermostat over a rheostat, but it is not a necessary upgrade unless you are finding that the temperatures are fluctuating a lot. The benefit of the thermostat is that if your temperatures drop too low the thermostat will continue to power the mat until the correct temperatures are meet, a rheostat will just keep the flow of electricity the same. The same is true if the temperatures goes too high, the rheostat keeps the same flow of electricity, but the thermostat turns the mat off.

 

[phoneguy]

I don't think you are ever going to get stable temps between 2 different size UTH's with one rheostat. They are run at different watts, so when you dim the electricity to both matts you are always going to get different results. You could add more substrate to the hotter tank and crank up your rheostat but you are going to have to experiment with it. The easiest way is to get another rheostat, and I have posted this a bunch of times b4 but I use lamp dimmers from the hardware store. The lamp dimmers do the same thing as the rheostat but are much cheaper. They are around $10 at most home stores.