UTH Upgrade?

[Yu'lon]

Hello! I need some opinions. I have a 20 gallon long and the small 10-20 gallon UTH from ZooMed. It gets correct temps but it only covers one hide. I have a 60 Watt CHE above that heats up the humid hide/tiles directly below it, and this gets it from 83-86ish. The cool tiles are 75ish.

What I’m wondering is if I should upgrade to the larger UTH and move the CHE over so there’s a better heat gradient? What I’m mostly worried about is that Finn, my gecko, RARELY goes over to the cold side. He swaps between his hot hide and humid hide and never the cold one. I’m a little wary that it might be too cold. With the larger UTH, I could push over the CHE to up the temps just a tad.

Here's a pic of the enclosure and gradient.

 

[Matt_pole]

Thats a very Similar setup to mine, but mine is a 10G.
My leo rarely uses the cool hide also, but the way I look at it is if he's too hot then it shouldn't matter if the cool side is too cold to some extent.
If he gets too cold he'll just go back to the warm side, so i think your setup is fine.
I'm not an expert though so I might be wrong.

 

[Music City Geckos]

I don't know what a CHE is but if you get the larger UTH I would get rid if w/e a CHE is. Your food dish and water should be on the cooler side if the tank. I'm sure that your leopard geckos use the cooler side of the tank. You are probably asleep when they do.

 

[indyana]

^ I agree. If you get the larger UTH, ditch the CHE. For leopard geckos, the gradient is really for belly heat, not for ambient air temperature.

 

[Yu'lon]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I keep the Ceramic Heat Emitter to warm up the ambient air and the tiles there; my reasoning behind keeping it if I get the larger UTH would be the same, more or less, just moved over a little (more for air than the tiles) because I'm having some humidity issues in my room, so I'm going to have to keep it colder/keep the AC filtering.

Should I upgrade, then, to the larger UTH? Or is this completely fine?

 

[Music City Geckos]

Ambient air temperature isn't all that for leopard geckos. They really need the belly heat for proper food digestion. That is what is most important for your Leo.

 

[Music City Geckos]

Ambient air temps would be better suited for arboreal geckos that would be up off the ground.

 

[Yu'lon]

OK. Should I get the larger UTH, though? Or is this fine?

 

[indyana]

I think larger UTH /and/ the CHE sounds like overkill for a 20 gallon tank. Personally, I would prefer the larger UTH and no CHE, since those can dry out the air and are generally higher power usage, but it's up to you. Looking at the picture, I think it's more likely Finn doesn't go to the cool side because the best hides are in the warm area...