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[sunshinegeckofarm]

i have a question i have a zoo med uth i havent used it and i was wondering if i needed a thermostat for it or not.. i used to have a uth in the past i didnt use a thermostat with it and it was fine. i wanted to make sure it wont get too hot for the leo. i am selling one of my leos and givin the new owners a cage and stuff with the uth. just wanted to know what to do

thanks danielle

 

[david13]

i dont know how hot the temps get without a thermostat.. i would buy one..

 

[sushikam]

I would say you definitely are going to need something to keep the temps lower, because regardless of what substrate you use, or what size UTH you have, it will get too hot. There are cheap Repti-Temp Rheostats out there, look on eBay, or even just go to your local pet store and they will likely have one. They work great for someone who only has a couple of UTH's to control.

Forgot to add: If you are going to use either a rheostat or thermostat you will need a thermometer, those are also cheap to purchase. Hope I helped!

 

[Ccrashca069]

If the UTH gets the hot side hotter then 90 I would use it with a Rheostat. I think you can get a ZooMed Rheostat for about $22.00 at Petsmart or Petco.

 

[acpart]

I have had success using a small UTH (meant for 1-5 gallon aquariums) in a 10 gallon tank with tile flooring. The temps only seem to get up to the low '90's.

Aliza

 

[sunshinegeckofarm]

i am testing it now to see what the temps will get without a thermostat. i bought a rheostat with it and i hooked them up but it didnt reach 88 degrees with it on there..i keep my rack systems at about 90 because my room is about 72 degrees normally so i keep them alittle warmer to compensate for the coolness in the room. if it dont keep it at 88-90 and goes higher i will buy a rheostat or thermostat to give the lady. btw the gecko is not in there just in case

 

[sunshinegeckofarm]

i plugged it in last night and it has been at 93 degrees all night. do you guys think that is too hot? i have my racks at 91...i have it covered with a towel because its by our wall ac. i personally think its fine as long as it keeps at 93 or less. since it has not changed all night i dont think it will. on the packaging it didnt say to have a thermostat for it just to unplug it if your house's temps go over 80 degrees. thanks

 

[T&KBrouse]

I only have snakes, but I have dealt with the ZooMed uth's and personally, I don't like them. The large one we have on one of our tanks gets so hot, I swear you could cook an egg on the thing. We had to order a rheostat and thermometer, so until that stuff got here, we were keeping the uth rigged to a regular household timer.

Just another opinion on the stuff.

 

[maddyfish]

On my 20l with ceramic tile, a zoo med 10-20 uth makes my hot hot floor 89-90F without adjustment.

 

[Ccrashca069]

Sounds great.

 

[dand883]

I think it depends alot on the thickness of the glass it's attached to. I had a UTH on a 10 gallon fish tank when i first got my gecko and i had to get a rheostat for it, but i've since made a wood terrarium with a glass bottom and plexiglass sides, and the glass on the bottom isn't as thick and doesn't seem to hold the heat as well, so the rheostat is kind of useless now.

 

[Cheaton]

If you decide to go the rheostat direction then look at home depot for one of these http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100145680 .

A light dimmer is a rheostat. It just doens't have the fancy dial and colors. I used a sharpie to mark mine so I know where to keep it set. They cost 1/2 of the Zoo-Med ones you buy at the pet store and are the same thing. I also use an infrared thermometer (bought from radio shack for about $50) to periodically back up the readings of the digital thermometers in my tank. Without the rheostat I was getting temps over 100 degrees in my tank. I spent about 3 days adjusting before I got my leo.

 

[DLS Reptile]

Thermostats for under tank heaters, heat cable or heat tape are a must. They can get very hot, hot enough to cook a reptile if not monitored...

 

[Cheaton]

Thermostats for under tank heaters, heat cable or heat tape are a must. They can get very hot, hot enough to cook a reptile if not monitored...

Have to disagree, they are not a must. Probably more neccesary for heat cables or heat tape. But plenty of people do fine with thermometers and rheostats for standard UTH's. You just have to be diligent. If you're a person who doesn't look at their setup every day then a thermostat might be neccesary. Thermostat setups are expensive and not great for people on a budget. There are other solutions which are adequate.

 

[syntheticreality]

I use the exo-terra stick on uth for most of my tanks and the heater will be 110 degrees on its surface, but the belly temp inside the tank is just fine

 

[vctkiller]

i have a medium size zoo med uth. Just for some reason it said it raises the temp 5-10 degrees higher then room temperature. My room temperature was 70 degrees. Then when I used it my readings on my thermometer was 96. So I went out and bought a zoo med rheo stat from petsmart. They aren't that cheap but not expensive either. Though its worth every cent you have