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New corn snake temperature help?

Leafpot

Leafpot

New member
I'm getting a corn snake in about 5 days and I need help with the heating. I've been fiddling with for two days. I have a 40gal tank with EcoEarth substrate inside it, and I do have a UTH but it's not the right size so I've refrained from trying to use it. So I've been using a basking light that's 100W instead for the warm side. Yesterday the surface of the substrate on the warm side was 85F all day and at night it went down to room temperature( 75-72 depending), and then underneath the hide it during the day it was 79-80F.

This morning after I turned on the light I decided to measure underneath the substrate considering corn snakes will like to burrow a little, and the temperature was just barely 80F, and now the surface isn't reading anywhere above 84 as average next to the hide, and 78-80 underneath after I added a little bit more substrate so I was wondering if that was going to be alright for the snake? Also if I should just go ahead and buy a thermostat for the bulb anyway?

The humidity all throughout the tank never gets below 40 or above 50, usually around 44-45 which I figured was perfect for the snake, but it raises whenever I shut the light off to about 60 so I was wondering if that was going to be a problem also? :(
 
What is wrong with the UTH?

Thermostats don't really work well with lights. Lights are difficult to use for snake heat, because snakes don't bask to digest, they go hide. So you are asking the snake to do something unnatural in order to reach the proper temp to digest his food. Now put the light on a thermostat, which is going to randomly turn it off and on...

The only way you can realistically "set" a temp with a bulb is to change either the wattage, the distance, or both.

Additionally, the light is going to dry the air, and, if you purchase an amel or snow or any other snake with reduced/no melanin, the light can damage his eyes.

Your life would be much simpler if you just fix the UTH situation.
 
The UTH isn't big enough necessarily to creature a suitable amount of heat for the hot side of the tan, or so I am presuming.

I know snakes don't bask to digest they need belly heat mostly but if I can keep the surface of the substrate at 80-85 I don't see a reason to not use the bulb, especially if I can keep it around 80 underneath the hide if the hide is placed on the hot side(with them still having one on the cool side/near the middle of the viv). A lot of forums and other people agree that a lamp isn't a problem as long as you can keep the temperature right, and they'll still be able to digest their food and so forth.

I don't understand what you mean necessarily by "dry the air though" as long as I can keep the humidity up -which isn't a problem.
 
tank* my typos. But also, wouldn't the snake just move closer to the highest heat source if it needed to get warmer? Sure they like to hide but I can just move the hide a little bit closer to the heat source as I said previously. I feel like I am stressing myself out of this tank situation but I have to ask anyway just to be sure
 
It really is up to you. Drying the air just means that you might have problems with keeping up humidity in the long run. The ecoearth is a moist substrate I presume so that's why you are not having problems with humidity at the moment. But since you will be having this bulb on (regulated by a thermostat or not) the light may dry out the substrate after an extended period of time and therefore you lose your humidity.

Its even more concerning if you leave the bulb without any kind of regulation device such as a thermostat.
 
I was also thinking I should get a thermostat for the bulb but I wasn't really sure how well that would work with a bulb |:
 
I might just fix the UTH situation and spend the extra money on a bigger one plus a thermostat..
 
Preferable would be to just get a bigger UTH and thermostat. But if that's not an option, or you'd like an alternative, you could use an appropriate watt ceramic heat bulb and a rheostat/dimmer. It will still provide some complications, like more attention to temperatures as dimmer controlled means will fluctuate with room temp, and unnecessary drying of the air (which granted isn't much of an issue with eco earth). The real advantage the ceramic bulb has over a normal heat bulb is a radiant heat and no light (so it can be left on or adjusted accordingly without disturbing the snake). They also last a LOT longer than most heat bulbs, though they are a fair bit more expensive.

Again, the UTH and thermostat would be the preferred option, but I just figured I'd throw out an alternative.
 
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