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UTH being weird. Rheostat may be broken?

You could drill a hole through the metal edge of the lid, run the wires through, and then seal it with aquarium silicone if you need to.

The problem with a dimmer or rheostat is you have to constantly adjust it as the room temp changes. Maybe you guys live in a more stable climate, but it can be 65 in my house at night, and 85 during the day.

Ultratherm UTHs are very nice.
 
drybgerg said:
I'm not understanding this. The heat mats have no adjustment, the thermostat / rheostat has the adjustment. I'm guessing you meant the rheostat?
Click to expand...

The rheostat adjusts the power to the heatmat, the heat mat, being a low wattage device, is very sensitive to the amount of power going to it. The typical lamp dimmers sold at the hardware store are designed for higher powered applications like 100w bulbs and don't do fine enough adjustments to the power output.

Basically on a 2" slider, only about 1/4" of it was useful (outside that the heatmat was either off or full power.) and adjustments had to be made in half millimeter movements. We tried it with two different brand dimmers before deciding the hell with it and getting a hydrofarm thermostat.

It's doable, we got it set, but it was very frustrating and time consuming every time we had to adjust it. Maybe other brands of heat mats work better since people obviously use Rheos, but the Zoo meds we used it was a major PITA, and why risk the snake's health for 20 bucks?
 
another silly question, is it okay to put the suction cups on the bottom of the tank where the heat pad is transferring heat? They won't melt from the heat?
 
If the temp is correct, then you shouldn't worry about suction cups melting.
Though they may warp or lose suction from being on direct heat.
 
I'm sending back the zilla thermostat. After some more experimentation, I've determined the heat pad to be in working order (apparently) and I tested the digital thermometer against my own body temp and it read normally. I have the zoo med $10 digital thermometer, but I'm worried it may just be reading wrong again. I'm still using the zoo med rheostat for now until I can order another thermostat, but my digital thermometer is reading extremely high temps and she's about to go into a shed. I'm super worried now.
 
marcellajoleen said:
I have a 15 gallon tank, but the lid is one I had to buy seperately at Petsmart, as I had gotten the tank from a friend and it didn't have a lid. The wire fits in the corners, but there's space when I close it and I'm concerned about her escaping. The lid is much like this one
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=16624566&f=PAD/psNotAvailInUS/No
Click to expand...

That is exactly how it works, the wires go in the little slots at the corners, but there isn't room for a snake to get out, does the lid fit tightly onto the tank?
 
Yes, it does. I've resolved it, and had been meaning to repost here. I finally got a thermostat that seems to be working (Zoomed, actually, I figure I'd use that one since the heat pad is zoo med) and it's working wonderously. I've got her at a secure 80 degrees. I also had waaaay too much aspen on her hot side, and after some digging on the site I read that it can trap the heat and make it much hotter than usual. So I leveled out the aspen on her hot side, gave her more aspen on the cold side for burrowing, and got her a new log to bring her into her next shed. I think she's a happy camper.

1960038_10203404220171419_394259170_n.jpg


This is what I came home to today. She seems to be perking up.
 
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