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UTH useless if using an insulating substrate?

H

HungryGoldfish

New member
My cute little guy is in a 40-gallon breeder tank. I have a large UTH from those ZooMed guys, and with a Rheostat and a Kill-a-watt device have selected the wattage to be 10W. I use a Reptile Bedding, composed of coconut shells which comes as compressed bricks that. It is very soft stuff, and since it is so fluffy is contains a lot of air. I use about 1-2 centimeters of this stuff in the tank.

I use one of those infra-red devices to check temperature, so I always get the surface temperature of whatever I'm interested in.

So at 10W in the conditions listed above, I have a surface-substrate temperature of about 82. But if I brush away the substrate and expose the bare glass, I can measure 94F from the glass.

As I understand it, it is dangerous for a snake to lay upon something 90F or greater for an extended period of time. I have read on these forums to make sure your UTH doesn't heat the glass this much, but the problem is that, due to the insulating nature of 1-2 cm of bark bedding, if I lower the UTH temperature then I won't be able to get the substrate temperature above 76. (yes, I tried).

So you guys always seem to be able to limit your glass temperature, and yet have just about the same substrate temperature (or so it seems to me)

How are you guys doing this??? I simply cannot get my surface substrate temp into the 80-82 range without the underlying glass reaching the mid 90s...

HG
 
I can not speak for the others but I have always understood that the temp needed to be taken right on the glass not on the substrate surface because corns will burrow. I Know our corns little ones and adults will literally move the substrate out of the way to get to the glass surface as they can feel the heat coming through the substrate, therefor the temp I concern myself with is the temp on the glass surface. I have had good success with this, no regurges to this date with the UTH and the temps being monitored in this fashion.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks Asbit!

My snake doesn't burrow, he spends all his time either under coconut shells or stuffs himself into the smallest holes in resin-ornaments that used to be in my fish tank (washed out, etc.). But it's been good for several months now, so I guess I'll just stay the course.

HG
 
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